My rental car: Toyota Matrix. And it is red!

Knoxville, Tennessee is the first stop of my journey. Here, I was visiting the Oak Ridge National Lab once more and met friends that I had made during my previous 5 visits of the most exciting city in East Tennessee. Big thanks to the Greeks (Loukas, Panos, Maria and Zoe the cockatiel) for hosting me. Sleeping on some blankets on the floor was an excellent practice to acclimatize for the upcoming backpacking. But after spending four weeks here in Knoxville it is time to move on. Last week my access to the lab expired and I had to return my rental car without which you are pretty much stuck in a city like Knoxville. This may have been the last time I had the luxury of a rental car. Saturday was my official farewell (more about that in another post) but it seems I am unable to leave.

Driving the Matrix to the lab

I had bought one of those amazingly cheap $1.50 tickets with Megabus to go to Washington DC and was getting ready to leave tomorrow morning. But it seems I will stay at least another day. Ever since I got here, I was waiting for a parcel my dad sent here January 5. It contains some things I was too lazy to carry in my backpack (mostly books). It hasn’t arrived in four weeks and I kept losing hope that it ever will. But just tonight we saw a message from the apartment complex office that a package has arrived. The office opens only after my bus leaves early in the morning, so I decided to miss the bus tomorrow and buy a new ticket for the day after, hoping the parcel that arrived is actually mine. Another good reason to wait another day is that I have still not found a place to sleep in Washington DC on couchsurfing.com.