Jasper

 Del and I were on our way to Memphis to meet up with Chris.  He was going to the university there, and we were going to take a trip to Six Flags over MidAmerica outside St. Louis.  We had decided to take the southern route to Memphis for two reasons.  One was that it was more scenic, and the other was that I wanted to go by Heflin, AL to visit the graves of my relatives.  

 It was getting late, so we decided to stop in Jasper, AL for the night.  At the outskirts of town was a big sign that said "Jasper Welcomes You.  The home of George 'Goober' Lindsey."  Well, that was kind of interesting.  We had seen him on "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Hee Haw", so he was a big celebrity in these parts.  

 We found a cheap motel across the street from a Shoney's that looked like a decent place to spend the night.  After checking in, we walked over to the Shoney's in rural Alabama.  Del and I walked into the restaurant and found a table.  He had long hair, which may have been why this happened, but everybody stopped eating and stared at us.  They could tell that we weren't from around there.  The waitress came to take our order, while the others were still staring at us.  We got very uncomfortable.  Our food came, and I told Del to eat fast.  We had to get out of there.  I was having a flashback of the last scene in "Easy Rider", where the guys in the truck kill Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper.  We gobbled down our food and got out of there.

 As we were leaving, I looked back to see most of the patrons going back to their meals.  I should have told them to say hey to Goober, but that might have been the last straw with them.  I was a little afraid to go back to the motel, but we both got up early the next morning and got out of town before most folks had woken up.  We got our motor running, and we headed down the highway looking for adventure in whatever came our way.