From Trail of Tears Motorcycle Trip

I’m writing this from my hotel room in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. The locals call this place Hop Town. As far as I can tell, there’s not a lot of hopping going on around here. It’s a nice enough town. It has the usual collection of WalMarts, Starbucks, and other chain names. It’s kind’a spooky how similar all American towns are beginning to look. I used to think that was comforting. Now, I’m not too sure I like it. I think the mom and pop stores of the past seemed more authentic. The chains are all copies of someone’s idea of what a good restaurant or store should be, but they all feel a little fake.

I have a Google Alert setup that watches for references to “hopkinsville kentucky”.

Worse than the chain store sameness is the proliferation of pawn shops, title loan brokers, and pay day loan offices I saw. I could not keep count of the number of these establishments I encountered in every town I rode through from Canton Georgia to Hopkinsville Kentucky. That there is such a large market for these places speaks volumes about the real state of our economy and how close we may very well be to the economic abyss.

*sigh* Very sad but true, Hopkinsville already has too many of these loan sharks.