November 3, 2011:

The people are unfriendly to us. Frowns. Very slow service from the waitress in Williamsburg.

Why? Racism? They've never seen a Chinese girl before? Or is it me, the scruffy white man she's with, pony-tailed and leather-jacketed and not at all patient with the reception?

We drive old colonial backroads beneath tired trees, stopping to tour plantations. Trees and plantations alike the labor of slaves.

She doesn't want to talk of the future. I'm frustrated, a little offended. Neither feels the trip is successful.