A Super-Bowl in Callahan, Florida?

The rationale had something to do with exposing small town U.S.A. to the world. To me it just seemed impossible. Traffic was already at a stand-still and we still had a week before kick-off.

It took a few days before I finally warmed up to the football hype. Kyle and Scott were in town and we had plans to meet - the first reunion since we left Lima, Peru back in 2006. Crazy how life works like that. You travel to the opposite end of the world, make friends, and then reunite 10 years later in a small town trying desperately to host a Super-Bowl. Kyle was in town on business. Said he needed to do research on the hotspots of Callahan, Florida. The three of us hopped in a silver 1980-something Chrysler - the exact one granny once took me to Lonnie Jo's in. I clicked my seat-belt, looking ahead not to see Lonnie Jo's as I nostalgically imagined, but Callahan BBQ. I knew it was greasy but Kyle needed to report on this place.

From Callahan BBQ we drove to Callahan First Baptist Church. The next thing I knew we were in line to jump from a balcony into an enormous above-ground pool. Scott and Kyle jumped right in but I just stood up above, looking at all the people hoarding the streets below like ants. I can't remember if I jumped or not. The pool looked unstable, as if it would fall over any second and flood little tiny Callahan, Florida.

The guys wanted to keep moving. Behind the pool was an old wire fence, just like the one Daddy put around the branch to keep the goats from leaving. The old fence sat in a bed of tall grass and thorny bushes. I couldn't understand how Scott and Kyle passed so easily. Maybe they'd just walk ahead if I told them I'll catch up later. I wanted to find another way around the fence.

Walking to my left in an attempt to circle the barn seemed the perfect strategy. Just around the other side I heard music playing, which seemed odd because music never came from the barn. It was too old. And besides, I never saw anyone hanging out in the barn. Too many snakes.

The music told me my direction wasn't right. Something in my body led me further down the path. I tried calling you because I was lost and because I knew that you, the reliable one, could bring me home. But my legs kept moving forward. I was walking, but at a speed that seemed to rush me out of reality. My one comfort was that I recognized the path - the very one that lead us to the branch from the barn. Hundreds, thousands of palm bushes sped past. I knew where I was going.

We'd always heard of that place in the woods no one dared venture to. No one had ever been and if they had, they never made it back to tell about it. I didn't want to go, especially not alone. Night was coming and I was on the path to the one place I never wanted visit.

A white figure soon came into focus. As my body pushed forward I finally saw her - a young lady dressed in white, kneeling in a small opening along the path. Her eyes looked up towards the sky, her hands clasped softly in her lap. I didn't dare touch her. Something seemed so devastatingly sad about her pose, as if she sat uninterrupted like this for years. Even if I wanted to stop -which, I didn't - my body wouldn't let me. I had somewhere to be.

When I finally reached my destination I walked confidently into a simple house, located just off the edge of the path on the right. I entered through the front doorway to greet my hosts: two pale lovers sitting in a bed. They invited me to celebrate their 30th Anniversay - a concept I couldn't grasp, as neither one looked much older than 25. The two never once looked away from each other. Their fancy for one another revealed itself in constant giggles and smiles.

"Your love is beautiful."

Over and over I repeated this to them. And over and over they smiled a little more. Their love had transformed them into immortals, ageless since the moment they met.

I don't know how I ever found my way back home, or if I ever went home. I never saw Kyle and Scott again. Never made it to that Super-Bowl. When I think about standing above the pool now - I must have jumped.

*My first ever travel dream blog.