Sherwin AND Williams Have Done a Great Job

We left Bakersville and headed for western South Carolina and the B&B called Three Pines View.  This is a beautiful facility in the SC town of Salem, run by Sharon and Andrew.  I think I counted more than three pines but they must have had their favorites.

Three Pines B&B

 Our room had a spiral staircase that went up to a loft with a second bed.  We opted to sleep on the lower level as late night bathroom trips down a tight spiral stair did not sound like a good idea.  We spent two nights at the Three Pines location and managed to get a full day of sightseeing to Whitewater Falls just across the nearby North Carolina border.

Room View From The Loft

We stopped at a Duke Power facility for recommended views of the area.  The overlook was worth the trip and fog added to the imagery.

Duke Power Overlook

We left our first stop and immediately crossed the NC border and entered the Whitewater Falls state park.  After a walk up from the parking lot, huffing and puffing, we were greeted with what looked like two flights of stairs descending on our right .  After rounding at least eight landings it was obvious the trip down was the least of our worries.  We were luckily rewarded with a spectacular view of the falls.  We knew there were two views, upper and lower.  Since we had seen the falls from an upper location after our trek up from the parking lot, and had just descended thousands of stairs, we must be at  the "Lower Falls View."  But, alas, this was only the Upper Falls View.  Sue and I looked at each other and then to the hidden trail down moss covered stone steps to the "Lower Falls View" and decided that the Upper Falls View was going to be the better vantage point.

Upper Falls View of Whitewater Falls

 I can only assume that Sherwin and Williams have the contract for painting all the trees in the southeast US.  If that is true, they must be running out of red, yellow and orange.  Everywhere we look the trees are painted in brilliant shades of those colors.  They left a few green for contrast but most have been treated to at least some coverage with their brushes.

Our Hunt For Red October was drawing to a close and we view it as a complete success.  We saw more fall color on this trip in 2015, than in any other year in memory.  We are now faced with our trip home to Miami.  We have stops planned in Savannah and Orlando.  It is at this point where I generally reflect on the previous weeks with some observations.

The Bible Belt (BB) is huge.  It is bigger than one of those World Wide Wrestling Belts, and those things are enormous.  It would seem that if a town in the BB has two hundred houses it must have 400 churches.  We regularly passed intersections with churches on all four corners.  If they didn't have room to build a church a giant cross would do.  The taller the cross, the bigger the commitment.  This area has not only a Bible Belt it has Bible Suspenders.  Hotel lobby televisions are regularly tuned to The 700 Club (CBN, Christian Broadcasting Network).   At our Hampton Inn breakfast area, an evangelical preacher was blaring on someones radio or TV from the back work area.  A small woman emerged from the room with a glazed look in her eye and a strange smile as if she were truly ready for The Rapture.  Televisions are either on FOX or CBN.  Don't ask for a station change or you will be branded as a Democratic heathen.

Travel has been greatly helped by the GPS.  It would seem that there was travel BGPS (before GPS) and now.  Before, we would unfold large paper maps and plot our routes.  The biggest challenge in those BGPS days was how to re-fold the map.  We would sometimes get lost but those experiences were part of any vacation.  Now, in the time of global positioning satellites, we regularly follow the pleasant voice of the female trapped inside our dash mounted electronic devices.

Our re-folding map dilemma has been traded for voice command errors.  Today I made the following query of our GPS:  Voice Command, Find Cracker Barrel.  Reply:  Did you say Funeral Parlor?  While I thoroughly understand the association of fried foods (served at Cracker Barrels) and the possibility of an unexpected coronary, any self respecting GPS should avoid making judgments and just provide directions.

Rest Area spacing on interstate highways must have been made by a twenty year old with a very good bladder.  Upon arrival you, the human, must pass the dogs who have been blessed with a toilet much closer to the parking lot.  Once in the facility, most have been equipped with automatic toilets that flush upon use, sinks that dispense water with motion under the faucet and hand dryers that blow slightly warm air on your hands just before you wipe them on your pants.  Once you exit the rest stop facility, one look around at a few of the faces of your fellow travelers and you have some understanding of why we haven't done a better job of selecting our government leaders.

Gas prices have been all over the map on this trip.  We paid $2.19 in Miami and as low as $1.63 elsewhere on this three week excursion.  Rest assured however, when you are down below 1/4 of a tank and are approaching the first gas station you have seen for many miles, it will have the highest prices in the area.  I think they have sensors in the highway and adjust their gas prices based on how full your tank happens to be.  Fill up for $2.09 and drive two miles and you will see another station advertising $1.72.

Truckers aren't what they used to be.  As a traveling kid, truckers were friendly guys who would toot their horns if you gave the universal arm jerk as if you were pulling on an imaginary cord.  Now our interstates seem to be completely occupied with 18-wheelers with room for just a few cars.  These giants of our delivery system are now infiltrated with idiots. They regularly sit in lanes designated for exclusive car use and pull into traffic lanes knowing that small crunch-able cars will yield to their dominant size.  It would seem that attaching a large engine to a rolling box of stuff and placing that configuration on an overcrowded highway is an ill-conceived and inefficient system.  Just an observation.

Typical View of My Rear View Mirror

I regularly passed under lighted highway information signs listing that state's current traffic fatalities.  If memory serves, South Carolina was over 700 for 2015 and Georgia was well over 1,000.  Where is our outrage?  While tragic, a single nut case that uses a gun to kill some number of people, will generate enormous press coverage demanding corrective action.  This news story is then followed up with a highway accident that killed three or four that day and it gets not much more than a yawn and looks of disinterest.  Our highway death toll certainly deserves more attention than it gets.  I write this after having driven a couple thousand miles on the highways and byways of our southeastern US and seeing much that should and could be improved to make all safer.

It is at this point that I must ponder, have more people been killed on our highways or by eating at my favorite highway restaurant, Cracker Barrel?  I may expand on this topic after I step on my bathroom scale at home.

Fall Color

Ruby Fell

Our last day in the area now known as NOT Chattanooga was spent visiting the place where Ruby fell.  It is also called Ruby Falls.  Actually, the only thing Ruby did was to fall in love with Leo Lambert who knew of the caves in Lookout Mountain.  In 1905 the Lookout Mountain Cave was sealed for construction of a railway tunnel.

Ruby Falls Castle

It seems that in the late 1920's Mr. Lambert decided to reopen the caves as a tourist attraction and purchased land above the caves.  He drilled an elevator shaft opening down to a previously unexplored cave section.  He also found an underground waterfall and named it after his wife, Ruby.  I can only speculate that after spending days and nights drilling the new opening he needed to earn a few points with the missus.

Ruby Falls 145' Tall

We took the elevator down the 265 foot shaft to the beginning of the tour.  After eating breakfasts at Hampton Inns and other meals at Cracker Barrels, getting through the narrow passages of the cave were a challenge.  Headroom was also at a premium in places.  I noticed that most of the tour guides were short and slender.

After our tour of the cavern and falls, we headed up higher on the mountain and visited Cravens House and the Lookout Mountain Battlefield.  This location is the site of several famous battles of the Civil War.  Why it is called the Civil War escapes me since civility was the last word I would use to describe it.  The battlefield is festooned with markers explaining the activities of the various confederate and federal troops that were part of the history of this site.  The people in this area of the country are enamored with the Civil War.  They build monuments, have re-enactments, start arguments and generally relive a war that was lost by the south.  I find the Civil War an interesting part of our history and one that we should all know and understand.  Beyond that, I'm ready to move on.

Very near the Cravens House is a  photogenic Tudor style home with a slate roof.  A bit of research finds that the 1920's home belonged to Richard "Dick" Hardy, the former mayor of Chattanooga.

Richard "Dick" Hardy House

The Hardy house has infinitely more character than the Cravens House and, since both were technically built after the war, this home should also be on the preservation list.

Your traveling duo then moved its base of operations to the palatial home of Matt and John.  This five star B&B operates in the mountains of Bakersville, North Carolina.  John has disdain for the term chef, so I have to refer to him as merely a "culinary wizard of exceptional talent", aka CWET, pronounced seewet.  We spent two glorious nights at this very exclusive B&B.  We made one excursion to Blowing Rock to see the sights.  There was a bit of fog at Blowing Rock as shown in the picture of the downtown main street below.

Downtown Blowing Rock with FOG

There is nothing like driving the Blue Ridge Parkway with fog so thick that the taillights of the car 60 feet in front of you look like two fireflies seen at 100 yards.

Near Chattanooga, Not IN Chattanooga

We left Putty and Terry in Memphis headed for Chattanooga.  Before leaving we left them with a business idea.  As Memphis has so few major attractions, we suggested another.  A small herd of deer regularly visit their backyard to devour their rose bushes and among the heard is Tripod.  Tripod is so named because he only has 3 legs.  He gets around with a limp but his missing left rear leg doesn't seem to impede his ability to eat the neighborhood bushes.  We thought that, if 5 ducks who know how to use a hotel elevator and swim in the hotel lobby fountain can be a major attraction for 83 years, certainly a three legged deer could draw a crowd for their time in Memphis.

World Famous Tripod

Our drive to Chattanooga took us to Nashville so we could visit the famous Loveless Cafe and Hotel.  We stopped for lunch and the Loveless biscuits, the Loveless jam, the Loveless pulled pork, the Loveless barbecue sauce and the Loveless parking lot.  If you like southern cooking the Loveless would be a stop for you.  Our waiter was efficient.  The hostess was brain-dead.  She seated us at a remote table wedged in between the bathroom and the opening to the kitchen.  Sue noticed the several other open tables and requested a change.  Our hostess walked us back to the front and to a room on the other side of the restaurant and seated us next to the other doorway into the kitchen.  Certainly an upgrade but not much of a change.

Loveless Cafe

We left the Loveless and were privileged to witness the traffic around Nashville at 4 p.m.  The HOV lane was flying along at just over -3mph.  The other lanes were even slower.  We managed to pull into the town of Kimball, Tennessee around 7 p.m.  We could have driven a little further but we would have crossed into the eastern standard time zone and 8 p.m. was way too late for us.

We woke up the next day and made our way to the breakfast trough at the Hampton Inn.  After overloading on carbs, we zipped on down the road to see Rock City.  We had both seen the signs for this place for years.  See Rock City has been painted on over 900 barns in 19 states since 1936.

Rock City is a fascinating place situated atop Lookout Mountain.  The name Lookout Mountain is said to have come from a Cherokee term meaning two mountains looking at each other.  This story may be questionable since any two large mountains in this area of the country are just called Dolly Parton.  Rock City is situated in Georgia and we crossed the Tennessee and Georgia state lines three times just getting there.  At a little over 2,000 feet, most folks from the Rocky Mountain states would call this a foothill.  As a resident of Miami, anything taller than a stepladder qualifies as a mountain.  I wouldn't want to fall off either.

Lovers Leap at Rock City

Upon our return from all of the exercise we got at Rock City we wiped out any benefit at the Cracker Barrel near our hotel.  Sue was good and had salad for dinner with grilled chicken.  I was bad and had chicken and dumplings (bad), with broccoli (good), garden salad (good), mac 'n cheese (bad).  Then we walked past the candy display which is conveniently placed before you can get to the cash register to pay your bill.  Then we were both very bad.  Ten minutes later we walked into our Hampton Inn to find out we were just in time for their nightly offering of free homemade cookies.  Up in our room we polished off coffee, cookies, and most of a 9 oz. bag of chocolate mints.  Tomorrow we both plan to shop for larger clothes.

The Fourth Chickasaw Bluff

Before leaving Tupelo, Mississippi, we visited the house where Elvis was born.  They have his house and the chapel where he prayed and sang, a museum filled with Elvis stuff, and Elvis' outhouse where the King sat on his throne.  The museum had Elvis pencils, Elvis tee-shirts, and  a wide assortment of things that someone in China had printed with Elvis' name.  Elvis lived in Tupelo until the age of 13 when he moved to Memphis.

Elvis' Outhouse and Throne

We left Tupelo and headed west.  We are now sitting atop the fourth Chickasaw bluff, otherwise know as Memphis.  Yes, this elevated bluff helped the Chickasaw Indians harass the French trying to use the Mississippi river for commerce in the 18th century.  As there was no high definition television or Netflix in the 18th century, harassing the French was a great pastime for the Chickasaw.  Memphis was named after the capital of Egypt on the Nile river.  How this town in Tennessee is related to its sister city over 6,500 miles away is a question for more inquisitive minds than the one possessed by this writer.

We were in Memphis visiting our friends Putty and Terry who recently moved here from Omaha, Nebraska.  Fed-Ex is based in Memphis and Terry has been transferred here to fly out of their hub.  Sue and I keep Terry busy with all of our Amazon orders, half of which seem to be delivered by FedEx.  Putty is an excellent cook and I plan to give their establishment a 5 star rating in Trip Advisor.

On our first day in Memphis we went to the Bass Pro Shop to see the pyramid.  The Memphis Bass Pro Shop has an aquarium, a fake swamp, fancy bass boats, and the tallest free standing elevator in the US.  All of this is situated in a pyramid.  From the top of the pyramid, after a ride in the 28 story elevator, you can see all around Memphis.  You can see the Dolly Parton bridge, so called because of its resemblance to the well endowed country star.

Dolly Parton Bridge over the Mississippi

After the Bass Pro Shops, we went to Beale street to see the birthplace of the blues.  We visited The Pig on Beale for some barbecue with attitude.  The attitude of the famous Pig that day seemed to be one of toughness as our meals were dry and tasteless. 

The Pig on Beale for Dry Tough Barbecue

Since we were still hungry we decided to go down the block for some duck.  In this case the famous Duck Walk at the Peabody Hotel.  I say famous even though I had never heard of it.  It seems that for the past 80 plus years, the Duckmaster has brought down 5 ducks from their penthouse digs to swim in the hotel lobby fountain from 11 a.m. until their departure at 5 p.m.  The ceremony of their arrival and departure is a delight for tourists that crowd each day to the Peabody for the spectacle.  Your traveling duo couldn't miss checking another important item from their bucket list (added only earlier that same day).

Duck Walk at the Peabody with Honorary Duckmaster

On day two in Memphis we visited Graceland, the home and final resting place of Elvis.  The average age of the visitors seemed to be just a few years older than the dirt now under Elvis.

Graceland

The tour of Graceland begins, after the ticket office with a bus ride across the street.  You enter the Graceland estate and walk through the very rooms that Elvis walked as he gained and lost weight.  You get to see the kitchen famous, I'm sure, for many peanut butter and banana sandwiches.  These grilled delights were made from bread, butter, peanut butter and mashed bananas.  Yumm, I can just hear my arteries clogging.

Elvis' Kitchen

We then returned to Putty and Terry's place to watch Blue Hawaii, in honor of The King.  Tomorrow on to Chattanooga.

Atlanta to Memphis, Looking 4 Elvis

We heard that there had been a recent Elvis sighting in Tupelo, Mississippi.  We packed our bags in Hot-Lanta and headed west.  Our first stop out of Atlanta was a much overdo diversion, a Cracker Barrel.  These roadside bastions of everything bad with middle America, are our favorite weakness.  A small immersion into the glories of traveling decadence.  Cracker Barrels, for the uninitiated, have clean bathrooms, food, a wide selection of candy, and enough junk to keep Fred Sanford in business. The restaurant serves both healthy and unhealthy cuisine, usually on the same plate.  Sue and I opted for the breakfast sampler of eggs, bacon, yogurt, granola, fruit and a 3,000 calorie muffin.  After leaving the restaurant we bought some candy corn and Sue's favorite, French burnt peanuts, aka Boston baked beans.  It should also be noted that the term "French or Boston" in reference to this candy hides the fact that the peanuts used are really Spanish, go figure.  This delicacy was in honor of the time Sue saw some French burnt peanuts on a "free sample plate" in an upscale store and announced to all within earshot that these were her favorites from childhood.  After stuffing a healthy free sample into her mouth she discovered that it was the store's potpourri and not a free food sample.  Sue blames dim store lighting.

French Burnt Peanuts

Somewhere out on highway 20, just across the Alabama line, three of Alabama's finest had a couple of other cars pulled over on the right.  The drivers far ahead of me instinctively braked.  I was in the inside lane of this 4 lane divided highway.  Seeing the brake lights ahead,  I hit the SET button on the cruise control to coast while moving my foot to the brake to slow down.  I mentioned the troopers ahead to Sue and she looked up from her task of (I don't remember, but she was looking down) and freaked at the slowing traffic and flashing blue lights.  She let out a stifled noise that indicated to me that she had seen something that I presumably had missed.  I pressed the brakes a bit harder to avoid whatever was going to happen.

About this time I looked in the rear view mirror to see a white car approaching at a high rate of speed.  I say high because the driver had yet to slow down.  I next saw the driver try to pass me in the breakdown lane to my left.  They lost control and skidded into the grassy median where they did a Hollywood worthy 360 degree spin-out complete with flying grass and dirt.  When last seen, the white car was in the middle of a grass and dirt doughnut in the  center of the median aimed in their original direction.   Since they were very near the Alabama troopers, who were involved in whatever troopers do, I figured they were in good hands.

The only thing with this incident that would have been different had Sue been driving would be that we would be listening to a new song on the radio.  You see Sue's Honda has the cruise control on the right where our Chevy Traverse has it on the left.  When Sue uses the cruise control she is constantly changing our music.

We made it to Tupelo, Mississippi, all in one piece.  We found our Hampton Inn stuck in the middle of a field.  I guess it is their Field of Dreams.  Build it and they will come.  To the west and south are cleared fields awaiting the construction of some new shopping venue, or something.  Tupelo gets its name from the Tupelo trees.  Thankfully they went for the common name and not Nyssoideae Cornaceae as it is called among dendronologists (aka tree folks).  The word Tupelo is of native American origin and comes from the Creek words (ito opilwa) that translate to "swamp tree."  How ito opilwa became Tupelo is probably due to the fact that people here speak a form of English foreign to most of us.

The King of Rock and Roll

In addition to being the birthplace of Elvis, Tupelo is also the site of the last bank robbery for Machine Gun Kelly, who netted a whopping $38,000 from the Citizens State Bank.  This ends the educational portion of our blog.  There will be a test next Tuesday.

Machine Gun Kelly

We plan to visit Elvis' birthplace before heading to Memphis for a relaxing three day visit with Kathy (aka Putty) and Terry.  Stay tuned for updates.

Tallahassee to Atlanta

We ended our stay in Tallahassee with a concert at Sue's aunt Jane's retirement community.  A collection of string instrument majors from Florida State University presented a series of classical works.  We entered the auditorium at 6:45 for the scheduled 7:00 p.m. concert. 

The first to arrive was the rhythm section.   Their distinctive clackety clack shuffle shuffle could be heard even before they could be seen.  Yes, the elderly group on walkers had arrived.  There were the alto walkers with missing rubber guides, the tenor walkers with new rubbers or skids and the bass walkers with their tennis ball feet.  Next to enter were the "woodwinds" with their gentle hummmmm, hummmm, hum.  These were Rascal scooter folks who raced through the hallways to arrive at the last minute for their aisle parking spots.

Finally, the real musicians showed up with their various string instruments.  We were treated to Brahms, Beethoven, Dvorak, Schubert and the soft snoring of a few retirees lulled to an unconscious state by the music and lateness (after 7 p.m.) of the evening.

The next day we drove to Atlanta for our three day stay with my cousins, Betty and Mario and my brother Rick.   I drove the first stretch out of Tallahassee in the northeast direction toward I-75.  Since we were leaving in the morning, Sue was sitting in the hot sun.  When we switched drivers we were heading due north.  As it was now in the afternoon, Sue was again sitting in the hot sun.  Sue also got to drive in the "lightly traveled" expressways in and around Atlanta.  Upon our arrival in Atlanta the quote from Sue was, "where is my vodka and cranberry?"  Sue is beginning to think I was clever enough to have planned her position in the car relative to the sun.  I had one thing to say to her, "who me?"

In Atlanta we went to a "pumpkin patch" which was but a church sale of pumpkins.  We also went to the Old Mill Park on the Chattahoochee River.  Our first night we also visited with Sheryl, Cody and Jose to complete the Atlanta family contingent.

Spillway at Old Mill Park

When we left Miami for our three week vacation, we packed four weeks worth of wine.  We are at the end of our first week and had to purchase more wine.  Wine consumption is very hard to plan.  Friday we will be heading toward Memphis with a stop-over in Tupelo, Mississippi.  No visit to the deep south would be complete without a visit to the birthplace of Elvis.

Days 2 & 3, St. Pete to Tallahassee

On Saturday, we had a nice visit with Rick and Alan in their beautiful home.  We had a great dinner and Sue was able to catch up on the last half century.  Alan showed off his new 50th Anniversary Mustang and Rick demonstrated his vintage Seeburg jukebox.  Just for our arrival the jukebox decided to get stuck playing Living La Vida Loca, by Ricky Martin.  The Seeburg must have heard that we were from Miami and assumed we were big fans.

Seeburg Jukebox

The following day was a typical "road trip" series of events.  Jack and Sue wake up at 8:00 a.m.  Jack is ready for breakfast at 8:03 a.m.  Jack waits until 10:00 a.m. when Sue is ready for breakfast.  The Hampton Inn runs out of bacon at 9:58 a.m.  Jack now has to eat a healthy breakfast and begins to see that Sue has planned every detail.

We pack the car and hit the road at 10:30.  We begin to notice the simple changes in our environment.  No, we do not spot any leaves with fall colors but just the subtle changes as you head north into the deep south.  There is Garth on the radio, FOX News on the TV, and the people at he rest stops look like the cast from the 1920's silent horror film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

We arrive in Tallahassee to visit Sue's aunt Jane and her cousin Ben and his family.  The name Tallahassee is from the old Indian word for Home of the Bubbas.  It is our state's capital and the location of the throne of the much beloved governor, Rick Scott.  I say much beloved because that's how he describes himself.  The folks south of Lake Okeechobee might disagree.

We have a pleasant dinner visiting with Sue's aunt Jane, Ben, Brooke and their children, Caitlan, Shelby and Bryce.   I also have a political conversation with their shelter rescue dog, Honey.  It seems that Honey was a political and financial adviser to Rick Scott before being literally kicked to the curb and made homeless.  Honey, says Rick is basically a nice guy, except those times when he is awake.  Sue's aunt Jane, now 85, drove us for our visit.  We were a bit nervous at first but, I have to say, I have been with other drivers much younger than she and they made me even more nervous.

We will spend two days in the state capital before heading to Hot-lanta.  Our second day will be spent visiting Ben's coffee business.  His Lucky Goat Coffee roasting and supply seems very advanced.  We have been ordering our coffee at home from him for the past two years.

Coffee Roaster @ Lucky Goat

We started our second day in Tallahassee with a trip to the Hampton Inn breakfast for our morning ingestion of the requisite 9,000 calories.  We have found that you need to overload on your caloric intake if you are ever to gain weight on vacation.

We then head out to a local state park, Maclay Gardens.

Entrance to Maclay Gardens

Gate Near Reflecting Pond

Trip to St. Pete

We are now in beautiful St. Petersburg, Fla.  We left our driveway at 10:40 a.m.  We came through some rain on the way over and hoped it would wash the blood off the windshield but, no joy.  We had the rental guy clean the blood off the rear left door handle but hadn't noticed the blood on the upper right side of the windshield until I went to mount our transponder for tolls.

Note Blood on Windshield

We are not sure of the source of the blood on the windshield, but since we are in south Florida, it was either that the car was used in a drive by shooting or hit a medium sized mosquito on an expressway.  The fact that there was also blood on the door handle on the opposite side of the car means that the victim, human or mosquito, was only wounded and was able to jump into the back seat on the left side.  We hope that the human survives and that the mosquito dies a horrible death, whichever outcome befits the events.

Cellphone Grab-shot of Skyway Bridge, St. Pete

We arrived at our Hampton Inn and unloaded our SUV onto a large cart for its trip to our room.  Sue posed for a quick picture at the cart.

Sue Posing With Contents of Walk-in Closet

We are now heading out for dinner with friends.  A classmate of Sue's from Weston, Mass., has invited us over for a bar-b-que.  More later.

The Hunt for Red October, or Yellow, or Brown, or Just Anything Not Green

We are about to begin our pursuit of leaves of a different color.  While we have leaves in south Florida, most of them are green.  We want to see some of those other colors like yellows, and reds we have heard so much about.  We would prefer to see them still attached to trees but we will take them where we can find them.

We picked up our rental car yesterday and found that they had upgraded us to a large SUV versus the smaller intermediate SUV we had ordered.  This meant that, instead of Sue packing a single large bag for the trip, the entirety of Sue's walk-in closet would now be hitting the road.  We may not see much color in the leaf department but Sue will have an outfit and shoes to match anything we find. We also have enough food packed to open a small restaurant.  We have our favorite box wine, a starter bag of Good 'n Plenty, cheese, crackers and a wide variety of snacks.  What more could you ask for a road trip.

Unlike the road trips of my youth that involved more alcohol than gasoline, this is to be an adult trip.  There will be alcohol and there will be gasoline, just in different proportions.  We will now be looking for the nearest Cracker Barrel instead of the next bar.

Our plans take us to St. Petersburg, Atlanta, Memphis and parts further east that are not still under water.  It sounds like South Carolina might be an area where we need to keep an eye on the news.  If I get a picture of the Atlantic Ocean from the Blue Ridge Parkway, while interesting, it will mean that Climate Change Skeptics will be looking for new excuses.

Since the rental car is still in our driveway at home, there is nothing more to add about the trip other than to keep an eye out for Updates From The Blog.  We will keep you posted.

Picture Stolen from Billy Gonzalez