Sorry, late start. Puter hates me.
Back on the road from Cincy, we pick up 75. Finally, I feel like we are going south again. Straight down to Lexington. Next "big" city to encounter. And still , the scenery is very pretty.
What's not pretty is my back. I am really getting concerned about it. My wife, whom I love to death, does not drive on highways or expressways,even though she's a good driver. They just scare her to death to drive on. I have found that when someone feels that way, it's a good thing that they don't do that then.
So, you have to understand, my concern now.
45 minutes goes by and I'm waiting for the Ibu's to kick in.
No kick.
Ok, how about a little "push" then?
No push.
A nudge? Gentle whisper in my ear? Cmon! I know you're in there cuz my stomach's all messed up.
And then you get squirmy.
Thank God for cruise control. By this point in the trip, I was playing those CC buttons on the steering wheel like a concert pianist.
Really.
Set. Coast. Resume. Accelerate. Coast. Resume.
I pulled into that gas station under cruise control.
Now from Cincy down to Lexington, we have the highway pretty much to ourselves. Even though I'm enjoyin the sights, I've got the back squirmies.
Play with the lumbar support. Uh uh. Tilt the seat back. Uh uh. Move the steering wheel, tilt the back rest, just trying anything. Uh uh.
Now, I'm sitting side saddle, facing my window but still playing the buttons.
Ahhh, Bach.
Sure there's no requests?
And then I crack.
She's just looking out the window, and I scream out:
"I NEED DRUGS!"
"Geez! You scared me."
"Sorry".
She reached behind her and pulled out a juice pack, gave that to me and dug into my little, tiny, pathetic pharmacy.
I glanced down to make sure she gave me what I asked for. I saw the extra strength, ok.
"Say hello to my little friends".
"Huh?"
"Nothing."
And on we go.
Going by Lexington, we saw a strange woman standing by 75, holding up a sign.
"Disney or Bust."
Diane pointed her out and waved.
From here it's now a long way to the next city, Knoxville Tenn.
I'm looking at my watch.
Finally, relief. My little friends have come to say "howdy."
(please, don't any of you do this, I have had to do this for years and years, and I know how they effect me. Plus I have built up a resistance.)
Down to Knoxville, and it's a long way. I'm finally back to driving in a normal position, and can appreciate the sights.
We are going through the Daniel Boone National Forest, and it's kind of "mountainy", at least more than we expected. Very pretty.
After a while, I decided that; "Hey, you hardly ever check the gauges when you are in cruise mode, " so, I start reading the dashboard.
Speed: 70
Fuel: 3 quarters
Tach: 3200 rpm
Temp: 150
Ceiling: Unlimited
Track: Fast
Pulse: 83
Par: 4
By the time we hit Knoxville, the Pk's were pretty gone, and it was time to hit rt 40 , and go through the "real" mountains. Even though we didn't need gas yet, I wondered if we might have a long drought in the mountains, so we stopped and filled up again.
The getting out really helped, if even for 10 minutes.
And on we go.
Even though we have been to the Smokies before, never this way. And we both wondered if after all we've just seen if this part might be a letdown.
Oh, how foolish adults can be.
Whatever I saw of the mountains came from the view out the windshield.
I didn't DARE turn my head. She's marvelling at the sights, and nervous at the same time. It's not like you are driving so close to the edge, but close enough. And the road gets extremely curvy.
Still have the road to myself though, pretty much.
But.
My back is killing me, it's bright sunny out, and it's raining.
And curvy.
I said "What? Do I have to juggle too?" This is the part that she and I are oil and water. You see, when I get nervous, I make jokes. Can't help it. When she is nervous, that's the last thing she wants to hear. And she gets really mad if I do. So it didn't help when I yelled out on a sharp left hand curve, "WHOA, HARD TO PORT! "
But on we went.
Then I saw the sign.
"Vehicles turn your headlights on!!"
Now this part is a part of the trip that I never shared with Smidgey.
We went into a tunnel inside the mountain that was PITCH BLACK! And even with my headlights on, from coming out of the bright sunshine, I couldn't see a thing.
I slowed down a bit, but you can't do that too much.
I had a death grip on the wheel, trying to "feel" my way through this thing using a "bat's" sonar.
It was that dark.
Shall we sing?
"Inside of Old Smokey,
I can't see a thing,"
"And soon we'll be wearing,
The nice scene-r- y."
"We'll crash in the tunnel,
We'll total the car"
"And soon they will funnel
Our guts in a jar."
Finally, a light at the end of the tunnel. Wow! A real life cliche.
"Come to the light. Come to the light."
And I did. What a relief to be back outside. Except now the sun is gone, and it's pouring out.
About ten miles or so down the road, my heart dropped.
"Vehicles, turn on your headlights."
Noooooo, I played this game already, and I won! Don't do this to me again.
However, this time it was lit up all along the way inside, Easy Peazy,,,,,
And on we go to Ashville N.C.
Switch to rt 26, and make Spartanburg, S.C. Not long after I couldn't stand it anymore, and had to hit a rest stop. Late afternoon now, and yes, I gave my buddy, Vic a call again.
Through Columbia, and now we're checking out signs and such for motels. I can see it's starting to get dark, and what do you know? Next town is Orangegurg. Just where I thought we'd make it to.
A Howard Johnson for 45 a night, cheapest we could find. Most Motel 6's blow this place away. But it worked. The next morning, I filled up again, and we had breakfast at a "Waffle House."
Yes, THE waffle house. Never have eaten in one before. It wasn't too bad.
I ordered "over medium" , they came out runny.
Diane ordered "over easy" they came out hard.
And on we go.
Picked up RT 95 and the "love" was gone from our scenery.
We hit a load of conjestion in Jacksonville, couldn't get over to Highway A1A there so we stayed on 95 till St. Augustine. One really cool thing about Jacksonville was that she had read that there is now a new bypass bridge. Open, but not completed yet. When you first see it, you are coming down from a pretty high hill down to the river where the bridge is. Since you're high and the bridge goes Way Up, it looked like cars were going up this bridge and then just falling off into the water. My wife loved it. right.
Let me tell you, after 909 miles the first day driving, the next day you are shot. My back was bothering me after about 80 miles. And the last two vics went down about 30 miles outside of St. Auggie.
Going through the town to get to A1A, I wasn't all that impressed, I don't think she was either. It reminded me of The Dells, in Wisconsin, or Gatlinburg.
What was kinda cool was there is a bridge you have to cross, something like the Lion Bridge, or Great Bear Bridge. Just as we got to it, this light turned red and I had to stop. We were the first car. Then the road separated from the bridge and went up so a huge yacht could go underneath.
Diane hates bridges as it is. but this was fun to watch. From then we found our Comfort Inn and checked in, right across from the beach.
Or so we were told.
Goodnight folks, some pics next time. Over the weekend. Honest. Maybe. :
Guess I'll have to work on that....
are you up yet?
