Packed and ready to head out of New Orleans towards our next goal, Atlanta, Georgia. It'a about a six hour drive so its a pretty much a sit-in comfy bus seats ride, I fell asleep about 8 times, dropping whatever book I had been trying to get into down on the floor, where it was sucked into the mass of stuff rolling around the floor, if you're lucky another passenger will find it and return said book (lipstick, candy, spouse, etc) to you, or your survivors. If this does not occur, you will know your object has been sucked into the Yankee Trails wormhole, and said wormhole from the said bus will eject your item a few days later when the bus returns, but only after you've stopped calling. Packages are then distributed to ...I don't know who...
Here noted above is what the South is really like. No monuments or statues, no politics except on bumper stickers or anything that is green and is a living plant. Nowhere up here do we have gas stations that do more than sell gas, coffee, and beef jerky. At the Southern stations like Love's here you can have a shower, all kinds of candy (that I have not seen in years), CDs, DVDs, technically thingies that even a old and forlorn techie as yours truly can't figure out. They also will check your truck tires, stick air in or pull the tire out and stick a new one on. They have overnight accommodations for those who need accommodating (only in Kansas), and also the oddest hot dogs I've ever seen.This is called a "Cheeseburger".
And, of course you have to get a cap to cover your bald spot.
It was the group consensus(my wife's) that I was more along the line of a short Lyndon Johnson with this cowboy hat, so we went with something slightly better.
There you go. Helped keep the sun off my dainty bald head.
As we headed toward Atlanta, I looked at the names on the exit signs on route. Now and then, there'd be an exit for a town with a Civil War association. We've already passed New Orleans, seized by David Farragut in 1862, followed by Port Hudson/Baton Rouge 1863. Union ships then, under the command of David Farragut, took control of the port of Mobile, Alabama in 1864, ending shipping in and out of major Confederate textiles, tobacco, and food. And it also meant that the Confederacy could not import needed goods, unless the sleek ships of the night ran the Union blockade, and brought what they could from the outside, and get rich of course.
But this isn't a history lesson.and you are welcome. Just to see the names on the signs - Selma, Montgomery, Mobile. Places that changed the country, and are still haunting us, for a justice called for, and promised, but not here yet.
This early part of the trip took us through Mississippi, (Sweet Home) Alabama, and into the Peachtree State. Now we're coming into the city from the southwest, Sherman moved his approximately 60,000 soldiers southeast into Georgia, following battles in Tennessee, but ready for the final march. We're just waiting for our guy who ended up in the showers at Love's, and it was necessary to get him an adult beverage and mellow out. He just kept saying "Big truck...such a big hairy truck..." Fortunately he dozed off before we left the parking lot, though he did fart for the length of the of the way to Georgia.
Nevertheless we breathed slowly, and got our first looks at The ATL. More soon.
By the way I discovered that there was a Love's gas station/food/shower/hats when we were returning from Boston where the Massachusetts Turnpike becomes the NYS Thruway in New Lebanon NY. I am heading for my cheeseburger hotdog right now!
