Report from the Road

We are spent the night just north of Omaha, Nebraska. Two days of travel and we will be at the Badlands and Mt. Rushmore by tonight.

We left school at 3:00 right after the graduation ceremony. As we approached Atlanta, the traffic was backed up and it started raining, so we decided to stop for dinner at a Mexican Restaurant on the highway. I had a fried pork dinner (I have been trying to find a dish I had in Mexico City in 1968… It was chunks of pork, with fried onions and the hottest guacamole I have ever had.) So I tried it here and it was very yummy, but the guacamole was not great. I think this was the closest I have come to finding that dish. It was really good for just being a restaurant we stopped at because of a rain storm and traffic. Hmmm

We continued through Atlanta… before we got to Chattanooga it rained very hard on (sometimes we couldn’t see the road) and off about three times... of course Matt happened to be driving during these bouts of teaming rain....

It was so great to move up into the Appalachian mountains. The plant life changed and the air got cooler rocks protruded beside the road. No Carole no falling rocks or rock slides.

We were able to get to Martins (I think that is the name of the town), which is almost Murfreesboro before we pulled off the highway for the night. We tried to check into a hotel that advertised $29.99… the room was going to be $59.99 and Matt went no… “there are creepy drunks hanging out in the parking lot” …. So we motored down the street to a Microtel. It was great $69.99 for a really nice room. But there was a drunk trying to get his room number from the front desk as I checked in…. must be a interesting town. The hotel was great. Quite, clean, new with comforters and stacked pillows on the beds. Our bathroom had a great shower, granite counter tops, with a curved granite skirt. Amazing.

As we were driving, some of the time, I read to Matt from the National Park book, about the parks in the Midwest. I used to do with my in-laws when we would travel around Europe looking up dead relatives. My mother-in-law had macular degeneration and could not read for herself. I would give them background information as we traveled from place to place and history of the location where we were. (For example, I read to them about Anne Boylin at the White Tower in the Tower of London.)

Road incidents... Matt almost kissed another car moving from lane to lane... and I almost ran into a construction abutment where the road narrowed for construction... my heart was in my throat as I changed lanes, killed the cruse control, swerved around a corner and came into a narrow chute all in about 30 seconds. Road construction markings are different in Iowa than in Georgia or Michigan...

This morning I am sitting at a diner next to our hotel drinking coffee a writing.