My Saturday Drive

I made it home yesterday.

I left New Orleans in a rental car at 3 a.m. Saturday morning. With just enough room for the driver, I managed to pack everything from the van into it.

This is not how these trips are supposed to be traversed. It was very cramped. I am used to having the bed in the back but in this situation, I could not even put the seat back to rest.

I made the most of it. I made it home Sunday.

This was my Saturday drive.

I would like to have gotten a coffee at Cafe Du Monde on my way out of town, but they were closed. I believe before Ida, they were open 24 hours. Ida hit New Orleans hard. It was very early morning and dark when I exited Louisiana and entered Mississippi.

	I drove into Alabama. Sweet Home Alabama. Home of the World Games this year and then the radio played Tuesday’s Gone by Lynard Skynard. I enjoyed that. The sun came up. I enjoyed that too.
I stopped for coffee at Just Love Coffee Cafe in Tuscaloosa, Alabama…	and I ate my first womlette. It made me smile…. and it seemed to smile back.

Birmingham, Alabama

I played George Ward Park Disc Gold Course in Birmingham, Alabama.

I didn’t realize I was going to go through Georgia and then I entered Tennessee. I had never been to Tennessee before. Now there’s only 5 states I’ve never been to.

Chattanooga Choo Choo

And it turns out, today was the 141st anniversary of Chattanooga Choo-Choo.

I stopped in Chattanooga, Tennessee to get some work done. I needed to finish out a few reports before the end of the day and opted for a little place across the street from the Chattanooga Choo Choo. I sat outside and when the reports were done, I treated myself to a nice cold beer. I enjoyed the beautiful weather, people watched and then took a little walk around the area.

Athens, Tennessee

There was a highly rated course that I wanted to play, however, I’d be arriving 45 minutes before sunset. I played Athens Regional Park very quickly …. and shot very well! It is such a beautiful course. I would like to get back here and enjoy a slow round some day.

Knoxville, Tennessee

I didn’t stay long in Knoxville. I was going to just drive past it and make some time before I got to sleepy. But the Sunsphere was only 3 minutes out of the way, so why not. “The Sunsphere, located in World’s Fair Park in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, is a 266-foot high hexagonal steel truss structure, topped with a 75 ft gold-colored glass sphere that served as the symbol of the 1982 World’s Fair.” – from the Sunsphere’s Google page

I drove through the night with frequent stops to rest, however, with the vehicle situation, rest was hard to come by. This was definitely a difficult trip and was a struggle at times. I don’t like driving like this and am looking forward to figuring out my next vehicle.

Sunday morning I stopped at a Planet Fitness in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and had a shower and a hydro massage. That was certainly helpful and I also stopped in New Jersey to see a cousin I hadn’t seen in years. I napped there before completing the last 4 hours.

I arrived home Sunday afternoon. It was nice sleeping in my bed.