GrammaLei.com

Thanks to the hub-bub of inquisitive minds out there here is the long awaited answer to what Lynne and I are doing in the “What are we doing Now?” post of May 30th. And the only reason we knew what we were doing was that Lynne had read all about a “joggling board” in the book ‘Very Charleston’ (we got the book for Pat for her trip to SC). She was reading it while we were driving from D.C. to Lexington, SC. We’re at the Hampton Plantation in Mc Clellanville, SC between Myrtle Beach and Charleston. Randy had done research on places to see, before Pat and Lynne came to visit. He had a folder with lots of places we might want to see with all our maps. When we happened onto this plantation he remembered that it was one of the ones that didn’t have an amusement park price cost to go see. As it happened the day we went was the only day of the week they weren’t open, so we didn’t get to go inside, but…

Lynne and I enjoyed our “joggle” on the porch, it was very relaxing. If it’s exercise I want one! I’m trying to convince Randy to make one for our porch. The picture of it here has the legs rocking towards the middle of the board, but the one Lynne and I sat on, the legs were rocking front to back. Not sure which way is right, Randy will have to do some research before he starts that project. I think it will make a great bench!

[amtap book:isbn=1565123395]

It took me a long time to get the last chapter of this story published, I have been struggling to get us online.

We arrived home Wednesday evening the 26th, our last day went very smooth, we forgot to mention that we drove through about a 45 mile cloudburst into Gallup, Driving blind during twilight is fun, it didn’t slow down the truckers though.

We got a good start out of Gallup at 8:20am and after 16 miles we entered Arizona and the clock rolled back an hour. Our cars were still separated, so we probably averaged about 70 MPH for the 596 final miles on I-40. By the way google said the trip via Vicksburg would be 2445 miles, but we actually traveled a total of 2581 miles, hmmm Total gas cost for 2 trucks $ 908.50 plus $12.00 for towing and $55.59 for a used tire.

Thank you to all of you for following our trip and for your comments and well wishes.

We had our earliest start today, 9:48 AM. We stopped in Moriarty, New Mexico as planned, to disconnect the Ranger so that we could climb the Sandia Peak just east of Albuquerque, and we have decided to finish the drive in two cars. With the early start and separate driving we managed a respectable 422 miles today.

By the way for anybody keeping track of the horrible drought conditions throughout the country, (they are whining about the drought in the media in South Carolina where a kid playing in the yard can dig a hole 3 feet deep and it will fill with water) the vistas all the way to the east side of Arizona are very GREEN and it is the end of August.

We are spending the night in Gallup NM at the Best Western Royal Holiday, do not stay here, it is over priced for the run down state of the rooms and trains come in to town blasting their air horns every half hour all night long, honking their horns over and over, it is like they are going through your room and I am a really heavy sleeper ask anyone. There is another Best Western on the east end of town, I don’t know anything about that one.

We spent the night in Amarillo, big day 356 miles today, passed the halfway point in Shamrock Texas, look at us go. I hope everybody is noticing the date at the top of each story (blog-post) I am trying to catch up as fast as I can to the present. I’m only one day behind now (if I get this out tonight).

After winding our way around the I-40 on red roads, we arrived in another state capitol, Oklahoma City, where we joined a red road some people know about the U.S. 66, we were way excited, we got a booklet at the visitor center on the way into the state that gave us turn by turn directions to follow, along with highlights to look for along the way, like giant milk bottles.

The bummer was that no one is maintaining the paving, it is way to bumpy for towing or even enjoying the ride, and there was no other red road to follow, so we spent most of our time on the freeway with the truckers, we got off here and there to try to spy sites, Lei got a shirt from Lucille’s gas station on sale for $9.99.

We resumed our continuing search for the Texas shaped rock at the eastern border of the 66 in Texola OK, last spring we we searched Glenrio TX thoroughly on the western end. We are very disappointed we can’t find it, Mom would just love a “Where are we now” photo from there. So Larry do you remember that photo op from our 1966 trip?? I remember a noise in the trees that you told me were tree frogs, I told my kids the same thing when they were little, did you make that up??

We spent the night in Henryetta, Oklahoma, 234 miles today. This place was right next door to our motel, the Green Country Inn. Just renovated, very clean and hospitable. The “Palace” had lots of meat and starch. Potatoes, and a variety of rice and pasta. Driving through Arkansas and Oklahoma these last couple of days, I believe we’ve seen more road kill (lots of armadillos) than in my entire prior driving career. I only sampled the Bar-B-Que meat, small chunks, and a pork chop. I didn’t think about the road kill till writing this post, the food was really good and so was the service, and we remarked how piled on they kept the buffet, but it gives one pause…

Someday we have to write about all the different spots that we have crossed the Mississippi River. Headed north on the U.S. 65 to Little Rock Arkansas, our forth capitol city, Columbia, Atlanta, Jackson. A new record on miles traveled today 246, its like we are flying. We passed 1/3 of the way today, in 5 days wow that makes it 15 days to cross the country, that will break out old record of 11 days.

The Suburban is getting 10 MPG, it normally gets 14, which is exactly what we estimated during the trip budgeting, we figured $976 for gas at $4 per gallon, mostly we are paying more like $3.50. I still think we are saving a lot of gas money not driving the Ranger too.

We are spending the night in the Best Western in Conway, Ark.

We planned on spending the morning buying some new tires, but what the heck they still look fine. We managed only 179 miles today but that was kinda on purpose. When we asked google last month what the shortest route home was, it had us take the I-20 to Birmingham, then north to the I-40 in Memphis, but I have always wanted to check out Vicksburg Mississippi, its only 100 miles longer.

A new red road to follow today the U.S. 80 it was just lovely but it ended in Jackson. We stopped for gas there and fortunatly I checked my nuts and bolts on the towbar rig. A nut was gone and the bolt was hanging there waiting to jump out when we went over a bump (which “red roads” have a lot of). I had been checking them once a day, now it seems like we are pulling over every couple minutes.

So Lei picked the route out of Jackson, down the “Natchez Trace Parkway” and up a black road into Vicksburg. Maybe someday we will have the time to drive all the way down and see “Mammie’s Restaurant”.

Natchez Trace Parkway

We got into Vicksburg about 4:30 PM and got a free room at the Comfort Inn (we use the Choice Hotels Point program and finally had enough points) pretty good price for Friday night! We disconnected the Ranger and by 5:15 we were at the Vicksburg Battlefield Park, we wanted to see what the hours and price was, the ranger had himself locked in his gate shack, but finally came out and told us $8 per car and it was open till 7PM but he wasn’t taking anymore money, “wink wink nudge nudge” and enjoy.

How cool more free stuff, we said, as we drove in, turns out the park has 16 miles of roads and it took us an hour and a half and we were rushing through. Here is a picture, I will have to get a couple more up soon with more story. Later though.

Only 208 miles today but we’re not complaining. We took black and grey roads to avoid Birmingham Alabama, it was a very cool drive through some really rich areas, but we weren’t getting very far, so we got on the freeway to avoid Tuscaloosa and the trucks weren’t bugging us and traffic was mellow so we decided to stay on awhile, just as we were pulling in a rest area for lunch, the steering started bumping. It’s pretty hard to figure out whats wrong when you have two cars tied together, so we disconnected in the rest area, what a hot hassle, so we could narrow it down, Lei didn’t even make it back on the freeway before pulling off in the acceleration lane, I guess towing my truck made the bumping mellow, she said she couldn’t steer. Well the front tire was seperating, our cell phone don’t dial out, well it can call the cell I had working for Brian, but that wouldn’t have helped. Lei thought the operator could dial Triple A for us….great idea! Well sorta, she (T-Mobile operator) called the Tuscaloosa police department, who after listening to my story again, connected me to the State Troopers, who listened to my story, at first they didn’t think they could help, but then they realized we had the number to Triple A, but that we just couldn’t dial it, so they connected us to Triple A who didn’t need to hear our story they just needed to know where we were and what did we need. They sent a tow truck right out. Forty minutes later, he towed us to the first off ramp at Boligee, AL. And right at the exit was an old used tire store! It was just after 5:00pm but they were still open and were so happy to see us, and they had our size tire! The tow only cost us $12 and the tire was $55…So we’re back on the road. The blessing being we felt the bulge in the tire before the blowout!

P. S. For those following along, we spent the night in Meridian, Mississippi

Since our top driving speed is 51 MPH anyway, we can take advantage of the leisurely pace and take the red roads that we always enjoy. We call the old state highways red roads because they are usually red on the map. We took the 1 out of Columbia, and in Augusta switched to the 78/278. We are really enjoying the scenery and the small southern towns that haven’t changed since the turn of the last century.

BUT… todays total mileage was 233, and we were all happy with ourselves to make it to Anniston Alabama, the trip though downtown Atlanta was murder, at one point we we going in circles (we think some kid turned an arrow around). We have traveled this route before when we came to South Carolina in Feb 2007, we stayed in the same Comfort Inn in Oxford, AL that time too. It’s a nice reasonably priced motel but, we did have to disconnect our tow bar to be able to get out of the parking lot after Leilani had pulled through the portico (the desk girl came running out saying “you can’t pull through here! You won’t be able to make the turn”) She was really nice and gave us a discount on our room.

Best Western White Columns Inn

We didn’t get very far, with all the rushing around getting ready, we were exhausted by 7PM and gave up the ghost in Thompson, Georgia. We found a Best Western (our favorite), the lady at the desk was very nice and let us have a suite for the regular room price. So we had a very relaxing night but I don’t know if we are going to make it in 7 days, this afternoon we drove a total of 107 miles. Yikes..