14 - FINAL POST

We were up early Tuesday 5/29 and on the road by 8:00 AM.  For all you map followers, we hit I-10 in Kerrville to San Antonio where got in a rush hour traffic jam.  We took the 1604 Loop around the north side of town and hit I-35 North.  This took us through New Braunfels, San Marcos, Austin (where we got into another traffic jam due to an accident), and Temple to Waco.  At Waco we left the interstate and cut across northeast on Hwys 84 and 31 through Corsicana and Athens to Tyler.  We checked in for the night at Tyler State Park.  Except for the couple of traffic problems, it was mostly a good ride, but long – 377 miles.

As a side note (which some of you may remember from a previous blog a couple of years ago), the town of Corsicana, TX holds fond memories for me.  When I was a kid growing up on the farm in South Alabama, my Dad ordered a Mexican Burro from Sears, Roebuck and he was shipped to us from Corsicana.  We named him Jabbo and he was the family pet until after I graduated high school and left home. As we came through the area, I saw some burros near a big livestock barn and wondered if they were possibly some of Jabbo’s distant relatives!

Wednesday, 5/20 – We were up early again and hit I-20 east just a couple of miles from Tyler State Park and settled in for another long day of riding (347 miles). It was about 80 miles to the Louisiana state line, and then another 10 or so to Shreveport where we got gas at a Murphy USA for $2.41 – the cheapest we’ve seen in a while.

Except for the extremely rough roads on I-20 in Shreveport and Monroe, the road was in relatively good shape (except for bridges which are always rough).  It’s right at 190 miles across Louisiana on I-20.

We crossed the Mississippi River at Vicksburg, MS and stopped at the Mississippi Welcome Center which overlooks the river with the two bridges – the interstate and the train trestle.

Mississippi bills itself as the Magnolia State and they had a beautiful one by the Welcome Center.  They are also planted all along beside the interstate and are pretty.

After another 77 miles (and through another rough section in Jackson) we stopped for the night at Roosevelt State Park near Morton, MS.  It is just a mile or so off the interstate and very woodsy.  Just after we arrived, we started hearing the T-boomers and then had a pretty good shower or two.  I looked back in our log and that is the first rain we’ve seen since May 5^th at Mt. Rushmore.  No satellite for watching the Braves – too many trees.

Thursday (5/31) was a much shorter drive – 232 miles.  We crossed into Alabama, got off I-20 at Exit 1, and took Hwy 80 to Selma. There we took Hwy 14 thru Autaugaville and Prattville to Wetumpka where one set of our kids & grandkids live. We checked into Ft. Toulouse National Historic Site campground for the night and then went to visit Scott, Pam, Will, Corrie, and Jake.  It was a quick “hi & bye” to Corrie – she had to go to work.  We stayed until a little after 8:00 and got back to the campground before they locked the gate at 9:00.

Friday (6/1) was an even shorter drive – 203 miles. From Wetumpka, we continued on Hwy 14 through Tallassee to I-85, then north to Atlanta.  We crossed into Georgia and had to set our watches up an hour to Eastern Time – we had been on Central Time for almost 2 weeks.

The Friday traffic through Atlanta was awful – even though we got to Atlanta around 1:00 PM, it was very slow all the way from the southside through downtown and on I-75 on the northside well above Marietta.  In addition, there was a huge thunderstorm on the northside and that didn’t help matters. It took well over and hour, but we made it OK and checked into McKinney Campground on Lake Alatoona near Acworth.  This is near where another set of the kids & grandkids live.  Ricky came for a visit for a while, then later Randy & Jody visited.

Today (Saturday 6/2) we left McKinney and made it the rest of the way home (the final 90 miles).  We were very thankful that everything was OK on the home front.  Other than grass knee deep and one dead stinking mouse in a trap, there were no problems.

This has been a great trip. Today made a total of 7 weeks since we left on April 15^th.  We covered 5595 miles through 12 states (not counting Georgia).  We had a range of temperatures from in the low 30’s to mid-100’s and saw lots and lots of varied landscapes.  It is a beautiful country out there y’all and we enjoyed every bit of it that we were able to see.  This is the final blog post – and we’re glad to have you along for the ride!