Before I recount the final chapter of this summer’s travels, I’d like to tell you about a scary event that happened yesterday. The transition from US-60 to US-63 near Willow Springs, MO, is a long, curving, 2-lane ramp. As I went round the curve, two dogs jumped out in front of me. One was small, and the other was smaller. They were playing, “chase.” I swerved a bit to the left and missed them both. Then I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw a pickup truck and a larger truck bearing down on me in the left lane. I scooted back right and let them pass. The driver of the larger truck honked and gave me a thumbs-up as he passed me. Beth, who was behind me said the driver of the pickup truck had seen the dogs and slowed. She also said the dogs ran off to the right and she didn’t have to evade them. All this happened in a flash, but I can tell you that when the larger dog looked at me, he had an expression on his face that looked like, “Uh-oh, I better get out of here!” Or words to that effect.

Ok. today was another hot travel day. The high humidity makes this kind of travel much harder. We made stops at McDonald’s, both in the morning and afternoon. Late in the day I tried to start from a stop light in 3rd gear and stalled out. After that, Beth said, “It’s time for a break.” She was right, of course.

As usual, Beth found us a park for our picnic lunch by asking the gas station cashier. The park was pictured above.

We got to our hotel in Columbus, GA, late afternoon. Our room is on the second floor and the hotel has an elevator, so we hoped we could use a cart to get all our stuff to our room. The hotel clerk knew that one guy had both carts. He didn’t answer when she knocked on his door and didn’t answer when she called his cell phone. A little later he did call back and brought one of the carts back to the lobby, and we were grateful to be able to use it.

After we were all settled in our room a very strong storm came through and blew the cover off Beth’s bike. There’s a pattern to our travels; it seems like a good idea to get going early in the day and get settled inside before the late afternoon storm hits.

I went downstairs and found the cover on the front porch of the hotel. She put it back on the bike after the storm passed. BTW, this picture shows how we typically park so we can get 3 vehicles in 2 spots.

Tomorrow, we complete this journey. We’ll go south on some secondary highways until we reach US-19. Then it’s down the Suncoast Parkway, over the Howard Frankland bridge, and slide into home. Unless we encounter something really interesting tomorrow, this is the final chapter of Summer Travels, 2024.

Travel Distances:
Albuquerque to Batesville, MS/Total: 1284/5543
Batesville, MS to Home/Total: 781/6324