The Adventure Rig Made It To Alabama (without a banjo on my knee)

Thanks to switching our clocks back to Standard Time last Sunday, daylight is now coming earlier. For us campers and adventure-seekers, this means we can start our driving day at around 6-6:30am. I know, this doesn't sound like vacation time, but we either do that or find ourselves on the road for 2 weeks. We rarely take sightseeing stops while we are enroute to our destination. You see, it's the pull to find "our spot" and our friends a.s.a.p. We feel a little different under our return trip as "home" in April means still nasty weather and carrying firewood into the house. So a stay in any place with southern exposure in April is welcome.

So today we left Camp Walmart in Smithfield, NC at exactly 6:35am. 

We truly enjoy rolling down the I-95 as it gets us south quickly. Now, we already had 26C (78.8F) yesterday, but today we topped out at 28C (82F). For the first time our AC would be blowing cool air down the cabin. Dixie was very appreciative that, I think.

We were in the right lane and nearing a highway exit, when a car from the left lane cut in front of the car we were behind at to get into the exit lane. Avoiding a collision, the car in front of us hit the brakes real hard. When I saw those brake lights coming on, my foot went for a full emergency brake-up. At the same time I had to swerve to the right avoiding rear-ending the car in front of me. This maneuver caused our trailer to start responding with some violent moves left and right. and I heard squealing tires and Bea was using a German expletive.

I managed to control the rig to an almost full stop before the trailer could tip over, then got back into our original lane. Vehicles behind us had left a huge space for us to move over.

That was stress at the top level!

At Florence, SC we entered the I-20 and now the motto was "Go West young man - Go west!

First we passed Columbia, SC, then Augusta,GA and finally we were approaching Atlanta, one of the biggest cities in the U.S. Naturally, we were apprehensive about what traffic chaos would wait for us there.

Our experience with Atlanta goes back a few years and we never accessed the bypass, but rather were heading straight through the city. (I-20 does not actually go directly through the city center) Our calculation proved right. Even though traffic was partially tight, we didn't go into a jam. With other words: Smooth riding all the way through.

However, the other side of the way into the city showed at least a 10mile line-up of mixed traffic. Lucky us!

Now Bea was busy in her seat plotting a place for an overnight stay. The drive west had brought us into Central Time Zone and we figured the later sunset would allow us to continue today into Alabama. At Anniston,AL Bea found a Sam's Club which allows for overnight parking. And that's where we ended today's adventure