Road trip

I made it.  3 days and 2221 miles later, I'm in Gainesville.  I had planned on doing this in three parts, each night updating on how that day's voyage went.  This turned out to be a little over-ambitious.  Turns out I get really tired after 14-16 hrs of driving and am not really in a blogging mood.  So, you're getting a 1 post overview of the trip.

Day 1: Orem, UT - Lincoln, NE

 

Literally the only thing in Sinclair, WY

To save some money, I reserved camping sites in Lincoln and then Nashville.  I pulled into Lincoln at about midnight MDT.  The RV park was nice and it was good to get a warm shower.  Didn't take long before I passed right out.


Day 2: Lincoln, NE - Nashville, TN

Metropolis, MO...Population 6,000

Ohio River

I don't have any pictures of my entering Tennessee because it had gotten dark and I didn't want to try and take a picture from the side of the freeway with cars rushing by at 75 mph.

Now this is where the trip goes a little off-track.  As I said, I had reserved a campsite in Nashville.  It was next to J. Percy Priest Reservoir and I was excited to spend a night next to the water.  Well, when I got to the campground at 11 PM, guess what greeted me.  A locked gate across the entrance.  Yep, the campground had been locked down for the night.  Nobody in the guardhouse.  It wasn't like the campground was closed.  There were RVs there, but there was no way to get in.  There's no local phone number posted, just the one for the national reservation service.  So, I called it at 11:11 CDT, and the office had closed 11 mins prior.  Awesome.  So, here I am, 600 miles from my destination, tired, stinky, with nowhere to sleep.  I drove around the bay looking for another campsite but there was nothing.  So, I made an executive decision to go ahead and plow through the night and just get to Gainesville.

Day 3: Nashville, TN - Gainesville, FL

Sunrise outside Atlanta, GA

Atlanta

I made it!!

Barring a 2 hour nap somewhere in TN, I drove through the night and got into Gainesville at about noon on the 31st.  Sorry there weren't more pictures from this stretch, but there's not much to see in the dark.  1 of the disadvantages of driving through the night.

Thoughts on the trip

1. The United States is HUGE, amazingly varied, and beautiful...
2. Except Wyoming.  Sorry people from WY, but that was the ugliest state along the trip.  Bleak, brown, and barren.
3. Surprisingly enough, Nebraska was my favorite.  Maybe I just caught it at the right time of the year, but it was beautiful.  The corn and grain fields were the most gorgeous shades of green and they stretched on as far as the eye could see.  The towns were small and quaint.  Very Midwestern.  I wish I had taken more pictures.
4. When you're really tired, you are able to sleep in very uncomfortable positions in a cramped, fully packed car.
5. Human butts are not meant to sit for 40 hrs straight.  It's still a little numb.

So, anyways, that's my trip.  I'm here.  Safe.  Now the search is on for a place to live...