November 8, 2018

Yesteryear
One year ago today: November 8, 2017, today’s experts weren’t . . .
Five years ago today: November 8, 2013, it’s 15 seconds, guys.
Nine years ago today: November 8, 2009, you are not Madonna.
Random years ago today: November 8, 1984, the only submarine in Thailand.

           Good morning from Newnan, Georgia. What I'm about to tell you is pure coincidence, and you know I am not a believer. However, this kind of thing happens regularly enough in my life. I take a side road an wind up with something like so. This morning I left Cooumbus in a light fog, intending to take a back road north. I got onto I-85 and was practically the only car on the road, I videoed the event and noticed this is the most beautiful freeway I have ever seen. As the fog cleared I began to notice the fall leaves and the median on the highway is landscaped. The road is so smooth I took it up to 60 mpg again for about an hour. The traffic began to pick up so I arbitrarily chose exit 41 and missed the GPS turn instruction.

           This took me through a little town I'd never heard of, when I spotted a mom & pop called the Redneck Kitchen. I took up three spots to park the camper and walked back down the street. Now remember, for what happened next, each of the little events just mentioned had to occur in precisely the right order. Then I decided to jaywalk, another thing I don't regularly do. I looked up and I'm standing on the same spot Alan Jackson is from. I had never heard of Newnan, Georgia before in my life. I play one of his songs, but that was because of Karoke in the next state over. It doesn't mean anything I suppose, but remember that turn I took in Arkansas in 2013 and wound up at Johnny Cash's home town? Could it all really be coincidence?

Picture of the day.
Before AIDS.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           I'll try to get these posts updated, but I'm on the road. I made it to Nashville, overnight with a dear, dear old friend. Nothing to report.

           Later, this was one of the first trips I’ve taken using mostly GPS instead of a pre-planned itinerary. And the device turned out to be as disappointing as anything else made by millennials. The most annoying features include giving directions to places already passed, inability to scroll the screen, non-scalable icons blocking the data, and a lack of an easy way to tap on the screen to include waypoints. It can probably be done, but it is not intuitive, which is a lot of what I mean by ‘millennial’. They all suffer from MicroSoft think, where they know more about what you want than you do.

           Note also they have never designed a proper way to mount the device on your dash. Shown here is a small wooden stand that contains a number of plugs and switches to turn that space into useful real estate. I would eventually adopt this method for most vehicles but it is a telling shame the entire latest crop of Americans can’t come up with a way to make the GPS handy. There is no way it will stick to glass with the suction mounting and stay put.

           [Author’s note 2022: well this post turned into the understatement of my century. Nothing to report changed my life. The beautiful freeway I describe was due to the changing colors of the fall leaves, something I had not seen in 20 years. Not that I miss the winter, but Florida is evergreen as in tropical. The pictures are only representative but were taken on this same trip. The following addendum was not discovered until 1022. It includes the most dramatic photo ever taken of the traveling rig. Alas, the camper did not make it.]

ADDENDUM
           I needed this getaway but nothing has me more worried recently. I kind of know what to expect. My last formal trip out west, this one has extra significance. Maybe I moved to Florida to die, like the rest, but just got here 20 years early. Seriously, I reserve these long trips for thinking; I rarely even play the car radio. I'm a week late getting started, and you know how the winter weather out west is not your buddy. Even so, I took it easy and drove up through Bainbridge, Georgia.
           That's where I hit some of the worst weather in years. Blinding rain. I hit stretches of flooded road. The locals say it really was bad. It was late afternoon and evening and I could see by the sky this was no summer shower. Yet, I made it into Columbus, got my bearings, and decided to go grab a beer. That's where the GPS let me down. I wonder it there is something wrong with my unit. If you make a single wrong turn, it goes into a weird mode that picks a random nearby destination and tells you to go there.

           It led me down a cobblestone road, where the trailer bounced like a basketball at anything over 1 mph. I drove a long ways, taking 14 minutes to cover the last 17 blocks. Later, I was to find out inside the wagon just how bad that ride was. Everything was ripped loose, even the battery lights were broken open and the batteries rolling around. When I found downtown, it was not worth it. I drove around a half-hour to find a place. They, and all the subsequent places I found, had no WiFi. If this is repeat info, hey, you get that when I'm on the road.
           Here's the car in early morning tow configuration when I left y'day. This trailer is both lighter and has a higher center of gravity. It is not designed for rough weather, I am finding spots where the builder used untreated lumber. It's painted, but the water still attacks.

Last Laugh