The alarm went off at 5 AM and we were on the road again by 7. My how life has changed – I only wake up to an alarm on vacation post retirement.
We weren’t sure of the full route until we approached Mount Vernon as our various map apps swung between the route thru Nashville or thru Lexington for the past week. As we drove thru the corn fields Google said one and Apple the other, but I preferred to minimize my exposure to Tennessee where half the people drive 90 mph and half 60mph which makes life interesting times. I don’t like interesting times. Three things remain certain if you’re traveling to Charlotte: death, taxes, and Knoxville, so Tennessee was unavoidable.
The nice thing about driving in overcast is you don’t sweat so much, the bad thing is water can fall from the sky at almost any moment. MBH observed after the first extended rain at least the bugs were gone from the windshield. She looks at the bright side of life; I’m your man for a detailed risk assessment with an emphasis on worst case scenarios.
The sky looked scary as we left Johnson City with our hopes, fears, and groceries. MBH pulled up a weather map and thought we might be able to thread the needle thru the storms; I kept my thoughts to myself – I’m an old hand at the husband game. A road trip is a lot like Zeno’s paradox – the closer you get to your destination, the slower you go. Between the rain and the back roads over the mountains (every good road trip leaves the interstate as you close on a destination) we got very slow indeed.
And then we stopped in a line of cars with their flashers on. We could see the tree across the road, a pickup pointed towards us on our side of the tree, and the lead driver in the line of cars out and about under her umbrella. After consulting the driver of the pickup, she got back in her car and began maneuvering her car. Is she trying to turn around? Does she think she can back up past the whole line of cars? Misdirection! I was focused on the wrong car: the pickup makes a move and the tree whips off the road. More maneuvering and the pickup slowly drives by the line of cars dragging the tree behind it like Achilles dragging Hector around the walls of Troy. I gave the driver a thumbs up as he goes by. Sadly, no pictures or video of the event.
We made it to our Airbnb after coaxing our SUV like a mountain goat up the steep and windy driveway. That moment I did manage to capture while unloading the luggage.
