Day 30

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States: Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida
Miles driven: 678
Miles hiked: 0
Slept: In my own, glorious bed with my two kitty cats…and Pat.
10 words or less: Church going Southern women are helpful, but very creepy.

Southern hospitality

In the morning I hit the road again and was determined to make it home. Stupid me refused to drive through Atlanta. I hate Atlanta. People drive like maniacs. I can’t deal with it. So to avoid it I inadvertently put a few more hours onto my drive time.

So far on this trip, I’d been a smart driver and stopped to rest whenever I needed to. Today I really didn’t want to. I wanted to get home. But I had to. I pulled into a little park somewhere in Alabama and parked the car under the shade of a big oak tree. When I awoke an hour later, there was a big haired woman looking down onto me through an open window. I was instantly on guard. Who was she? What did she want? How dare she snoop! She was a mom having a picnic with her kids and sister at the park. She wanted to tell me I’d left my lights on. And I felt like an ass for assuming she was up to no good. She tried to force some leftover sandwiches on me from her picnic, but I assured her I wasn’t a hurricane Isaac evacuee nor was I living out of my car…for much longer.

Home! I got back on the road and drove and drove and drove. It rained buckets in Georgia and I thought I’d never get there. I did almost stop for the night. I pulled off to get gas, only to find the gas station closed. The lovely couple who owned it were just about to leave and kindly turned the pumps back on for me. I wouldn’t have made it more than 10 more miles on the fumes in my tank. Another driver had tried to get gas too, but took a wrong turn at the end of the exit ramp and drove off the road and into a tree. Luckily everyone was ok.

I finally made it home at 11:20pm, 40 minutes ahead of my August 31st expected arrival date. I really wish I would have either took an extra day to drive or at least stayed and played an extra day in Escalante. Nonetheless it was so very good to be home. I dropped everything at the door and crawled immediately into bed with the cats and smothered them with love and cried happy tears for a good half hour.

Near the end of the trip I was sure I’d never do another trip like that again. It was pretty epic and hard to pull off. In the days since though, I can’t help but think why not do it again? What do I have to lose? Fuck it.