Rainy and dreary then sunny, bumpy and boring

1-16-10 to 1-17-10

It began raining late in the evening Friday night. Breaking camp in the rain Saturday morning was a soaking experience to say the least. Our neighbor in the Prevost was long gone. I guess he wanted to avoid the embarrassment of any comments such as "Looked like you were stuck pretty good last night."

On the way across the Florida panhandle on hiway 98, the road suddenly took a turn away from the coast. This diversion was not on the map. Wanting to continue along the waters edge for as long as we could, we turned towards the gulf at the first opportunity thinking we would find a secondary road that would eventually join back up with hiway 98. What we found instead was a barricade on the old coast road with a sign stating that it was the property of the Marriot Beach Club. We turned around and rejoined the diverted 98 where it eventually joined the old coast road. I'm guessing that after one of the recent hurricanes, Marriot made a deal with the state that allowed it to acquire all that property including the old US98 to relieve the state from having to repair the hiway every time the water came up. By the way, we never did see any signs for the Marriot Resort, or Hotel, or whatever it was. Only the Marriot "Keep Off" signs.

We arrived in Saucier, Mississippi about 6:30 Saturday evening. The rain had stopped at about 6pm allowing to set up camp without getting wet.

On Sunday we took advantage of those "American Reinvestment and Reconstruction Act" dollars and used the newly paved US49 to get from I-10 to I-20. About the time we got on I-20 the sun came out and the bumpy ride began. And it started to get boring. Each mile of Interstate looks pretty much like every other mile of Interstate. Miles and miles of concrete ribbons surrounded by trees punctuated by the occasional cell phone tower.

Our goal is to make it to Texas tonight.

(Note: We made it)