Meet Me In St. Louis

So for my second roadtrip in 2010, I am driving out to St. Louis to attend the National Association of Government Webmasters (NAWG) annual conference. Since I am already getting a later start than I had hoped, the current plan is to take the PA Turnpike (I-76) to where it meets with I-70 in Breezewood PA and runs concurrent through New Stanton, PA. Then, I will follow I-70 for a short bit to get me onto U.S. 40, which I will then take the rest of the way. This route is also known as The National Road, but I will be saving the Baltimore Inner Harbor to Uniontown section for a future roadtrip. So, now i'm off to packing up the car.

NOLA Part 2: Knoxville to New Orleans

Spent $99 on fuel yesterday. We ended up at a Best Value Inn in Knoxville TN [37912] for $55 including free, super fast internet. About 6 hours of sleep in a bed helped us recharge for the road ahead. Beautiful, clear 52 degrees. Fueled up and for timeliness, ate breakfast on the road from McDonalds (yes, John, again it's back to convenience over quality and local flavor - don't worry we make up for it later).

Got to Chattanooga TN in two hours and by accident, ended up at the Chattanooga Choo Choo station (now a hotel/museum/shops), parked the car for $3 and took the free electric trolley down to the river and historic old town. Walked along the Tennessee riverwalk and tourist sites for a few hours before grabbing a quick lunch, and back on the free electric bus back to the car, passing the TVA along the way. We were back on the road by 2:40 pm [902 miles into the trip] and found an auto parts store (thanks to my home office researcher Colleen) to pick up a windshield repair kit to address the chips I 'earned' thanks to a thoughtless truck dropping stones along the interstate.

Around 3 pm we hit the GA/AL time zone change to CST. An hour later, we embarked on I-59S - one of the noisiest interstates ever! The rumble of the concrete slab road surface was even worse than the Route 66 surface I rode on a few years ago that hadn't been maintained in decades. Another 15 minute rest stop at about 1,000 miles into the trip, then the I-459 bypass of Birmingham AL around 4 pm. At 5:20 it was time to fuel up again, this time in Eutaw AL [35462], where you can still fuel up BEFORE paying for the gas (unheard of in the Philly Metro). Thanks to the AAA Guidebook, we found the best barbecue joint in all of southern MS. Leatha's Bar-B-Que Inn in Hattiesburg MS [39402] had plywood floors, mismatched furniture, and was hidden behind an RV dealership. Despite this, the friendliest service and excellent food had this remote 'hole-in-the-wall' packed in with customers. We got onto the I-10, and driving got scary as people were just as likely to be driving 45 mph as they were to be going 85 mph on a roadway posted at 70mph but clearly not designed for anything higher than 55mph. Anyway, we got to the hotel alive by 10:30pm, with secure parking and a nice French Quarter-looking architecture. The hotel was probably really nice before the hurricane, but it looks like very little investment has taken place in the property over the past 5 years.

NOLA Part 1: Philly to Knoxville TN

Tom and I left my place around noon on Thursday, with our first stop at a turnpike rest stop just before I-81. However, only minutes into the trip we experienced our first problem: my CBBT oval sticker started peeling off the window, flapping in the wind and making an annoying sound. Tom caught the old abandonned section of the turnpike (which we had hiked parts of last year) as we were getting onto I-70. We stopped again to stretch and fuel up outside Cumberland MD after one of the worst rain storms I have ever driven through, then stayed the course until a late dinner in Huntington WV (the fattest city in the fattest state, according to Jamie Oliver on TV). After some good BBQ, we fueled up once again, with Tom taking the wheel for 2 hours. At midnight, in Richmond KY, we stopped at a Pilot or Love's for yet another break, more coffee, and to switch drivers again. We were making good time until hitting TN, on I-75 (aka Sen. Albert Gore Highway) where for the first time in my life, I had to dodge potholes on an interstate at 70 mph! Anyway, after two rest stops didn't pan out and missing the uberstop in Knoxville, we bactracked and decided to catch a cheap room at America's Best, which included this free internet (yeah). So now it is almost 4 am and I am going to get a few hours sleep.