On the launch pad......

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Finally the day for the proper trip has arrived.
Wanting to get off to a good early start I manage to sleep in until 7am, drag myself up and pack the last few bits of my gear ready for the first day.
Having already seen a reasonable amount of the east of the country in the past, this time I have decided to head straight out west and spend my time over there.
Way I see it, as it's coming up towards mid summer where else would you want to be than in the middle of a desert.
Everything else will have to wait for a later journey.
I have decided that the best thing to do is pick a couple of general areas and spend some time in them, having a but of a quick look at the places in between.
Some quicker than others.
The first point of interest for me is in New Mexico, only a mere 2500ish km from Jacksonville.
This means doing some long days behind the wheel.
8am this morning, ready on the launch pad (driveway) I entirely expected the car not to start, but as usual it did.
Maybe I just have an overactive sence of doom and no faith in the jag.
Out of Jacksonville I headed and onto I10 which starts there, non worries about getting lost as the I10 takes me most of the way to New Mexico.
The scenery around here is pleasant without being spactacular, lots of trees with the spanish moss hanging from them just to remind me that I am still in the south.
However wafting along in the jag for hours on end in this can be a bit mundane.
Wafting I feel is an appropiate term to use when driving on the interstate in an old jag, just as buzzing is good if you are in a small "shopping trolley" of a car, and redneckin along is appropiate if you are in your chevy pickup with your freshly trimmed mullet.
From previous experiance I have found that the best scenery is to be found on the back roads, but as I want to get to the west asap the interstate it is.
I had to negotiate a few spatacular thunder storms during the day, which make life interesting with visability down to very little, all made much more interesting by the lack of AC and for that matter anyway of opening any of the air vents in the car.
To avoid being cooked I have to leave windows down, however when it starts raining (hard) if I wind the windows up not only does the interior of the car turn into a suana but all the windows fog up so I cant see where I am going.
Have now sorted out which combo of windows to leave open so that the wind screen stays fog free and only the bits of the interior of tha car that I'm not in get wet.
It's funny how people in SUV's seem to think that they can sill drive flat out no matter how hard it is raining, and then they are the ones you find upside down on the side of the interstate.........
By the end of the day I had made it to Gulfport in Mississippi, 520miles from Jacksonville.

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Photos

I10
Hours of this...........

Still I10
But!! A corner, yehaa....

Ahhh some company
Playn cat, and really big mouse.

Comments

[JB]

Go the interstate
Go Stickboy, the jag will get you there. Whoo hoo!!!