We left Taylorsville about 9:00pm on the 17th, planning to dawdle our way across the U.S. and be in San Diego on the 28th. We got to Morganton (about an hour out) and stopped to eat, as we had not had supper with all the preparations. While eating, I realized I'd never loaaded the suit bag with all our "dressy" clothes, so back to T'ville we went...
We decided we sleep the night at home and start over in the morning, but by about 12:30, we both realized we weren't going to sleep anyway, and everything was loaded, and so on, so we hit the road.
We got back to Morganton an on to I-40 about 1:30 am and went pedal-to-the-metal. First pit stop was at Newport TN for a quick bite and refuel. Just love that stretch between Asheville and there...Back on the road just in time to get to Knoxville for the mornng rush hour.
Oh, trouble!
Overnight, I'd hit one of those recaps that peel off the truck with all too disturbing frequency. It was on the inside of a dark curve and I never saw it until I was on top of it. WHAM-BAM! It knocked the left side of the rear valence loose. When I could stop, I fixed it as well as I could, but it kept coming loose in the slipstream. Problem was, it tore the fasteners that hold the valence to the fender liner. Mid-morning somewhere near Nashville, Barb and I are laying under the car trying to figger out some way to re-attach the valence and liner, when a trucker stops to help. He attaches them back together with tie-wraps, and we tape the rest together with clear tape, and off we go. (So far, it's still holding - we'll fix it right when we get home)We pushed through Nashville at lunch time, and Memphis just before the Afternoon rushhour. Got to Little Rock AR at the end of the rush hour, and gave up for the day and stopped in Morrilton. This was going to be a photo essay; however, we had heard trains, but hadn't seen any to this point.
...more to come...
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