Catch a Tiger

For some reason I woke up at 6:15 am this morning.  Now for a lot of you, that's no big deal.  But, for us it is.  I made some coffee and checked my email and computer stuff and prepared to hit the road.  

Yesterday we had trouble with our brake buddy and since we would be driving in mountains, I went out to see what the problem was.  It wouldn't fill up with air and seemed to be dead.  At first I thought it was the cigarette lighter that was bad, but I checked it out and it was fine.  So, it had to be the brake buddy and a fuse.  Not only that, but the end of the electrical plug had fallen off and was lying on the floor in the backseat.  Easy repair once I figured out what it was.

We really enjoyed the campground where we spent the night and would have loved to stay a few days longer and explore the area, but we had some social commitments to attend to in Charlotte, NC

I had mapped out a route over the mountains since it was the more direct shot at Atlanta where we had to catch I-85 north.  A local guy said it was good road for a car, but not so good for a motor home.  Right off the bat we would have a long climb on a 13% grade and then a couple more just like it.  Plus, it was narrow two lane road with no place to turn off.  Change of plans.

Marina at Campground

And then the road worsened.

It looked closer than the sign

A decision was made to avoid the bad roads and take a roundabout route that avoided the bad road and steep climbs.  We drove up to Chattanooga and then down I-75 south toward Atlanta, GA.  Did I tell you that I-75 is a heavily travelled road by trucks?   Well, it is.  We were almost in a convoy all the way down to Atlanta and the cars were playing dodge 'em in and out of the traffic.  What a re-introduction to traffic on the east coast!

We hit Atlanta just before rush hour, but traffic was very heavy and congested.  It did move fairly well and we sort of cruised through the area and finally left most of it behind.

 If you are a computer Geek, then you've heard of Tiger Direct.  They have a large outlet store east of Atlanta and I decided to stop and check it out.  It wasn't as large as I thought and would compare it to a large CompUSA Store of old.  They did have a lot of nice toys there, but I didn't really see anything I wanted to buy, except for some odds and ends.

Then it was back on the road toward South Carolina where we stopped and fueled up at $3.34/gallon.  We took on 110 gallons and I'll let you do the math.  Ouch!  Of course the last time we filled the tank, we were west of Ft. Worth, TX.  I did take on about 25 gallons to make sure I didn't run out since starting diesel engines after you run out of fuel is a real pain.

We are in a so so campground south of Greenville, SC for the night and then on into Concord, NC in the morning.  It's been a long haul since we left Tucson almost a month ago and we are looking forward to relaxing in NC for 3-4 weeks.

BTW:  We were in Alabama, Tennessee,  Georgia, Tennessee, Georgia and finally South Carolina today.  Does that count as 6 states or only 4 for the trip?