Visibility

Our visibility has been impaired. "Where is this rain coming from? I can see shadows. Is the sun raining on us?" Visibility has also improved as I experience southern culture and get closer to school.

Before departing New Orleans, we enjoyed sleeping in (a luxury!), dining out, and walking through the French Quarter. Wise local knowledge instructed us to go to Café du Monde and get an order of beignets with coffee. This task was completed messily and happily. We also caught a girl shredding it on the washboard at a local establishment. Very cool, even in the muggy climate.

Originally I thought that we would take the freeway all the way East and then head up the coast when we hit the Atlantic. Scratch that! LaundroMat has a pal in Nashville willing to put us up for a night, so the Escape is missing some states that we anticipated, but gaining some others. Without a favorable destination between here and Durham, we'll continue to pursue our luck with fabulous housing accommodations instead of finding a campsite.

Since we put on our tourist hats yesterday, we didn't leave NOLA until late afternoon. Clocking in three and a half hours on the road, we crossed three boarders. That's right, we averaged more than one state per hour. Lousianna, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Mississippi was where we confronted miserable torrential rain. Kirforce giggled maniacally through the sections where she struggled to see the road. And then it was gone and then it was back and so on. We arrived in Pensacola around dusk.

The rain subsided as we settled at Fort Pickens State Park. The gate attendant told us to be back before the gates closed at 10 PM if we chose to go out. She also recommended a few coveted sites but warned of loud cleanup crews. That's right, we were on a peninsula impacted by the oil spill. BP had a whole parking lot reserved for their equipment and facilities. We did a bit of exploring before attempting to get some shuteye and ignore the croaking frogs (they frequented the camp bathrooms along with gigantic dragonflies), humming generator, and pooling sweat.

The Fort was even more impressive by the light of day. I felt like a little kid, climbing all over the military base. Beaches and the ocean (via the Gulf of Mexico) are officially checked off our list, which is good since they'll be out of our scope for the remainder of our trip.

It's nice to be back on solid ground. During our drive along the coast yesterday, we spent many miles on elevated freeways and highways in the bayous and bridges across lakes, rivers, and marshes. Reminding myself that there are no earthquakes here was only a slight relief.

We just stopped in Birmingham and after missing the address twice, we walked around the Southern Progress Corporation campus. When I started at Sunset, we reported to corporate offices in this facility. Time(s) have changed and they now report to New York. But I worked with a lot of folks via phone, email, and the dreaded web conference, so it was nice to get a visual of their great offices tucked away in a wooded hill.

We should get to Nashville before 7 PM, plenty of time to enjoy another festive town. Then we may try to depart the premises early and annihilate the last 525 miles of our drive to Durham, North Carolina! If not, a stop along the way is sure to be beautiful (already feeling bias towards my new home).

Mileage yesterday: 220
Anticipated mileage today: 460
Total mileage count: 5045