Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2005 07:45:43 -0500
Subject: Going South

Hi Everyone,

Well here I am in Meridian Mississippi. I
decided to e-mail updates on the trip so we
can stay in touch. I haul my computer with
me everywhere because more and more
communities have internet connections.
I got lucky this Sunday evening and even
though I am at an Econo-Lodge, someone
in the vicinity has a free wireless
connection I am tapping into.

 

I left Saturday morning and was blessed with rain, which despite the
occasional downpour, I gotta say was better than the snow you got.
However, I hate boring trips and Sunday morning proved to be the start of
the adventure. I was leaving my motel room about 7:00 AM to get some
breakfast and ran into a gentleman staying at the Motel 6 I was at. He
was letting his little dog out to go to the bathroom. I chatted about
dogs and made nice comments and gestures as the three of us walked to the
stairs. He grunted a couple times ..... I suspect he was still half
asleep ......

I got in my car turned the key and .... click ..... click ..... whirr
....... silence...... the battery was dead. It was only then that I
remembered my mechanic mentioning this summer that my battery was seven
years old and I was tempting fate ...... fate had struck.

I tried again after a prayer ....... still just clicks and whirrs. So I got out to go to the office, wondering where I was going to get a battery jump at 7:00 AM on a Sunday morning in Kentucky !!!!!!

However, God had other plans and the half asleep dog walking gentleman yelled from across the parking lot, "are you OK "? ....... I guess there is nothing like walking your dog in the freezing cold to wake you up........ I yelled back,"dead battery"! Well it turned out he had one of these portable rechargeable jumper batteries. He wasn't sure it would work since he had been charging his cell phone all week on it ...... but we gave it a try and the Big Guy up top did answer my prayer and zoom zoom I was now ready to roll. It turned out the dog walker was from Williamston Michigan ....... wow .... small world.

OK so now my car was running, but I was worried about turning the car off ..... no guarantee the car would start again ...... I had already burned my miracle for the day and didn't want to ask for another. So I started to drive. I drove and drove and just kept the car running whenever I stopped. Finally around 11:30 AM I was crossing into Alabama and stopped at their Welcome Center. The guy at the counter who was sleepy .... bored ..... and thinking, "why do I have to work on Sunday" .... was absolutely thrilled to give me directions to the nearest ..... WalMart ..... to get my battery replaced. So I drove to WalMart and was very surprised to see that the Auto Repair Department was open from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Sunday's. I did not expect to see a auto repair store open on a Sunday in conservative Alabama ..... !!! An hour later I was ready to roll again.

The rest of the trip to Meridian was uneventful although I stopped for lunch at a really busy fast food restaurant in Birmingham Alabama called Gutheries that served only, and I mean only, strips of fried chicken. Only down south would they be able to sell that much fried chicken .... and it was an expensive lunch coming in at $8.50.

I got to Meridian Mississippi as dusk was settling on the town and I can see where there are signs of the hurricane. The area is heavily forested and large areas of trees have all fallen. The town itself has been cleaned up nicely of all debris, but there are large stretches on the sides of the roads where it looks like a logged forest. Meridian seems to be a central travel point for the area and the disaster relief workers, so I can see why they cleaned it up first.

Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it.    ................. I am happy to communicate through these wonderful electrical lines that stretch between our homes.

Take Care,

Dennis