No. 156

Driving Like Lightweights: For the sake of our sanity and the mechanical welfare of our vehicle (vee-hick’ll), we like to take our sweet time. That doesn’t just mean keeping it under 65, it also means not driving more than five hours a day unless absolutely necessary. What that gets us is easy afternoons and lazy mornings at beautiful state parks, watching the sun come and go while we shoot the breeze with retirees from Wisconsin and local bass fisherman on holiday. Time to watch the fog burn off the cold morning lakes of Georgia’s winter. Time to drink a beer, check the oil, skip a few stones before thinking about dinner. It also gets us a fair amount of teasing from road-worn relatives, like Amy’s uncle Kip in Marietta, Georgia.

Uncle Kip: So where’d you stay last night?
Me: A state park, near Cordele.
Uncle Kip: Oh that’s not very far from Tampa, you didn’t drive very far at all!
Me: Well it was six hours.
Uncle Kip: That’s nothing!
Me: We’re very slow.
Uncle Kip: That’s a drop in the bucket!
Me: We like to take it easy.
Uncle Kip: You’re lightweights!

Fair enough, but we also had a relaxing night at Georgia Veteran’s State Park, above. Necessary preparation for the rush hour snarl of Metro Atlanta the next day.