Natchez to Franklin

Evidently we were very anxious to start this trip as we were up and on the road again before 6AM this morning. Dawn broke before we were on the road an hour. We stopped at our favorite "on the road" restaurant, Waffle House, for some breakfast. The scenery was beautiful up and down the road....lots of pines and leafy trees with new foliage all covered by purple wisteria. Some wildflowers in various hues lined the road. Alabama welcomed us and had a great slogan set in stone. Good ole Piggly Wiggly - I remember that grocery store from when I was growing up in Fort Walton Beach, FL. It and Jitney Jungle were the two major supermarkets along the Gulf Coast.



I don't know what possessed me to take a photo of the speedometer as we were going down the road because less than an hour later, as Sneed was slowing down to go off onto the berm, just as he hit the rumble strips he knew we had a problem. Yep, another blowout. The tire was so hot it was smoking. He had run it all the way down to the rim.



Fortunately Sneed is pretty good at this tire changing business. But, it doesn't help that the jack that came with the car had the threads stripped so it wouldn't lift the car at all. When he tried the hydraulic jack, it would hardly fit under the car. A friendly Tuscaloosa Alabama Highway Patrolman drove his motorcycle, with the lights flashing, the wrong way on the berm to see if he could be of any assistance. There was a rest area 1/2 mile up the road that he offered to take us to but we declined in order to stay with the car. A short while later, a pick-up from TN pulled over. The man and his young son got out to see what they could do. They had a taller more substantial hydraulic jack which allowed Sneed to get the tire off and the spare put on.The man and his son continued on to a flea market somewhere up the road. See abbreviated video of the tire switching.



So we continued on down the road but at a substantially reduced rate of speed. 50mph to be exact. Here the scenery was much the same, lots of Redbud trees in bloom, wisteria hanging off any tree that would allow it, and many pastoral scenes. I assume by now that you have noticed that I like to include the Flying B when I take photos through the windscreen as we are moving down the road.



Tennessee welcomed us, and two hours later we arrived at our destination, the ALoft Hotel in Franklin quite late but still early enough to get checked in, cleaned up, meet the other participants and oooh and aaaah over their vehicles.


That evening we all piled into our vehicles and drove to Puckett's Grocery and Restaurant for our welcoming dinner. Kelly and Hal have promised a great drive with many interesting stops along the way. Marci and John are enticing us with details of the Fall Colorado Tour in 2011.