Atlanta

I made the drive through Alabama to Atlanta where I stayed with my family there.  It was one of the shortest legs of the trip so far, but there was no Mardi Gras traffic getting out, and stopping for food in Mobile was a good time.  I walked into a diner outside of the city, ordered a grilled chicken salad in a flat Northern accent, and got stared at by every single person in the place.  I was the only person not doubling down on massive buckets of vat fry.

This leg of the trip was a blast.  I got to see my cousins, do a bunch of family stuff, get some good sleep and drive around my old hometown.  I only lived there for 2 years or so, but I remember the place well, and after my tune-up I rolled around Buckhead for a couple of hours.  Apparently the flooding has really screwed up anything near the Chattahoochie River, and the old civil war era trails that weave through the woods are all destroyed.  I used to walk our dog down there all of the time, but couldn't take my cousin's two Labradoodles (pictured above) unless I wanted to swim through icy mud puddles.  They romped around the house all day, and as long as they had their rope they didn't seem to mind.

The drive from Atlanta to Charlottesville used to seem like a real hassle, but after putting 50 hours in to Atlanta, another 8 was a breeze.  More Atlanta pictures in the following post...