Day 2: Middle America

We hit standstill traffic in Chattanooga, TN. We eventually turned off the car and just sat for an hour on the interstate. We started moving again and John was able to drive until about 1:30 or 2:30am, which was amazing. We usually never drive past midnight, so it was unusual that John was feeling awake enough to drive safely. I kept expecting his to start falling asleep, so I stayed awake to keep an eye on him. We had planned to camp in Tennessee, but it was late, totally dark, and raining, so we just kept driving. At some point our cell phones switched over to Central Time, but none of our watches or the clock in the car. We had a vague idea of what was happening when, but as the hours wore on it became harder to keep track. Also, no matter how long we drove we still seemed to have the same amount of hours to go to reach Nebraska. It was unexplainable and disheartening.
I took over driving when John needed to sleep, although I hadn't yet been able to sleep myself. At this point getting a hotel seemed pointless. Around 5:30/4:30am I pulled into a rest area and caught an hour or so of sleep. The driver's seat in our car doesn't recline, so it wasn't a very comfortable rest.
John woke up and was ready to start driving soon thereafter. We discovered we were at a reststop in Illinois with a very picturesque picnic area with tall trees and soft, green grass.
John restrapped the roof bag to the roof with a much better strap setup. This improved the gas mileage and helped keep the front of the bag from being pushed up into a giant windblock on the roof. Next, we got gas, filled the tires up with air, and reset the low tire pressure gauge. This seemed to fix the tire problem we had. The boys put the Mavic up over an adjacent canola field.
Then, we just kept driving. I kept trying to put on Things Fall Apart so we could finish it, but every time I would nod off for about 20 minutes. We didn't finish it.
In the afternoon, John needed a break from driving. Edon took over. We reached I-29 in Missouri and Iowa. It had been closed for months from the terrible Missouri River flooding and had just reopened 3 days earlier. Mile after mile revealed flooded farmland. There were so many grain silos that had burst and released there golden grain into the flood. It was incredible and sad to see.
Finally, after about 31 hours from leaving our house, we reached my sister's house near Omaha, NE. We got a house tour and were treated to an amazing and delicious hot meal of homemade minestrone soup and kalamata olive bread. It was just the thing we needed to get a second wind so we could go out and explore the area.
We drove to downtown Omaha to the Bob Pedestrian Bridge. On the way we saw a cop dragging a full-size deer to the side of the road. That was a bummer. The Bob Bridge is part of the American Discovery Trail, which John and I hope to complete in its entirety someday. It was fun to stand in two states at once and see the Missouri River rushing underneath.
Next, we visited the nearby Heartland of the America Park and walked around the lake. Supposedly, a fountain/light show was to begin at 8pm, but it never did. We headed back to my sister's and got showers. We played Jackbox games until my eyes wouldn't stay open. Finally, we all collapsed into bed and were able to sleep.

Day 1: Driving and a Sweet Family Visit

We left around 9:30am, only 1.5 hours late.
John drove us all the way into Georgia. When we pulled over in the afternoon so I could drive, we noticed the low tire pressure light on. The tires seem ok, so hopefully it is no big deal. When we find air at a gas station, we will fill the tires up.
We have our sleeping bags, sleeping mats, and tent in a roof rack bag on the roof. Except, we don’t have roof rack. It is reducing our gas mileage by about 10-15mpg. And I don’t know how well our stuff is fairing...
We passed the time listening to books the boys need to hear and discuss for their World Literature Class. We all enjoyed The Alchemist. After that, we started Things Fall Apart.
Around 7pm we made it to John’s cousin’s house just north of Atlanta. His aunt recently moved into a very cute mother-in-law suite in the basement. We had delicious veggies with hummus and guacamole. The boys played with their second cousins, ages 6 and 9.
Around 9:15 pm we got back on the road. We have accommodations planned for every night of the trip, except this one. We had planned to get out the door earlier and to get to a campground near Nashville. However, with the late start, traffic, and predicted rain we are going to play it by ear. Ezi is playing loud music, which is great for the driver, but makes it hard for me to sleep.

Savannah, Georgia: January 9-12, 2019

We managed to do some last minute visiting with family and friends before the Spring semester began for everyone. The boys and I drove to Savannah, Georgia just before school started. On the way up we stopped by Gainesville to visit our sweet friends and my youngest sister. We had lunch with our friends, Layla and Ari at their new home. Then, I drove to UF so the boys could hang out on campus for a while with a friend going to school there. Layla, Ari, and I picked them up and met up with my sister at the Sweetwater Preserve and had a fun walk in the woods. Around 6pm, we headed to Savannah.
We arrived shortly after 9pm to the Sage House in Savannah. My friend, Niki, bought this cool, early-1900's house recently. It is close to the historic downtown and is a great house. She rents it out on Air Bnb (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/23589546?guests=1&adults=1), but fortunately for us no one was renting it at the moment, so we got to stay there with her. We chatted until midnight, when we
finally headed to bed.
In the morning we visited one of Savannah's famous squares and wandered around downtown. I am glad Niki drove because the one-way streets are super confusing. Besides, I wanted to pay attention to the historic homes and buildings. Savannah really is a beautiful city!
From downtown we headed to Skidaway Island State Park, where Niki is also acting as a camp host. The boys and I played around at the outdoor workout area while Niki did her camp chores. We had lunch and took a bike ride around the park. We saw an old still from when moonshine was produced on the island, embankments made during the Civil War, and lots of beautiful trees. On the way back to Savannah we stopped at a farmer's market at Bethesda Academy, a boys' school and former orphanage. We got delicious-looking greens and hot peppers, all grown on site by the students. We also visited with the amazingly adorable goats.
The next morning we got up and headed to the Bonaventure Cemetery. This cemetery was made famous when it appeared on the cover of the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The self-guided tour was semi-successful. The graveyard was super interesting and really large. I think we missed some of the older and more notable graves, but still managed to see lots and enjoy ourselves. If I go back I would like to time my visit with one of the free tours offered by Bonaventure Cemetery Historical Society.
From the Cemetery we went out to Tybee Island. It was quite cold and windy, so we made just a quick trip to the pier and beach. Next, we headed to the Tybee Island Lighthouse. We didn't pay to climb the lighthouse or visit the historic buildings because we were hungry and ready to head back to Niki's for food. After lunch, we went out to the Savannah Botanical Gardens. It is free to visit and we were pretty much the only people there. The historical farmhouse wasn't open, but we enjoyed strolling through the gardens. They have so many roses! We wandered down a nature/archaeological path and came across lots of broken glass and identifiable bits of old bottles. We wandered further and found intact bottles in a random display case along the path. They were quite awesome. That evening I attended a Mala Meditation Workshop at Wax and Wane. Niki was leading it, and the Wax Wane (a waxing studio, but really much more) was a really neat place to visit and had beautiful handcrafted things of all kinds for sale.
On our final morning in Savannah we went to the Forsyth Park Farmer's Market. There were actually farmer's there selling produce! We ended up buying pecans coated in sugar and fresh bread. It was all so delicious. We wandered through the park and downtown area. We saw the house Gen. Sherman stayed in during his occupation of Savannah. An independent bookstore housed in a historic building, E. Shaver Booksellers, was quirky and fun to visit. We popped into the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. It was a beautiful church. We also wandered around the Savannah College of Art and Design store, ShopSCAD Savannah. We eventually made it down to the historic waterfront and the site where the slave ships unloaded, but due to a miscommunication we didn't get to actually see the area. Another time!
Back at Niki's we successfully jumped our car, which apparently had a light left on inside, and drove to Gainesville for dinner with my sister. After dinner we made it home. Exhausted and not ready for winter break to end!