The Not Key West Trip, part 1

Sunday, June 1 

I noticed at some point that, once again, I had long weeks in prime travel season with no trips planned. Key West came to mind -- I won't bother to explain why -- and it had the added advantage that there were a bunch of counties in Georgia that are sort of on the way and that I hadn't been to before. And there were a number of car museums sort of on the way; a couple I'd been to before that I could skip this time, but also several that I haven't seen.

The Undiscovered Country

So that was the genesis of my Spring wander. I got on RoadTrippers and started working out a route that would take me to all the remaining Georgia counties; and then, consulting RoadTrippers and Roadside America and a few other sources, I found things along the way that would in some petty sense justify the travel. I could visit such tourist hot-spots as the elephant-shaped tombstone in Moultrie, Georgia; the Flint River Quarium in Albany; and the Pig Monument in Tennille. Pure gold. 

Well. I find that everything of the least interest is closed on Sundays in this part of the country; not entirely unexpected. More surprising is that it's all closed on Mondays, too. So that meant I'd face, essentially, two solid days of just driving, with no excuse to get out of the car and see a museum or a car collection or anything. And it meant that  I would get to Key West on a Monday. And I didn't really want to be in Key West on a Monday. Long story short, Key West got dropped from the trip. (It was briefly replaced by a trip to Cape Canaveral to see a night launch of a rocket ship, but a couple of days after that was added to the trip, the launch was scrubbed.)

So. The Not Key West trip of 2025. Left today. Tacos at a restaurant on the East Side of San Antonio, drove through Houston and Baton Rouge without even slowing down once for traffic. Amazing! I vow I will never pass that way again on any day but a Sunday.

The weather is good, but I was on the freeway all day long, so the top stayed up. I listened to an entire audio book, a murder mystery set in the Perigord called Bruno, Chief of Police. It wasn't a great mystery, but it was wonderfully evocative of la France profonde, with its descriptions of boucheries and casse-croutes and its casual references to culinary detail. The book really deals with the continuing societal consequences of the Nazi occupation decades before the book's action takes place. I like that kind of stuff, and the reader was easy to understand.

The only stop I had planned for today was in Hammond, Louisiana, where some of my ancestors are buried. Unfortunately, Google Maps took me to the wrong cemetery -- though it insisted it was the right one, despite the name on the gate and the totally different design of the place. A quick search for "similar places" revealed too many other cemeteries to check on my tiny little phone screen, so when I got to my hotel this evening one of the things I did was get on my laptop with its somewhat larger screen, and locate the correct address for the cemetery, about three miles from where Google Maps took me, on the other side of the interstate. I will stop there on the way back in a week's time. Disappointing, but not a major setback, since I'll pass that way again in a few days.

Tomorrow, after a few more hours on I-10, I'll get off the freeway and put the top down. The weather should be good for at least the next 3 or 4 days, so here's hoping for a fun wander.

Things tomorrow, though, won't be the same as they were yesterday. I feel myself slowly declining as the Golden Door draws inexorably closer. This won't be my last trip, but it may be my last wander. (I've said that before, but I was wrong, so don't hold me to it.) I found the planning only somewhat enjoyable, and I'm frankly not looking forward to the rest of the trip with the same excitement and exuberance that I used to feel. 

I don't know where I found it, but it seemed on point.