The Not Key West Trip, part 6 (final)

 You should read all this in order, I think. You can access the first part here, and all the pictures from this trip here. 

Friday, June 6

 The handful of people who know me will not be surprised to learn that I bailed on my original plan to go to St Augustine. When I left the hotel this morning, the weather was still iffy, and in fact it rained off and on all the way through Mississippi, and the skies were still threatening more of the same when I stopped at the Rose Memorial Cemetery to find the graves of my ancestors, and in fact a surprising number of other relatives that I had no idea were in the area: aunts, uncles, cousins with family names that identify them as part of my maternal extended family. But after a week of contemplating their long-ago deaths, I was running pretty low on grief, and simply made note of the location (Section C), reflected briefly on how few my memories of them are, and headed on to Baton Rouge and Lafayette, where I am now for this, the final night of the Not Key West trip.

 The car has performed well. Not a single warning light came on the entire trip. No funny noises to concern me. No difficulties starting it up or accelerating or anything. It ran smoothly and reliably in a most un-Jaguar like way. It's a blessing. (Actually, the real blessing is that I've found a good, reliable mechanic who doesn't charge specially-elevated hourly rates because it's a fancy-schmancy European luxury car.)

 So. The main purpose of the trip has now been accomplished: I have been to all the counties in Georgia. That brings the number of states where I've been to every county up to 42 out of 50; and this summer I expect to finish one more. The seven that'll be left after that may never be completed. Except for Massachusetts, where there are two island counties that I haven't been to, they're all out west, and the distances I'd have to cover to complete the Every-County objective are almost prohibitive. I actually started planning a trip that would complete Montana and Idaho, and it'd require about two weeks. Throw in Washington and Oregon -- and I might as well do those 3 counties in Central California, around Yosemite, which I've been saving for when my wife retires (which she did about 5 years ago) -- and we're looking at a month on the road. We'd have to take the dog up to Colorado for that time, which is fine, except that then we'd have to take the Subaru, which kind of defeats the touring-car aspect of the journey. It's a dilemma: take the Jag by myself, or take the Subaru with the wife. I just don't know.

 Either way, it'll still leave Massachusetts and Alaska. Plus, it's not like it's something I just have to do before I die. There's nothing at all on that particular bucket list. I'm ready to go now.

Saturday, June 7 

 And a post-script: Throughout this road trip, I've encountered a remarkable amount of construction, on highways and bridges throughout the Southeast. Most, if not all of it, is the result of former President Biden's success in getting an infrastructure bill through Congress with not a single vote from a member of the Republican party. Shame on them. But I also recall all the "Infrastructure Weeks" that President Trump announced during his first term in office, during which he accomplished absolutely nothing. If he had been half as effective a president as Joe Biden, all this damn construction would have been done four years ago, and I wouldn't have had to take so long getting home.