Let's go south

Illinois -> Kentucky -> Tennessee - > Georgia - > Floryda

...from zero to 1186 miles.

We took off on early Thursday afternoon, we got to Florida on Sunday around noon, sleeping in 3 cheap motels on our way. Forecasts were trying to scare us off with flash floods and snow storms but (this time) we had luck. Atlanta didn't have luck getting 1 inch of snow which made it to the breaking news, alerts and all the kids were praying for the snow to make it through the night which would save them from school.

Route 66 doesn't exist - wrote Wojciech Orliński. If he was driving south from Plano, Illinois he could have just as well said "Route 47 doesn't exist". Before we made it to the interstate we were driving  almost 90 miles through the corn fields. Looks like Illinois doesn't have much more, only Chicago and corn fields. At least from our point of view. Kentucky looks pretty much the same.

On the interstates huge trucks are driving much faster than we are. One of them had 11 double sets of wheels, so 44 of them altogether. Nice bill to pay when it comes to changing tires. We also saw a truck pulling another truck which had one more truck attached. What's interesting is that as long as regular cars are pretty much obeying speed limits, exceeding maybe by 5-10 miles per hour, trucks are driving as fast as possible. We tried not to drive faster than 50-55 mph, depending on the road, where the limits where 55-70 mph. We are still beginners when it comes to driving with a trailer and also Eddie's tires should have retired some time ago. After we got used to towing the trailer we accelerated to 60 mph and we plan to keep it as our limit.

Mount Vernon, IL

We got to Mount Vernon, southern Illinois after 6 hours drive. Here in the US to get a gas, eat or find a motel you need to get off the highway. It is a bit annoying when you tow a trailer as you need to do this every 250 -300 mil (fuel consumption on the entire route to Florida was less than 11 miles per galon which is aorund 22 liters per 100 km). Driving and maneuvering in tiny, crowded towns is a challenge in the beginning. Than we got used to it, maybe because they all look exactly the same. Exit from the highway to the main road with two lanes in each direction, turning to plazas with McDonald's, Wal-mart (in a wealthier area) or Save a Lot (in poorer), Wendy's, Burger King, or - less often - China Buffet, laundromat, etc. popular business loops will additionally have a few gas stations and motels.

In Mount Vernon we picked Motel 6 - one of the most popular cheap chains in the US. We listened to Orlinski's recommendation and power of internet. It was not as cheap as we expected (less than 40 USD which turned out to be 63 USD after taxes), and unfortunately without breakfast. Room was clean, motel almost empty. Not an adventure at all.

Manchester, TN

Next morning we managed to take off quite early, but with shopping in Wal-mart and breakfast at Wendy's we didn't really start before noon. This day ended for us in Manchester, Tennessee. We had a plan for a minute to stay overnight in Mount Vernon, Tennessee and until Florida sleep only in other Mount Vernons, but it was too far. In Manchester we stayed (of course!) in Scottish Inn and it was so far the worst motel experience. It was really cold, heating didn't work, door wouldn't lock, shower was broken and continental breakfast turned out to be muffins and coffee. However the price with coupons (see "Tips and advice" section) was the lowest on our motel route - less than 40 USD after tax. 

Next stop was in Georgia. Very nice state, green woods, quite warm. Not so far north, close to Florida. Maybe we'll move here some day? As not much happen that day, few more observations. Roads - everywhere - so good that it's nice to drive. Traffic jam - one and not for too long, there is no problem crossing even big cities like Atlanta.

Atlanta, GA

Just one tiny thing. There's no problem crossing the towns, because there are more and more lanes on the highway. Usually there are 2 or, more often, 3. We're cool with that. We're driving on the right one, trucks are passing us by on the middle one, and the left one is occupied by even faster trucks. 4 or 5 lanes - we're still good. Sometimes you have to switch 2 or 3 lanes here or there, but we learn it fast. Eddie is well equipped as far as the hitch goes so it's quite stable, even during fast maneuvering. Comfort level gets low after lane 6 appears. 7 is not nice either as everyone changes from left to right and back and we have to do this sometimes too. 8 - so far that was the most we had - was not cool at all. Luckily it was just a few miles. The secret was to stick to more or less 3rd or 4th lane from left to survive. 

Ashburn, GA

In Georgia we stayed in Ashburn in Super 8. Second best when it comes to cheapest motel chains. This time we paid a bit over 40 USD after taxes. Room was clean, breakfast was good enough (probably it would've been better if we hadn't overslept). Out of motels it was the winner (Baymont O'Hare was of course better but it's a different category).

Eustis, FL

Our next stop was already in Florida. Our plan to leave Ashburn at dawn of course failed. We got to breakfast just before 9, we left motel just after 10. We stopped at two Welcome Centers, one was fake, 2 miles before the state line, the other was real. We left it with hands full of brochures, leaflets and coupons, which helped us find a cheap accomodation at the campgound in Eustis (120 USD per week with all hookups - water, dump, electricity and even basic cable tv). Our plan is not to stay anywhere more expensive.

Kids were perfect all the way. Kalina, like Kalina, either slept or smiled. Maciek talked all the time ond sang a lot (journey is sponsored by a word "why" and a song about a snowman). He was also quite an activity leader. He would tell us what to do: now boys are singing and mom is clapping her hands, or: dad doesn't sing, mom sings and I clap, and so on, and so on, for loooong hours.

Equipment (knock on the wood) is doing well too. Fuel consumption doesn't hurt that much if you remember that the best fuel 93, which we use cost around 3 PLN per liter, sometimes even less (which is almost twice cheaper than in Poland). The cost is more or less like a trip with daweoo lanos to Italy we went on couple years ago.

Eddie too takes it well. We were afraid of strong wind but only once or twice we really felt it. As we mentioned the additional equipment (sway control), which we bought together with our trailer probably makes a difference. Inside everything was in place except for one cabinet which despite our efforts kept opening, so we finally gave up and left it open, so it's now a shelf. Also we scrubbed the asphalt once - when the road goes down the trailer goes down and when the car goes up, then the back scrubs the road. We did it leaving one of the plazas along the road, but nothing serious happened. 

Sunday afternoon we checked in Eustis, Florida. Bit further north than we planned but warm and nice enough. And cheap. We will write more about our first days camping in a new entry.