The van was all packed the day before. Sarah and I were up and out early, visiting with Ida and Weiser on the bridge at sunrise. I made coffee but not breakfast, waiting for David to be ready for that, and sat down with Kevin Jackson’s wiggy book, Invisible Forms: A Guide to Literary Curiosities, a series of essays on ‘paratexts.’ Huh? Oh, you know, written parts of a book that are not the book, per se—titles, dedications, prefaces, and the like. Pretty funny and just right for a morning before a long road trip when I didn’t think I would be able to concentrate sufficiently on the history of ideas.
As we left Aripeka, honeysuckle was blooming, Weiser and Ida lying by the side of Fiddler Lane, Carl and Mrs. Carl going into the Community Club. Bye-bye!
The sky was blue, drawing us north along Hwy. 19. In the median, some wonderfully bright, deep pink flower was blooming in blankets, but I’m not good at identifying small flowers at 55 mph. Dianthus?
Except for a brief lunch atop at Perry, Florida, we stayed on the move all day—no stopping to look at wildflowers or photograph buildings (though there was some great ones) or saunter along Main Streets or scour flea markets (none open on Wednesday)—and rolled through northern Florida and the beautiful Georgia countryside. What a great road! The only departure from it was due to a wrong turn (and honestly, I did not miss the right road on purpose!), which took us through the towns of Sasser, Dawson and Parrott before cutting cross-country on a couple of two-lane roads to get back to our divided highway. It all worked out great. The towns we saw were worth the detour (I’d like to go back to Parrott someday to explore on foot with my camera), and the roads were all smooth as silk.
It’s unusual for us to cover 400 miles in a day, but that’s what we did, stopping for the night in Thomaston, Georgia, where David headed for the showers, and I went out to forage for dinner. Jackpot! Greek take-out!
How close to a perfect road day can a person ask for? Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, here we come!
7 comments:
Safe travels! See you in Northport the first weekend of May.
Wish I were with you. I love long, leisurely road trips. And the car talk with you two would be memorable.
Oh, to be on the open road in springtime . . .
I must say, our first two days on the road have been near-perfect. Anonymous would have enjoyed some of David's stories today, one about the first time he saw a cowboy out West (he was 12) and others about a mischievous friend of ours back in Kalamazoo. Dawn, May bookstore days will be Tuesday through Saturday until Memorial Day weekend, when we start the 7-day weeks of summer. --I started to write "8 days a week"!
Did you go to Avianos?
Avianos in Thomaston, Ga, that is...
Yes! Aviano's it was, and I was so pleased with myself for finding it, you can't imagine. Greek salad, gyro, tiramisu--so much more exciting than one more of life's forgettable cheeseburgers.
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