The first 24 hours
Friday Night: I started driving after work, a bit later then 6 PM (hum, 8 PM) and didn’t, even make it out of Florida. The biggest challenge of the evening was finding a gas station at 11:30 PM that was open. And when a Prius runs low on gas it gets stressful. I normally fuel with 30 miles left…. 30 miles with a Prius is like actual 50 if you drive careful. And seriously…. I started driving very careful, almost to the point where I doubted to push Tobius instead of drive him.
I found on in Gretna, FL… not even sure I would ever find that place back again. I had my GPS to the closest station, found it closed, drove to the next closest which was close and called in a friend (Karlien) to start researching with me…. ended up in Gretna with 3 miles left on gas.
When I started fueling the pressure was so low that it took me 11 minutes to get 9.4 gallons of fuel. But at least it gives another 400 miles, I was happy to find the highway again, only like 8 miles away.
1:30 PM: After a day of work, and driving and stress-relief since I made it on the road, my adrenaline high hit a critical low and I called it the night, just shy of Pennsacola, and the Alabama border.
Saturday: Things happened fast right now, the Alabama border was around the corner and another 70-ish miles later I was on the 100-mile Mississippi stretch, ready to tackle Louisiana’s length.
In Louisiana we find the Atchafalaya area, it is the midpoint of the 240 mile stretch to cover. On our first trip out to Texas we stumbled upon this information center. It is now our must-do picture stop with the tortoise. The information center was closed due to COVID-19 but the tortoise is always within reach. You just go around on the deck and find our old-time friend.
Since Karlien kept me company on the phone for hours, I actually missed the Texas Welcome center. So I missed a picture with the beautiful lone star. I did make it to Buc-ee’s and got a great price on fuel at $1.549/gallon. Everybody loves Buc-ee’s, well if you know Buc=-ee’s that is. If you don’t know, you need to find yourself one and get the addiction going. LOL
From there on it was smooth sailing, I switched my companion for a bit to Maarten and made it to College station by 8 PM.
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