Day 2 - Thursday, September 11
The previous week or so had been very busy so it was nice to just laze around the following morning, reading and doing some more planning for the trip.
After check out time we hung out in the very pleasant atrium/lobby for a couple of hours until it was time to get the shuttle back to the airport. We did spend a few minutes at the hotel IT desk downloading and printing a copy of my driving licence just in case the car rental company might accept it along with my passport. This turned out to be a futile exercise.
M&P arrived a little early and, after a bit of queuing at the Alamo desk and after seriously disobliging the guy at the desk by politely declining all his efforts to get us to upgrade our vehicle and purchase costly additional insurance, we were able to choose a vehicle from a row of about a dozen. We chose a VW Passat saloon - because it only had a couple of hundred miles on it (still had that lovely new car smell) and because the boot was big enough to take all our cases easily.
So we were on the road by late afternoon and after a bit of a problem with Friday afternoon traffic in the Atlanta outskirts we headed west on Interstate 20, with a local country music station getting us in the mood for the trip.
It had been a long day for M&P so we had booked a hotel not too far down the road - at Pell City, a tiny place a little way east of Birmingham, Alabama.
That reminds me - on the shuttle bus to the car rental centre, Mary got talking to a group of young people who had just arrived back from a trip to UK. It turned out that they had been staying with friends near Warrington, very close to where M&P live. Small world. They were then amazed to hear that we were staying at Pell City - which was where they were from and couldn't imagine why any europeans would go there. Even smaller world.
In fact it was just a convenient overnight stop - the Comfort Suites, just off the motorway.
During the journey we had crossed from Georgia into Alabama and at that point moved from the Eastern time zone to Central time - gaining another hour.
We checked in and quickly - before M&P started flagging - went out for dinner.
Close by was the Golden Rule BBQ - only about half a mile so we walked, but they really don't make any provision for pedestrians in this part of the world, so it was all across grass verges and through car parks and along the edge of the road.
Good USA comfort food and a couple of beers and it was still reasonably early when we'd finished so we moved on to the bar in a mexican restaurant - El Cazador - on the way back where we treated ourselves to a pitcher of margaritas (there was some confusion with the waiter who didn't understand my request for a "jug of margaritas").
This afforded us 3 good glasses each for a total cost of only about $15, so there was some discussion about whether it would be silly not to have another one. But in the end discretion prevailed and we concluded that jet lag and a late night and a skinful might not be the best preparation for a long drive in the morning.
While we had been in there it had begun to rain very heavily so we got a bit moist on the way back to the hotel - which fortunately was not far. Happily this was the only time it rained during the entire trip.
The previous week or so had been very busy so it was nice to just laze around the following morning, reading and doing some more planning for the trip.
After check out time we hung out in the very pleasant atrium/lobby for a couple of hours until it was time to get the shuttle back to the airport. We did spend a few minutes at the hotel IT desk downloading and printing a copy of my driving licence just in case the car rental company might accept it along with my passport. This turned out to be a futile exercise.
M&P arrived a little early and, after a bit of queuing at the Alamo desk and after seriously disobliging the guy at the desk by politely declining all his efforts to get us to upgrade our vehicle and purchase costly additional insurance, we were able to choose a vehicle from a row of about a dozen. We chose a VW Passat saloon - because it only had a couple of hundred miles on it (still had that lovely new car smell) and because the boot was big enough to take all our cases easily.
So we were on the road by late afternoon and after a bit of a problem with Friday afternoon traffic in the Atlanta outskirts we headed west on Interstate 20, with a local country music station getting us in the mood for the trip.
It had been a long day for M&P so we had booked a hotel not too far down the road - at Pell City, a tiny place a little way east of Birmingham, Alabama.
That reminds me - on the shuttle bus to the car rental centre, Mary got talking to a group of young people who had just arrived back from a trip to UK. It turned out that they had been staying with friends near Warrington, very close to where M&P live. Small world. They were then amazed to hear that we were staying at Pell City - which was where they were from and couldn't imagine why any europeans would go there. Even smaller world.
In fact it was just a convenient overnight stop - the Comfort Suites, just off the motorway.
During the journey we had crossed from Georgia into Alabama and at that point moved from the Eastern time zone to Central time - gaining another hour.
We checked in and quickly - before M&P started flagging - went out for dinner.
Close by was the Golden Rule BBQ - only about half a mile so we walked, but they really don't make any provision for pedestrians in this part of the world, so it was all across grass verges and through car parks and along the edge of the road.
Good USA comfort food and a couple of beers and it was still reasonably early when we'd finished so we moved on to the bar in a mexican restaurant - El Cazador - on the way back where we treated ourselves to a pitcher of margaritas (there was some confusion with the waiter who didn't understand my request for a "jug of margaritas").
This afforded us 3 good glasses each for a total cost of only about $15, so there was some discussion about whether it would be silly not to have another one. But in the end discretion prevailed and we concluded that jet lag and a late night and a skinful might not be the best preparation for a long drive in the morning.
While we had been in there it had begun to rain very heavily so we got a bit moist on the way back to the hotel - which fortunately was not far. Happily this was the only time it rained during the entire trip.
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