Having listened to several train horns at various times in the night, 6:30 arrived and I was up for my morning walk. Lightly showering but 11C so lighter clothing under the rain jacket.
Collegedale is a very car-centric community, or at least the area we stayed in is. Walking was a challenge as sidewalks were far and few between, the inclusion of them clearly being left to the developers should they have felt like it, most didn’t. This meant that I walked in the narrow shoulder facing traffic that was going well over the posted limit in damp conditions. Needless to say, I didn’t last long & hope to put in the remaining distance when we arrive at the state park this afternoon.
After breakfast in the van, we headed out at about 8:30 and travelled through Chattanooga on I-75 before picking up the I-59 towards the Georgia border, a few minutes later we crossed into Alabama where we entered the Central timezone, so it was 8:30 again. But we didn’t get too excited as we’ll lose that hour this coming weekend when the clocks change to daylight savings time.
Onto Birmingham, AL where we followed the I-465 around the city before heading South on the I-65 towards Montgomery, AL and then towards Pensacola, FL.
The driving today has been easy, lots of construction zones with reduced speeds and few to no workers to warrant the slowdowns, but stress free driving is always nice. The landscape changed a lot, from the mountains of Tennessee to the rolling hills of Northern Alabama to the mostly flat sandy pine tree covered dunes of Florida. Most of the hardwood trees were replaced with softwood varieties and the wild wisteria that hung blooming in many trees in Northern Alabama is not suited to the heat and humidity of the gulf coast.
As I write this it is overcast and showering in Pensacola but warm at 24C. We’re booked in to spend two nights at the Big Lagoon State Park here in Pensacola, FL and so will provide a review of our site, the park and what we get up to in the next couple of posts.
Stay tuned, be happy! Spring really is on the way.
Really look forward to these write ups and photos, Thanks for taking us into the Spring.