Leaving for April in Alabama

We left Kingsport at 11:30 on Thursday following the routine that Ben has followed every other week since November.  He has been doing a process inspection at a company near Atlanta.  He is documenting the progress on a project that is being shipped to Korea.  He has perhaps 2 more visits so we chose to tag a little trip down to the Gulf Coast on to this trip.

The routine.... Pick up a sandwich "to-go" at Jersey Mike's.  Eat half the sandwich about noon.  Drive to specific truck stop - get out and walk around a bit.  Travel on down towards Chattanooga eating the other half of the sandwich, stop at the GA welcome station and walk around some more,  Arrive at Canton GA about 4:30 or 5:00.

The fun thing to watch this trip was spring arriving as we drove south.  The redbud was barely showing any red at home. As we reached Knoxville it was looking like a redbud tree not quite in full bloom.  As we neared Chattanooga they were in full bloom.  As we neared Atlanta we began to see what might be dogwood beginning to show some white.  No photos but it was fun to watch.

The Comfort Inn Ben has been staying at each time is located in Canton about 20 miles north of Atlanta.  Right next door is a Cracker Barrel so according to his routine we had dinner there!  Their food is always consistent and usually good.  Ben had chicken and dumplings and I decided to begin the seafood extravaganza and had the catfish.  Both were good.

Ben was up and at his 8:30 appointment about 5 miles down the interstate.  He came back to the hotel and picked me up and we headed south about 10:15.  We were not looking forward to the drive through metro Atlanta.  We thought we would just go interstate to interstate to interstate but there was "police activity" at one of our exits so we had to exit through Marietta and Smyrna.  We saw some nice home with pretty yards, lots of shops, and even more traffic.  Finally after a long trip off the interstate we made it to I 85 South and were out of Metro Atlanta - only 1 hour and 15 minutes after leaving the Comfort Inn. 

Metro Atlanta Traffic

Somewhere south of Atlanta we stopped at a Chick-Fil-A and enjoyed lunch.  Ben tried the new Key lime shake which he said was pretty good.  There were now azaleas, camelias,  and other flowering plants in full bloom.  Also most of the trees are showing lots of green.  It is indeed full spring here!
We kept on trucking south and west and into Alabama.  The welcome station was pleasant and had a new i-pad sign in to track travelers instead of the normal paper and pen. There was a beautiful rhodendron blooming - I would not have known it was a rhodendon but Ben did.

Rhodendron

 Interesting thing about Alabama was all the gas logos had been removed from the exit signs at highways.  We had other ways to find a gas station but it was odd. We also changed time zones somewhere along the way.

Ben told me all his Red Cross disaster tales again.  He had a 2 or 3 week assignment in Alabama on our ERV with George Stevenson after a tornado some years ago.  Any Red Crossers reading this will remember assignments with George Stevenson and how he always served bananas!  I always enjoy hearing these stories because George was one of the dedicated volunteers everyone enjoyed working with near and far.

To select a travel destination for the day Ben had mapped out how far he wanted to travel and selected a location with a Comfort Inn.  Greenville Alabama it was!  Found the hotel, Ben took a nap and wrote his reports.  I sat outside in the bright sunshine at 78 degrees by the lovely pool and did absolutely nothing.   TripAdvisor found us a seafood restaurant - best in Greenville - a branch of a Mobile standby - Wintzell's Oyster House - and it was only .2 mile away!  Can't ask for more than that. 

We ordered a grilled seafood platter for one and two salads.  When it came we thought the server must have gotten the order wrong - we had 12 shrimp, 4 oysters, 4 scallops, a crab cake, and large piece of fish. The fish was pangasius.  Never heard of it - a type of catfish shark - found out it is from southeast asia.  Normally don't buy fish from there but I will have to admit it was very good!  I kept thinking they had given us the grilled seafood platter for two but when the bill came it was indeed the seafood platter for one....we did eat it all but certainly could not have eaten twice that amount!

Before...

After...

Ben really liked the oysters that were grilled with butter, bread crumbs, cheese and some herbs. All was excellent.

Nice relaxing day and Ben even worked about 3 hours!  Tomorrow on to the coast.