Missed the prairie ....

Hmm ... I occurred to me that I had a theme going there for the past few posts, then I missed a 4th of July post. So, having mentioned the river(s), and the mountains, I had to mention the prairies on what will be a 4th of July post.

That said, I also missed any live fireworks (other than those being set off by individuals), as I was busy elsewhere last evening. More on that in the next post.

Anyway, we hit the road again on the 3rd, leaving the river and Florida behind, and arrived at the waypoint without much of a kitty opera. I think the cats have gotten accustomed to the road a bit. The white one has taken to it fully, she has no problem with getting on the dashboard and lying there as we travel the roads. Passengers in passing cars tend to do a double take. The grey one just sits under my seat, and complains whenever we hit a bump on the road. Still, its better than a chorus of Aida for an hour or so as we heard when we started out.

Its orange barrel time in the South, and Georgia has taken full advantage of it. I-95 is being torn up in parts, with the highway going from 3 to 2 lanes, and lane shifts all over the place. Evidently there were some very timid souls heading south to Florida on the 3rd (along with most of the east coast it seemed), as these normal summer occurrences seemed to have scared them into a crawl. Which then caused a backup, which I measured at 7 to 8 miles long, and growing. Those of us heading north, had no such issues.

Made the final half of the trip to Montreat on the 4th, and it seemed like all the idiots came out to play. You had the people who did not believe the right side view mirror when it says that Things may be closer then they seem in the mirror. I had two drivers who almost clipped me while passing me and moving back into the right hand lane. FWIW ... I always stay in the slow lane with the RV, usually doing 65 although some states have a speed limit of 70. The RV can do that easily, but with a mileage of 8 or 9 MPG, I'd rather save a bit on gas.

The other idiot was the type that my wife and I call a rock in the road. Did you ever watch a stream or brook as it flows. They normally flow quite fast, until they hit a rock in the stream bed, then there's turbulence, and the stream slows. The same happens on the road with traffic, which has a fluid dynamic. Traffic flows swiftly, until it reaches someone that is not doing the speed limit. While I admit that I keep the RV about 5 mph below the limit, the real rocks are those drivers who: a) do less than the limit in the left hand, or passing lane, or b) pull onto a highway using the on ramp, and never even try to accelerate to something approaching the speed limit until after everyone who had to slow down to make way for them entering the highway has panicked, slowing down even less than the idiot who didn't properly merge in the first place.

What really galls me about these types is that after I have moved to the left lane to avoid what would have been an interesting meeting with the idiot, then they proceed to speed up to either pass me, or keep me from moving back to the right hand lane. So I slow down to get over, and I get the interesting hand gestures from those I inconvenienced.

Then we arrived at the KOA in Swannanoa, just outside of Montreat, and I was ready for some renewal ... and a quick shower.

And so it goes ....