Two months ago my mother called and asked if Katy and I were willing to take her to visit her brother and family in Georgia (or maybe we volunteered to take her, I can’t remember). I had not seen my Aunt Mildred and Uncle Raul in close to decade and it had been over twenty years since I last saw my cousin Michelle, so we readily said “Yes!”
I should mention that it took a bit of preparation, not only are we in the middle of upgrading bits and pieces of the bus, but we were also unprepared to take a passenger. The bus was always meant to be for Katy and I to ride through country, never did we consider taking a passenger. So we ended up adding a passenger seat, which we will detail in an upcoming post.
The distance from Orlando, FL to Dallas , GA is only about 469 miles (939 miles round-trip), not much of a road trip when compared to some of our previous jaunts, but certainly long enough for my mom who had never ridden aboard our bus.
We left Orlando a bit later than we hoped. In fact, we left about 3 hours later than our 9am scheduled departure. This was an issue because as Google Maps predicts that the trip should take less than seven hours, with our top speed of 58 mph, we typically take longer. So originally estimated that by leaving at 9am we would arrive around 7pm, 10 hours later. Leaving at 12 noon meant that, at best, we would be arriving in Dallas, GA around 10pm. Not an ideal arrival time, but not so late to be overly rude. Still, since I had been up since around 5:30am, I was in not the best of condition for a long drive and I was forced to stop a couple of times to make sure my caffeine and sugar levels were up to the task. Usually, that would have been the time for Katy to take the wheel, but unfortunately Katy ended up not joining us for the trip due to a schedule conflict with her current job (more on that soon).
In the end the drive to Dallas, GA took us close to 14 hours, too late to knock on the door. So we phoned ahead and told the family we would be there early the next morning instead and my mom and I spent the night parked at a Loves truck stop. Which I’m pretty sure that was my mom’s first time sleeping in a parking lot next to other RVs and Semi-trucks.
Ultimately we made it to the house in Dallas about 20 hours after leaving Orlando, and after taking a breakfast break at the Waffle House in Hiram, Georgia. All in all a nice little trip, a slow trip, but with good company.
