Glad to be here & off the road, the only car in the back parking lot. I pulled into the huge shopping center next door & it took longer to get out of there than many other road trips I’ve taken. I don’t want to look at stores. I had to think about where to put the nifty McDonalds heavy-duty straw, my car is so loaded up. I have a jacket in there somewhere I could have used in Alabama earlier, & my make-up bag is still MIA.

Another Days Inn by Wyndham. Soon Wyndham will own all these wayside places, I think. Reasonable & clean, I am impressed. The equipment is worn, but furniture is decent. The a/c sounds like a rocket launcher when the compressor kicks, the bathroom fan sounds like it belongs in a large warehouse 50′ up in a small ceiling opening.

I am barefoot: challenging the gods once again. The WIFI just sent up a banner it no longer exists in my room. Whatev.

I have arrived. Another 400 miles, ten road stops, one nap in a McD’s parking lot with the car windows open 2″, like my mouth probably was.

The room has an iron. Definitely takes the scenery out of the vacation. I thought traveling was about being wrinkled. I’m wearing my ugliest shirt; I need a haircut, & my teeth are in the car.

America’s roads are not in great shape. Construction seems half-hearted, with yellow-vested, hard-hatted men smoking next to a bulldozer. There was a break in the traffic in one zone & a cluster ran from mid-road to the shoulder. Looked like a bobble of beachballs with legs. They ran for their lives but it was just granny me bearing down on ’em, one foot on the brake.

400 miles closer & farther at the same time. I am recalled of the Peter Paul & Mary song “100 Miles.” I have missed the train I was on. I know I am gone. I have heard no whistles blow…100 miles.

I broke down & hit the lobby for a sputtering pump of coffee “Dakota Blend.” For a glance, I thought it said “Sarasota Blend.” Irony Alert! If it were from there, it would have been made from palm trees.

The WIFI has drifted back into the room.

I had to tell the AAA girl about four times how to pronounce Baton Rouge. Her tongue just stopped at the Ba part… Are they teaching any geography these days? What about those cute songs when one sang all the presidents in a row, or all the capital cities in the states?

There are two rooms occupied in the hotel. The other one is above me & someone is bouncing a bowling ball on the floor. Or maybe they’re ironing with gusto on the downstroke?

I bring my own clock these days. I use it as a flashlight if I get up during the night. Speaking of time, the day grew even longer when I crossed into Central Time. The growling breakfast chef at the Days Inn in Marianna informed me loftily they opened at 7 a.m. Central Time before telling me to get out of the breakfast area so he could work. I decided I didn’t want anything he was cooking, & besides, Central Time begins in Alabama. So I thinked him prettily for allowing me to take a coffee, went back to my room & threw it down the sink. I think the brand was a robust Scalding-Tasteless.

There are still too many Waffle Houses around – I want a Friendly’s or an IHOP at some roadside exit, damnit!

My Canary Cave awaits.