This set of entries will cover our cross-country move from Charleston, SC to downtown Los Angeles. With everything we own crammed into a hurricane-damaged Hyundai Santa Fe and a 5′ x 8′ UHAUL trailer, we set out from Charleston at 10 AM on the morning of May 1st 2010.
I carefully planned the trip, reserving rooms at Holiday Inn Expresses at 8-hour intervals along our route, but of course, nothing goes according to plan. It turns out photos are our biggest problem. We had hardly pulled out of the apartment’s parking lot when we realized we had packed the camera’s battery charger into some unknown box. Not wanting to dig through our boxes, we instead stopped at Radio Shack and picked up a new charger. After all, what fun is a road trip blog without pictures? Unfortunately, due to the wacky internet at this particular Holiday Inn Express, I won’t be able to upload the first set of photos tonight. Hopefully, pictures will be added to this post tomorrow!
The first leg of our trip was largely uneventful. We passed through Columbia, Augusta, Atlanta, and Birmingham before arriving at our first hotel in Jasper, AL. In Augusta, we had a short pit stop at a McDonald’s, where a man was very upset about the cashier refusing to accept an expired coupon. As I was walking in the door, he shoved past me and screamed ‘I HOPE THIS PLACE BURNS DOWN!’ A rather extreme reaction to missing out on a 50 cent discount, I feel.
Apart from coupon guy’s outburst, the most surprising part of the trip was the hills. From Columbia to Jasper, we were in hill country. I frankly had always imagined the Atlanta area and Alabama as being quite flat. The prettiest places we passed through were in the general vicinity of Augusta and Talladega. In both places, wide lazy rivers flowed through rolling hills covered in beautiful forests. It was like being in a landscape painting and it reminded me of West Virginia, except with much smaller peaks.
Birmingham wasn’t terribly attractive, though I think we passed through a really bad part of it. We were happy to arrive in Jasper, where we discovered such charming establishments as Fred’s, Bill’s, Lee’s, and Pat’s. It seems that if you want to be a business owner in Jasper, the name of your business must include your first name. (That is, of course, unless you own Brangus Steakhouse.)
After checking into the hotel, we had a beer and a shower and decided on the safe route of eating at Ruby Tuesday’s. This is the only chain restaurant allowed in Jasper because it’s named after someone. Tomorrow, we will start the next leg of the trip, which will take us to Fort Smith, Arkansas. Pictures will (hopefully) be uploaded when we get there.
EDIT (5-2-10): Images are here! Yay!
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