Tuesday morning we rented a Penske truck and began packing all of our belongings into it. The heat index must have been approaching 100 degrees by the time we finished for the day, so what better to do than go down to Washtenaw Dairy one last time before we leave the state. Wednesday morning we woke up at 6:30 and started loading more junk into the truck before Linsey's parents arrived. They helped us move the rest of the stuff, clean up a little bit and then took us out to eat breakfast at Nicks House of Pancakes. After eating we said our goodbyes and headed south to Louisville where we  were going to spend the night with my uncle Mark. The first leg of our trip was also the most eventful.

We spent over an hour waiting for traffic inside Cincinnati. The exit ramp to 71 that we were supposed to take in the middle of the traffic back up was closed so we circled around to try the exit on the opposite side which ended up also being closed. This left us no other choice than to hightail it through the back-roads of Kentucky in our Penske truck with the PT Cruiser in tow. The back-roads that we were traveling were most likely the narrowest roads that I have ever driven on. A small car would barely fit on one side of the road, let alone our large truck. The sides of the roads immediately dropped off to large pastures below and cruising along at 45 mph with semi trucks whizzing by on the opposite side didn't help.

Before telling the rest of the story I just want to say that we put that truck through hell. There were many times when we were climbing mountains, or going down them, when I thought that the engine was going to blow at any second. But we made it.

It was a particularly long hill that we were climbing on this back-road detour that we ran into more problems. We had been chugging up a very steep grade for about 1.5 miles in first gear barely going 10 mph, when all of a sudden the traffic in front of us stopped. The grade that we were on was so steep that I was afraid the brakes would not hold us for very long. Here are some pictures of the hill, they may not look very steep but believe me they were.
We waited about ten minutes and then a tobacco chewing police officer came down to us from the top of the road. He put his hand up on the mirror and talked for a few minutes, informing us that a semi had taken a turn too sharply and had gone off the road, blocking traffic in both directions. We put the E-brake on the truck and decided to walk up to the truck and watch since there was no way we could possibly turn around on the steep hill with our truck. We met a few truckers that were stuck there with us while we watched. One was from Tennessee and the other I can't remember. They both had southern accents and for some reason every time they said "tators" (potatoes), I had to stop myself from laughing. We learned a lot about trucking while we stood there, even learned a trucking joke, which I can't remember, sorry!


Eventually the tow truck arrived and after an hour of winching, they finally removed the truck without tipping it over down the hill. Another hour and a half later we arrived at uncle Marks house.

When we arrived, there was vegetarian pizza and cold beer waiting for us. We stayed up until past midnight talking with uncle Mark and Charlie. The next morning Charlie made us some scrambled eggs with toast and coffee. While eating breakfast we met Eugene, who was a friend of Mark and Charlies who was helping them with their candle business. We went out to the garage after dinner and checked out where Mark made his candles. He was currently busy making a whimsical line that were molded out of recycled containers. After perusing his collection we headed out for a short tour around Louisville. Here are a few pics!
This is an old bridge over the Ohio River that is being converted into a pedestrian bridge.

Here is where Louisville Sluggers are made.

After the short tour, we stopped at a Tai place to eat and had some great vegetarian Pad Tai. We stopped back at Mark and Charlie's and then headed on our way again. We had a great visit with them and look forward to the next time we can stop by!








We chugged onward through the foothills of Kentucky and the mountains of Tennesse and finally arrived late at night in Marietta Georgia, just north of Atlanta.









We awoke at 5:00 the next morning and finished our 10 hour drive into Clearwater. The worst part of the drive was taking 55 South to Clearwater. Nothing but strip mall after strip mall for 40 miles.

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