May 2 We hit the road!

Day one 10:00 AM start - in hotel after stopping for dinner by 8:45PM. 573 miles. We won't make it all the way to Chicago today (the eastern most starting point for Route 66), but after a mid-morning start, we pushed all the way to Indianapolis giving us a short drive tomorrow and leaving time for some sightseeing.

Car all cleaned up and ready to go

Packed up - just doesn't look like enough for a 6 week trip.

Pretty uneventful trip overall. Scenic back roads through the mountains to Waynesville, NC where we caught I-40 to Knoxville. Balance of the day was all interstate. I-75 to Lexington, KY. I-64 to Louisville, KY, Then I-65 to Indianapolis, IN. So we passed through GA, NC,TN, KY and IN.

Somewhere in the NC mountains

Gas stop - Yeah - it had us singing in the car!! 

 Couple of observations.

1. Surprised that the trees on the tops of the mountains north of Waynesville still hadn't turned green. Pretty high elevation. Kind of sparse green in the trees here in Indianapolis too. 

2. The rolling horse country between Lexington and Louisville is awfully pretty. We kept getting tempted to turn off the road with each passing sign showing another bourbon distillery trail tour. Decided we definitely need to make that another trip. 

3. After Louisville things sure do get FLAT. Guess that's what we can expect until we see the Rockies.

4. Martha found us a really nice craft brewery serving flights (and pizza) for dinner in Columbus, IN. Looks like a fun little town. Known for it's modern architecture and public art works. Also home to my favorite diesel engines - Cummins!!

Some habits just never die..... 

5. There are too many stupid drivers!!! Why are you in the fast lane going 25 over the speed limit downhill and 10 under the speed limit uphill? Why do you insist on jumping into the fast lane to pass that truck and then proceed to go only 2 mph faster than it - no matter what his speed is  - going up or down hill? Why can't you match the traffic flow speed if you're gonna jump into the fast lane?? UGHHHhhh.....Argh..... 

6. To amuse ourselves we started tracking the different state license plates we saw on cars. So far 22. GA, SC, NC, OH, TN,FL, IL, OR, IOWA, PA, MI, VA,IN,MS,KY,NM,CA,VT,WV,NJ,NY,AL. Your geography lesson of the day - could you correctly place the state of Iowa's location on a blank map of the USA? Can you name 2 cities in the state of Iowa? If so, you did better than us. We had to search the internet.