Day 3: On that midnight train to Georgia

Actually, a car, not a train.  And leaving around 7am, not midnight.  But there's no song for that.  :-)
Connie had to head into work early on Wed, so I went ahead and got on the road to give myself plenty of time to get to lunch with friends in Suwanee.  I missed pretty much all of Nashville morning traffic.  [maybe 7am is too early for that?]  Was an easy drive, and a very pretty one.

I stopped for gas about 10-15 miles outside of Nashville (along I-24E) at what seemed to be a relatively ok travel plaza type place.  Not a name brand (e.g Pilot, Flying J, Love's, etc.) but lots of trucks and very convenient exit ramps.  However.....  as I stood by the car filling up, I was looking around and thought, "if I were going to write an episode of 'Criminal Minds' or 'CSI' or a book by Stephen King or Dean R. Koontz, this is the type of place I'd use as a setting, and these are the type of characters I'd populate the story with."  So a little creeped out and telling myself that all of these people were probably really nice, I went inside to grab a Diet Coke and go to the bathroom.

[so, what's the difference between "bathroom" and "restroom"?  why do we use one word versus the other?  and why do we shy away from just saying "toilet" as many European countries do?  of course, the British use the "loo", and many other nationalities use a "water closet", etc. so maybe Americans aren't that delicate about language.  actually, I know that we're not; I watch TV!  :-)  I'm sure it has to do with what your parents taught you to call it growing up, and I honestly can't remember what my Mom calls the bathroom.  did anyone every used to "rest" in the bathroom, is that where it came from?  okay, so now I'm going to have to Google it....  so there isn't really a way to Google that easily.  and now that I think about it, there did used to be -- in "olden times" the separate sitting kind of area where women would sit and rest and talk, etc. away from the menfolk, so maybe that's where that came from.  anyway, enough on that topic.]

The staff in the store were really nice, but I wasn't able to buy a lottery ticket as they were switching out shifts so I missed my Powerball and MegaMillions chances last night.  Oh well, will just have to buy them for Saturday.  :-)

Back on the road and listening to an audio book (on CD, checked out from the Dayton library).  This one is "Pretend You Don't See Her" by Mary Higgins Clark.  7 discs; about an hour a disc, I guess.  I checked out a lot of these, as it's a great way to pass the time while driving.  The miles just fly by.  [and if you don't use the library feature of going online and requesting materials and then conveniently picking them up at your local branch, you are really missing out!  they can get pretty much anything, they figure out which branch/city has it, and then get it to you. ]

It was a little hard to get back into though as I had started listening to it on my last couple hours into Nashville, and then was reading a book ("One Dangerous Lady" by Jane Stanton-Hitchcock) at Connie's, and then back into the car listening to the first book.  I just needed a few minutes to switch my brain processors and pull up those mental files and all was good.

The drive though Chattanooga is really pretty, but lots of mountains and slower speeds.  And I realized that I was back in eastern time, which meant that I lost an hour and actually wasn't going to be in time to meet friends for lunch in Suwanee.  Hmmmm.....  so could I make up that time?  Yeah, no way.  So I sent a text to push lunch out.

And when I got back on 75 South, heading into GA from Chattanooga, I was surrounded by semis.  In the mountains, all going pretty fast.  Well, I'm a fast driver myself, but these trucks scare me.  [and I'm sure that all relates to the December accident when a semi ran me off the road about 5-6 years ago.]  Made it through that and then took 20-E north of Allatoona Lake through Canton and Cumming and then into Suwanee.  I was really surprised at how far north (of Metro ATL) that suburbia had spread.  All along 20 were new subdivisions advertising "from the $200s", "starting at $170s", "mid-$300s" which must have been at least an hour commute (on a good day) from most of the jobs in and around ATL.  Wow.

Made it to Jim N' Nick's BBQ (if you haven't been and have the opportunity -- go!  www.jimnnicks.com  in 7 states, but every location is locally owned) for lunch with Onj.  Em tried to join us, but couldn't find us in the restaurant (she should have checked the bar!) so she took her toddler to lunch at McDonald's.  :-)

After lunch, headed to Jan's home in Buford (my fabulous host for this part of the journey) and relaxed/read/napped/checked email until I met her and GC for dinner at my favorite ATL-area restaurant, Aqua Terra.  Great atmosphere, great service, great food and great company.  We pretty much didn't stop talking -- and laughing -- for several hours.  Thanks for going OTP, GC!  We appreciate the effort!  :-)

Jan and I got back to her house, changed into jammies, and got comfy in the living room and talked until the wee hours.  Finally, started yawning and realized that it was 1:30am!  Yikes!  But she's taking tomorrow off and we're playing in Buckhead, so it was all good!