2017 CROSS-COUNTRY ROAD TRIP - TUESDAY, APRIL 11TH, 2017

Tuesday, April 11th, 2017

Heading to Chattanooga, Tennessee.  I forgot to make note of the time we left our hotel and the odometer reading.  I am still half asleep but the coffee is waking me up.

11.31 a.m. and we have just finished our first meal of the day in Chattanooga.  It was a nice stop at a restaurant called the Blue Plate near the waterfront, but someone looked a bit bored don't you think?   No, I'm not bored, I'm just sleepy.  This sweet thing looks bored.

1:50 p.m. we have driven 808 miles since we left home. 

4:31 p.m. we are leaving the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, after having a lovely walk around the Japanese Garden.  We weren't there all that long but what we saw was lovely.

I saw a Mockingbird as we entered the garden, it hopped into the undergrowth very quickly and with purpose. I lined up a shot with my zoom, a bit blurry, but I saw a dark little shape scurrying away.  Curious, we walked over, scared the bird away, not on purpose, and as my eyes adjusted I spotted what I thought was a tiny mouse, and then another.  I had saved them from the bird who kept trying to make off with one. It is the first time I have actually seen a mouse and okay, strange to some but I was delighted.  They were tiny, about an inch-and-a-half long.

(Later I felt that my ID wasn't quite right, as when I had a chance to look at my photos that night on the larger screen of my laptop, I thought it might be a vole. Please let me know what you think.  If he is a mouse he has very small, almost invisible ears!)

Another critter I spotted on our way back to the garden entrance.  A frog jumped and I noticed its movement as we sat on a swing bench for a few minutes.  Cute little thing.  I had also disturbed his meal, as tons of ants were crawling around our feet.  We quickly left him to his dinner.

I was wondering how many flowers would be blooming and saw these at the main entrance.  

We started off in the Japanese Garden.  

Always very pretty.

There is no charge to go into the garden. It is also next to the zoo. There were signs on the walking path pointing that way. But we are now in the car heading for Meridian, two-and-a-half hours away.  

About 60 miles east of Meridian as we drove along, I could have sworn I heard a faint humming and low melodic singing. You know how different road surfaces change and you feel it, hear it?  This was like someone singing, or humming and the tones went up and down the scale. We were on this particular surface for several miles, and we were looking at each other a bit quizzically, checking to see if we had left the radio turned on, trying to hear where the sound was coming from. No it wasn't the radio.  We decided it was the combination of the the surfacing on the road and the wheels driving over it. Then all of a sudden we were on a different road surface and the singing disappeared.  Neither of us have experienced anything quite like it. 

10:32 p.m. We are in our hotel at Meridian.  Across the street we saw a Bed Bath and Beyond. I asked Gregg if we could stop there to replace our water flasks. I had left them at the last hotel and was way down the road before I remembered them, when I actually reached for water.  They didn't have the same kind but we chose a larger one and it will serve us well. We really missed our cold water on the drive today.  We fill them every night and pop them in the fridge to get nice and cold.  The flask keeps them cold all day, even when we have left them in a hot car for a few hours.  The previous hotel called us to let us know they had found them, and we have arranged for them to be sent home.  I must let our house sitter know that a parcel will be on its way.

We are heading for Lafayette, Mississippi tomorrow.