So driven today from Savannah to Panama City, Florida. Its a 399 mile (sorry, actually its more like 417, but I'm talking from when I set off from Dennys (!) this morning, a few miles out of Savannah) trip on Interstate mainly.
It was more stressful than the highways I have been used to, mainly because its higher speed and there's more traffic, and there are similar motorway type issues that we face in the UK, with people not moving over, getting right up your behind so far you can almost taste their engines, and the Five-O popping up everywhere...
So far as I can see though, there are two major plus points of these 70mph super highways:
1. All traffic, more or less, is doing 70mph +, including the trucks. Which means as the road is only 2 lanes in either direction (between major metropolitan areas - in major metro areas, there can be as many as 7 lanes), there are less pinch points of traffic backing up when trucks are trying aimlessly to overtake each other, at a significantly lower speed than other traffic.
2. There are NO SPEED CAMERAS!!!!!!!!!! (Not that anyone particularly speeds much, 70-80mph seems to be the norm).
There were some road works along the route. If you think the 50-zone on the M1 south of Nottingham is long, THINK AGAIN. The Road Work zone on the I-95 must have been 4x that length. At least it wasn't limited to 50 though! (55!). And of course, there are no super-irritating and blood-pressure increasing average speed cameras. Just the Five-O waiting around every corner... oh and speed fines double when workers are present... (a good incentive not to speed methinks, particularly as there is a posted minimum fine of $100. I believe the system is an incremental charging rate dependent upon the number of mph over the limit you were doing - but don't quote me, hopefully I won't get to find out).
Two other key things have happened today, my trip has changed direction; I'm now heading West instead of South. In fact, I can't travel much further South in the U.S. (as I have now past the long bit of land which juts out down below the rest of the United States, which makes up the majority of Florida) without falling into the Gulf of Mexico.
The other thing which has happened, is that I've changed timezone and am now 6 hours behind the U.K. That means my stomach is having to wait another HOUR before it can have food. Something it has forgotten existed, until I typed this blog just now. Now I'm hungry :-P
The Tahoe is performing admirably, I hardly noticed the 7 hours I spent in there today, really! Its like driving an armchair. The only minor negative point is that the economy (pmsl - economy is not an adjective when talking about the Tahoe) dropped from 21mpg to 18mpg on the Interstate... just shows you what the difference is from driving at 50-60mph to driving at 70-80mph.
The thermometer tipped 100F earlier, but has since gone back to 97F.
Oh the only other thing to say is that my Ramada room is totally different to the one in Viringia Beach! This is cheaper, AND its amazing! It has like two separate areas - a sofa, a king bed, a 32inch plasma, and most of all, a massive spa bath (as well as a normal bathroom, with bath and shower over!)!!! Photos will be online later, when I've frozen a few budlights, and got the spa filled. Well, if its there....... ;-) Pity Claire's not here to enjoy it with me :-( ooops too much info for normal readers!
Sorry Janice!
Going for dinner now, hopefully steak. I think there's a Black Angus near here.
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