Still recovering from the longest day

How long does it take to physically get over an 800-mile day trip?

Well, so far, it is three days and counting for this driver.

The older one gets, the harder it is to recover. At least, that is what I am finding out.

A one-week trip from home for a college graduation some 800 miles away had a few challenges.

The first, of course, was the first day out when we had a flat tire on the vehicle we were renting and easily swapped it out at another rental location on the road.

But the last day, what turned out to be the 6th day, wasn’t what we had in mind.

Unfortunately, my wife had a medical condition that required an emergency room visit of about five hours on day 5. (She missed seeing her nephew receive his diploma.)

Having somewhat recovered from that, the decision was to get back home as soon as possible in case there was another flareup. We wanted to be close to her personal physicians.

There wasn’t another incident, but it was a long day.

Traveling from Louisville, KY to Ocean Springs included another challenge. Just below Birmingham, AL traffic ahead of us came to an almost standstill.

Traffic was barely moving. 

A month or so earlier, we came upon a traffic slowdown and after getting through it, realized that whatever had happened was cleared up and the slowdown was just a long chain reaction to get back to normal speed.

What was the Alabama situation?

After eventually arriving at Alabaster, AL, we saw ahead that traffic was being re-routed off the interstate onto Highway 31. Vehicles were backed up in all directions.

The officer at the off-ramp said there had been a diesel spill a few  miles down the interstate. Both the northbound and southbound lanes of I-65 were re-routed.

After a short stop for a meal, we headed back into the traffic and edged our way through Alabaster. There was a sign pointing to an I-65 connection.

We took the turn, but there wasn’t anyone following. Did we make a mistake?

After about a three-mile distance, we saw the on-ramp to southbound I-65 and easily got on to it.

It was clear sailing. A mile or so down the road, we saw the on-ramp where most of the other vehicles were getting on the southbound interstate.

The two-hour or so delay resulted in our not getting home until  about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, a long way from the 9-10 a.m. start.

All in all, it was a long, tough day, and I am still feeling some of the effects.

Next post: May 23, 2017