At My Sister's House in Elon, NC (September 10)
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Driving from Dallas to Atlanta

We left Dallas on our trip to New England and Acadia National Park on Tuesday morning, and we knew that the entire first day of our trip would be spent behind the wheel of Fred's RAV4, as we headed east from Dallas. The first segment, which took us from about 1100AM to 330PM, ended with our Mississippi River crossing at Vicksburg. Here is a map of this first segment:

Crossing the Mississippi River was probably the most interesting event of the whole first day, although I have driven this route a number of times. You can watch a movie of our river crossing using the player below:

Crossing the Mississippi

Also, beginning at about this point, we started running into a lot of rain, and it made driving difficult at times.

The next part of our trip, which took us until almost 10PM, was the drive from the Mississippi River to the western suburbs of Atlanta. As we drove, we tried to contact Jeffie, as one of the things we wanted to do was to meet her and Michael as we passed through Atlanta. It wasn't just to see them, but to drop off some of Mom's things with her.

As it turned out, though, she and Michael had tickets for a baseball game that ran very long, and they were apparently still at the game as we passed through Atlanta. We did not want to spend time staying overnight in Atlanta, and so we just continued north. We were finally able to contact her when we were already north of the city; she will just go up to Judy's house at some point and collect the things she would like to have.

Our Stop for the Night in Commerce, GA

When we got to Atlanta, we exited I-20 onto I-285 north; this is the belt expressway that circles Atlanta. When we got to the spoke of the wheel that is the continuation of I-85 north, we took it.

It was late, and there weren't many choices for dinner, so we stopped at a Denny's about twenty-five miles outside the beltway, and the continued north to Commerce, GA. While we'd been driving, I'd made a hotel reservation there.

The Super 8 Motel was on the north side of I-85, and we found it easily. We had been going through rain off and on all evening, and no sooner had we checked in than a heavy downpour began. Getting stuff out of the car and into the room without getting ourselves or the stuff soaked was tricky, but we did manage it.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	At My Sister's House in Elon, NC (September 10)
	Return to the New England Trip Master Index