Today dawned bright and sunny, warm at last with blue skies. Tillie started right up and we headed west across the rolling red clay hills of north Georgia into Alabama. My only notes from this morning were lots of fishermen doing their thing and spotting the first clotheslines with clothes hung out to dry. And, just in case you're interested, there's a zoo for sale near Paint Rock, AL.Finally (we gained an hour and are now in Central Time), it was time for lunch so we decided to find something in the neat downtown section of Athens, AL. As we were rounding one corner of the square there was a loud snap and, E-gads!, no clutch (so much for lunch...). While John was once again groveling around under Tillie, I put on my "sleuthing hat" and went in search of info regarding a VW mechanic. Tillie must have the luck of the Irish because, sure enough, Hill Automotive was only 4 blocks away, and downhill at that so we could actually roll her there. Bruce (the beloved mechanic for today) did not have a new cable but was able to splice it with another one he had. Now let's be honest. You're thinking what a pain in the butt this all is and how it must be costing us a fortune. But that's not really the case. We get to meet a lot more people than you probably would zipping by in a nice new car. And, I suspect, if any of these things went wrong with your car you might still be waiting on parts. These old ones can get going again with practically nothing other than a little ingenuity. And the mechanics like them (and take pity I suspect) so never seem to charge the going rate. (The total of all 4 emergency stops with parts is still under $200.) There are some really GREAT people out there!
While Tillie was having her afternoon "fix" with Bruce the mechanic, I went exploring Athens. Loved the Limestone Drugstore (photo above) in the old bank building so wandered in to see what it was like inside. Turns out while you wait to have your prescription filled, you can get an ice cream at this beautiful old soda fountain. There is absolutely nothing on the outside to indicate it's there so if Tillie hadn't broken down I would never have gotten my first ice cream cone of the year. Cost me all of 81 cents I might add. Maybe I'm the lucky one!
While Tillie was having her afternoon "fix" with Bruce the mechanic, I went exploring Athens. Loved the Limestone Drugstore (photo above) in the old bank building so wandered in to see what it was like inside. Turns out while you wait to have your prescription filled, you can get an ice cream at this beautiful old soda fountain. There is absolutely nothing on the outside to indicate it's there so if Tillie hadn't broken down I would never have gotten my first ice cream cone of the year. Cost me all of 81 cents I might add. Maybe I'm the lucky one!Mid afternoon we were on our way again. Saw signs for Ivy Green, the birthplace of.... Helen Keller but decided to pass it by. About 5 miles beyond that was a sign for "Coon Dog Cemetery" but decided to skip that as well. I know, I know, we've just got no sense of adventure sometimes. But eventually we hopped on the beautiful Natchez Trace Parkway and made our way at a leisurely 50 mph Tillie pace to Tupelo (I just love that name). It's the birthplace of.... Elvis Presley so we'll probably be dreaming of hound dogs, or maybe coon dogs, all night.
