We woke up yesterday in Columbus, MS and had a very formal breakfast in our B and B. The owner gave us a tour of the house and all the Victorian antiques. Very interesting. When we got onto the road, we ran into a ton of people who have evacuated from Gustav! 75% of the cars on the road in Alabama were Louisiana plates. In the rest area where we stopped, there were many evacuees sleeping on the grass. We were already 300 miles from the Gulf!! Almost 2 million people evacuated so it's not surprising that there were a lot of cars on the road. I think if we had left Baton Rouge much later, we would have been stuck in awful traffic.
Despite this, we got to Nashville pretty quickly. We went out to dinner and to a little famous club in downtown. The bands playing were mostly country and rock cover bands. They were good though. We made some new friends, including a man who is a professional rodeo guy. He was very friendly and had a cowboy hat. He was in Nashville "breaking" horses for a stockbroker. He explained that weathy people buy horses and hire him to train them. He claimed to be one of the 15 best rodeo people in the country. He lives in Montana. He was very charming and Herb and I had a nice time talking to him. Best of all, he produced one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip!!! I'll post it. Herb had only had one beer in the picture, contrary to the way he looks.
We're leaving soon to head to Columbus. I'm glad we stopped here. Nashville seems like a very lively spot!! We really are on the last leg. I'll post once more after Columbus and then it's time to face real life. This dreamlike tour of the country has been the trip of a lifetime. When the cowboy was talking about where he lived and the places he'd been, Herb and I could intelligently discuss almost all of them. We really know the country now. What a treat!!
Love to my mom and Gregory in Baton Rouge. They just started to get rain and are probably in for a long few days.
