Thursday after work I drove from San Antonio to Houston to prep for the trip and complete a wasted trip to the VA.
When my daughter got home from work at 7 I packed up while she at something for dinner. At 7:30 we hit the road with a goal of hitting Lafayette Louisiana. It started off fine until we hit the highway. Had a bad steering shimmy at anything over 65. Because I'm 3 hours away in San Antonio while my daughter stayed behind in Houston to finish her senior year in high school it went slightly undiagnosed. She took it to her school vo-tech class thinking it needed an alignment - which was completed and done pretty good aside from a now crooked steering wheel.
Made it to our first stop without any real issues around 11:30 pm. Woke up at 7 for a terrible hotel breakfast & trekked on. About 1/3 of the way across Mississippi we peeled off looking for a shop to handle a quick wheel balance. Located a Wal-Mart, but they were booked solid the next 3 hours. According to the girl scheduling it was because tax refunds were in and everybody was buying tires. We didn't have 3 extra hours, so back to the highway.
Pushed on across Alabama and into Georgia then Tennessee. Forgot about the eastern time change, so we lost an hour for that. By the time we rolled into Chattanooga it was dark and beginning to snow. Let off the throttle and the car got loud. Gave it some gas and it was marginally quieter, but off throttle was pretty loud again. Off the highway and into a covered gas station.
Crawled up under the car to find the center resonator pipe leading to the muffler broke loose. Located an O'Reilly 5 miles away and picked up a slip fit pipe and pair of clamps as a temporary fix. Of course it was west, cold and snowing at this point as I was under the car patching things up.
Grabbed some solid grub at Taco Mamacita in Chattanooga. Initially there was about a 45 minute wait,, but the hostess felt bad when I told her I hadn't eaten since Louisiana and snaked us a couple seats at the bar.
From there is was a short 45 minute drive to Loudon Tennessee where the hotel was reserved. Checked in around 10:30, but lost a second hour due to time change.
Sunday morning we woke up, sent a text to Slow240 who was staying on the NC side at a fellow turbobricker's house and headed east. Highway 129 started about 30 minutes from the hotel. I did the initial drive because I wasn't sure about road conditions and I heard snow was in the forecast.
At the start on the Tennessee side.
Stopped so she could take black & white photos for her photography class at a "rapey-looking" building acording to Slow240.
At the highest point on 129 there was a light snow, but it didn't stick around past 11.
Was supposed to meet Aaron at the NC side at 9 am. He was a no show by 9:30, so I let her drive. We drove up to the first scenic overlook and turned around to head back. Didn't pass a single car in either direction until I saw a lifted blue Volvo round the corner about 3 miles from the end on the NC side. Turned around and met up with Aaron and ran back up to the scenic view for some photos.
Ran back and forth a few times. I let my daughter drive as much as she wanted. She let me take a run playing leapfrog with Slow240. I think I surprised her with what her car can do. She was a little scared at first, but by the time we were ready to go she was starting to scare me a bit with some slight understeer due to some wet corners.
Wasn't much to pick from for eats on the way out on the North Carolina side. Huddle House was the only thing open, so we stopped for a second breakfast.
Handed off three 6-packs of Texas beer, one 6-pack of St. Arnold's craft root beer for Aaron's wife, bottle of Franklin's BBQ sauce, some What-A-Burger spicy ketchup, some Texas salsa and a bonus jar of Dreamland BBQ sauce I picked up in Alabama.
By then it was about 2pm and I was way behind schedule. Plugged in a destination into the phone & parted ways.
Lost all hope of receiving a signal someplace near the NC, Georgia and Tennessee bermuda triangle. Stopped for directions and was pointed in the right direction again. Were able to find another Wal-Mart that wasn't super busy. Stopped and had the tires balanced only to find we have 2 bent Hydras. Got them balanced reasonably and transferred to the back. Back on the road & it was so much better. Put the pedal down & were cruising at 75 with no issues.
and then fate brought us to here :
Had to do a hard braking for a u-turn. No way we were missing this.
Spent 30 minutes learing all about Bigfoot research. By then it was 5pm and we were noplace even close to home. Throttle down and headed west. Made it to 45 miles into Louisiana before giving up around midnight.
The next morning grabbed some Awful House for breakfast - no road trip is complete without it - and continued west. Made a quick stop at a junkyard looking for some Volvo parts when a state trooper nailed me driving 67 in a 55 on a side road. Didn't realize the speedo was that far off as it was showing I was at 60-62 at the time.
No Volvo parts aside from an S60R out front that doesn't look like it's moved in a while.
Another 5 hours and we were back in Houston. That's pretty much it except I had another 3 hour drive from Houston to San Antonio plus an additional hour for traffic due to construction.