29 November Already!!!! The year is almost over and I am keeping fairly busy!
Since I last checked in, I have completed three trips (only one involved Florida) and have three more booked for early December (of those three, two involve Florida!). Trips combined with a couple of personal “vacay” days down in Florida (where else), I haven’t been all that idle!
A day after my last blog update (Oct 28th, All Roads lead to FL, again), I was on an early morning flight up to the city of the Gateway Arch, St Louis Missouri. I picked up a company car there and began my trek to the beautiful little town of Madison Mississippi!
Where is Madison? It’s only the 11th most populous town in the state, coming in with a population of 27,00. It is pretty much in the middle of nowhere! About one hour north of Jackson.
A pretty simple drive. Work your way out of St Louis and jump on I-55S for about six hours. The actual place of delivery was about thirty minutes off I-55 and quite rural.
Because of the timing of my flight up to St Louis (plus a short delay out of Atlanta), I did end staying overnight in a motel, in of all towns, Batesville, Mississippi. No relation I am aware of to the Bates motel.
I stayed in a Days INN, just off the interstate. Very nice motel with good ratings. Located close to a number of dining opportunities as well as a nearby Walmart. I tried out the Mi Peublo restaurant. Nice, affordable and pleasant employees. A Chili’s is located across the parking lot for those who might prefer that atmosphere. The motel really didn’t offer much of a breakfast other than a grab and go. About its only drawback.
The following morning, the 30th, I started my final leg of this small journey into Madison. Now normally I try to deliver a car with about a half tank of gas and of course that was my plan. LIttle did I know that once I took my exit off I-55, I wouldn’t see another gas station!.
I successfully delivered the vehicle (with apologies regarding the low gas level) and being how the area was a little remote, I had reserved an uber the day before. The uber arrived on schedule and I made it to the Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International airport with time to spare. My flight back to Atlanta went well and I had a whole week plus to relax before it was back to FLORIDA!
The morning of 12 November, had me up and away to the Magic Kingdom town of Orlando.
Another scheduled, fairly easy trip back up to north Georgia with a company vehicle. The only potential problem was I picked the car up at a dealership after it had gone through extensive engine repair. Fortunately it was ready for me when I arrived and after signing some paperwork I was off and running. In the wrong direction!!!
Technically i headed out in the correct direction but I am telling you, if you have driven in the Orlando area anytime recently, there is a lot of construction and lane closures and yes I actually took a road, on purpose, to head south out of Orlando so I could get on a road that would take me north towards Georgia. It’s really confusing. After about twenty minutes of changing roads, changing directions and overcoming my confusion. I was on the right path.
Minus getting out of the metro area of Orlando and on to the Florida turnpike, it was a pretty simple drive. One I have done many times. Unfortunately, trying to get up to North GA from Mickey Mouse land, when you are starting near the middle of day, puts you right into the Atlanta metro driving nightmare…rush hour. Atlanta rush hour begins around 2pm and ends around 8pm, if there are no accidents.
From the Florida turnpike, heading north, simply jump on I-75N and hope for the best!! I actually made it up to the metro Atlanta area in a timely fashion (maybe a little heavy on the pedal). I successfully navigated through the rush hour and being a little familiar with the area, I ended up taking a few side roads and chopped some travel time there. I finally arrived in north Georgia, Calhoun GA specifically, about 7pm. I was a little tired but I made it.
I did my usual routine in Calhoun except this time I found a good deal at the local La Quinta. Normally I stay at the Super 8 in town but it is off season and the rates are about the same and the La Quinta offers a pretty good breakfast spread. I also visited my favorite Mexican place in town the night before, El Nopal.
On the morning of the 13th, I delivered the vehicle to the company and took my shuttle van ride back down to the Atlanta airport and drove home.
I was fortunate to have a week off before my next scheduled drive (the 19th). In that week, I booked three more drives for the near future.. One of those drives, I ended up tacking onto the back end of my drive on the 19th. The other two, firmly planned for December.
Once the 19th rolled around my plans were in place for the next three days. Fly up to Mechanicsburg PA. Drive down to Mt Gilead NC. After delivery in Mt Gilead NC, fly to Tampa FL. Pick up a vehicle there and bring it back up back to the same company in Calhoun GA. It was a tight but well planned schedule. Well, well planned if there were going to be no issues. However this was not the case!!!!
Map from Mechanicsburg PA to Mt Gilead NC (about an hour east of Charlotte)
The flight up to Mechanicsburg (using the Harrisburg airport) went well. The uber trip over to Mechanicsburg also went well. The pre-inspection of the vehicle I was picking up is where everything started to go down hill.
Approximately 1045am I performed the initial outside inspection and it was fine but when neither of the key fobs would open up the vehicle, we had a problem. LIttle did we know how much of a problem. Using the hidden door key inside the fob, I opened the door and popped the hood. Using a vehicle provided by an employee and some jumper cables he had, we attempted to jump start the Grand Cherokee. That didn’t work. No biggie..just reconnect the vehicles and let the jumping process work a little longer and try again. Nope. All jumping attempts failed. By about noon time, we gave up on all that and started the roadside service process. UUGH. By now I am cutting into my tight traveling schedule for the next few days.
Finally by 130pm that afternoon, I had a local tow truck on the way over to bring me to a nearby MAVIS auto center (MAVIS auto centers to be known as Kauffman, nationwide). Even the tow truck operator tried to jump start the vehicle but that failed. So he hauled me off to MAVIS. Two and half hours later, the problem was isolated and resolved.
During my two and half hour wait, I had to change my travel plans quite a bit. Again, in this case, I was lucky as the “broken down” vehicle and the next vehicle to move out of Tampa were for the same company, so with some phone calls and scheduling, we postponed the Tampa vehicle move until early December.
The final diagnosis on vehicle problems: The auxiliary battery that runs during the “stop/start” option of the newer vehicles was draining the main battery and eventually killed the primary battery. It was a good thing MAVIS had the correct replacement battery or the delay would have been much longer. Oh yeah, on that model of Grand Cherokee (‘22), the battery is located under the driver’s seat!!!!!
By 430pm and the sun rapidly started to set, I finally headed off to NC. Since the drive was slated to take me about seven hours overall, I figured I would try to get about half of that drive completed that afternoon/evening. I ended up knocking out just about three hours and stopped in Harrisonburg VA (some confusing town names on this trip).
Microtel Inns & Suites of Harrisonburg VA. A great choice for this particular trip as it was right off the expressway. Lived up to its very favorable ratings. Close to many restaurant options and did have an adequate morning breakfast offering. I arrived too late to search for a Mexican place to try out. Also, right next door, for your morning cup of coffee, a Dunkin.
I left early on the morning of the 20th to get to Mt Gilead NC. That worked well and I delivered the vehicle to the plant with no problems. That was about 11am. After that, a new set of problems arose.
Will all my travel plans change, I opted to rent a one way vehicle to drive from the Mt Gilead area back to Atlanta. The company representative agreed to take me to a major car rental agency about fifteen miles away. I had already arranged a rental but by the time I got there, they informed me that they didn’t have one available and they cancelled my reservations. Luckily the company guy driving me knew of another option. We tried that. No one way rentals available. We actually checked out two more (via phone) before finally giving up and headed to the Charlotte airport where they really did have rentals available! At about 330pm I had my one way rental to get back to Atlanta.
Taking I-85S, I headed down towards Atlanta out of Charlotte. That wasn’t going to be too successful. Between weather issues and travel congestion, a normal four hour trip was predicted to be a six plus hour drive. I ended up going about halfway, stopping in Anderson SC for the night. I stayed at the local Microtel in town.
I have used that Microtel before and again, super convenient. Normally very affordable. Plenty of eating opportunities nearby and of course a good Mexican restaurant close by, Perto Nuevo.
I didn’t sleep well that night (why I don’t know…but my usual), so I left my hotel early in the morning to beat the morning Atlanta traffic rush (5am-10am). Turned in my one way rental and got to my vehicle and drove home. Finally I got some rest there.
Well I hope you enjoyed it and it wasn’t too boring. A lot of excitement but not necessarily the good kind of excitement, especially on that last trip I wrote about.
Happier driving times are ahead I am sure. One of my trips scheduled in December, I am going to someplace I have never ever been! Not even in my non business travels. People pay big money to go to this location so I am looking forward to it.
Cheers, enjoy. Rest off the turkey and sprint to Christmas.