The second night went better. Given that I was in southern Alabama, and there was little frost on the ground when I woke up. The rest stop was pretty busy for 7am.
Getting on the road just after 7:30, I was greatly impressed by the wooded land that I-85 went through.
I then took GA 21 south to Atmore. From there, I crossed into Florida.
I was only there a moment before turning around in a store parking lot and headed back north into Georgia. I then headed west on US31 to a small town named "Perdido" and took a small county road back to the interstate.
From there, it was on further to Mobile. Along they way, I found it cool that there's several, long, elevated roadways on concrete stilts as you go through the Mobile River valley's very marshy land.
After crossing the Mobile River I was finally back on solid ground to Mobile. I opted not to go through the town and head west on I-10 to Mississippi.
Along they way, I passed a weed truck (as best I can describe what he was hauling) and Forest Gump's town of "Bayou La Batre"
Now in Mississippi, I decided to finally take a small detour to see downtown Biloxi. As I-110 exits onto US90, you actually go out into and around the beach on the Gulf.
Aside from the casinos, not much has come around on the beachfront in Biloxi. More of my photos of the area can be found here.
I then drove west on US90 until US49 to head north back to I-10.
After entering Louisiana, I stopped at the visitors center and saw for the first time, a Pringles Machine. This irked me, as I was looking for a Pepsi machine. Oh well.
Now, I must admit that I did go out of my way on this part of the trip. Again, I chalk it up to not looking far enough ahead in the map to see where I would truly end up. As much as I wasn't into sightseeing, I did head to the gulf to actually say I had seen it. Otherwise, I should've clipped the tops of Alabama and Mississippi, detoured into Louisiana, and onto Arkansas. Instead, I was down on I-10 and heading into New Orleans.
I made my wife a promise I wouldn't go into New Orleans, so I stayed on the interstate but still wanted to take the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. So, I took I-10 down on the south end of the Lake rather than I-12 to the north.
I then got to sit for almost an hour in traffic on the I-10 causeway over the eastern edge of the lake.
I didn't take any photos, nor did I stop when going through New Orleans, although I was in a saddened state of awe with how the city still looked as I drove through.
More on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway on I-10 can be found here.
The entire time I sat there, I could see US90 off in the distance with hardly any traffic.
I then took I-610 to avoid downtown and back again to I-10 before taking the well known toll Causeway across the lake. I can understand why some people panic. After about 10 miles, you can no longer see the skyline of New Orleans behind you (or land, for that matter) and cannot see the northern shore infront of you. Only on the clear day such as mine could I make out the horizon and see the smallest strip of 'dark land' at the edge. I took no photos on the Causeway, but did take a 5 or 6 minute video. Due to size constraints, I'm currently not hosting that on the site, although I might setup a page for it later.
After crossing the Causeway, I got onto I-12 and headed west to I-55 (which runs on the west of the Lake Pontchartrain). I took that north back into Mississippi. I stopped at a Wal-Mart along the way to pick up a few more supplies.
In Jackson, I detoured the city west on I-20 to I-220 and headed north to US49. From there, I knew I'd be off the interstate until Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
It was the first improvisation I made. My original thought was to take I-55 north all the way until Memphis. It was already getting later in the day, and I-55 was a 290 mile drive through Mississippi.
Although US49/US49W was a four-lane road up to Indianola, I wasn't sure how fast it would go. I was very pleased to see the speed limit at 65mph. I took US49 until Yazoo City.
From there, US49 branched east and west, and I headed on US49W to Indianola. Once there, it was a short jaunt over on US82 to get to Greenville, which I had thought was the crossover point to Arkansas.
Entering Leland, I knew I'd have to document this sign.
I was surprised that once I got to Greenville, MS, I still had 8 miles to go down and west before actually crossing into Arkansas on an old metal two-lane bridge over the Mississippi.
The Welcome sign unfortunately wasn't reflective, and hanging high overhead. So my best bet for a sign of Arkansas was at the visitors center.
Arkansas sucks. Not really, but their Tourist Center was closed. They also didn't have a single 'welcome to' sign anywhere on the property. The only thing that was neat was that the center was actual built on stilts out over the Mississippi River.
If not for the fact I had bought a 6-volt flashlight, I wouldn't have been able to take the photo of the Tourist Center sign.
Of all the things, I still can't believe I didn't turn around to take a photo of the Arkansas sign as I was leaving the state. After this, though, I made a habit of it. In the event that I was somehow unable to photograph a state sign, I always made sure to take it when leaving.
I followed US82 until Lake Village, when I took US65 north to Pine Bluff. With the internet spur built, I took I-530 to Little Rock and took I-30 north through the city to North Little Rock. From there, it was I-40 west until I finally stopped at a rest area short of Fort Smith.
Day 4