Things to do in Birmingham, Alabama...

#1: Try not to become a material witness to anything. The hotel here is somewhere between unsettling and downright frightening. To say it is on the wrong side of the tracks would be an accurate statement in both the literal and figurative senses. We are basically trying to avoid any human or bacterial contact for the remainder of the evening and getting out of Dodge as early as we can.

The drive today was relatively easy, but that's because we decided to ignore the suggested route and make our way here relatively quickly in the interests of catching up on a bit of rest. Had we known the hotel would be anything but restful we might have reconsidered this. However, we didn't, so we attempted to find the good area of the city. We eventually stumbled across it; it consists of the University of Alabama campus and a half a block of restaurants several blocks away and separated from the rest of the city by a sort of demilitarized zone.

The latter was near the bar where we were to meet for the evening's gathering. We were early, so we stopped at a nice little barbecue place beyond the perimeter for an early dinner. We then went to the bar and checked in with the other teams to see how they were faring. More problems, but nothing catastrophic. People are starting to get a bit frayed, it seems. Good thing tomorrow is the last day; the people and the cars are showing the strain.

So Friday will bring an end to the odyssey in New Orleans. Of course, we are driving home Saturday and Sunday, but the event will be over. It will be good to be able to drive home without worrying about challenges along the way and dodgy hotels waiting for us at the end. The car has been cooperative thus far, and we're hoping this keeps up. The remainder of the driving should be fairly sedate highway time, which will be less stressful for both us and the car. Cross your fingers....

NOTE: Posting this from the Mississippi Welcome Area on I59 at 1145 Friday morning, since there was no functional internet at our lovely accomodations of evening last (more on that below). We are a little less than halfway to New Orleans at this point, and the challenge for the day is complete, so it's just driving from here on out. More once we've arrived.