Road Trip Day 17 - Mooresville, NC - Race City

Had a very good breakfast (Waffles, OJ, Coffee, Yogurt, etc.) at La Quinta Inn, Savannah. Checked out about 10:30 and began traveling north. Passed over the Talmadge Memorial Bridge into South Carolina.

Passed through South Carolina into North Carolina. It is so nice to be out of the rain! Went through Charlotte and started to look for a hotel. Mooresville, North Carolina, is known as "Race City" because it is home to Dale Earnhardt Jr. and many other NASCAR Teams.

All the businesses in town have banners such as "Welcome Race Fans!". I feel just a little bit out of place because I would probably not even recognize Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, or even guitar smashing Kyle Busch. I contemplate buying a NASCAR hat, but it seems a bit silly for one day.

Mooresville is modern, clean, and seems to have a lot of accommodations and restaurants. I get a room at the Ramada Limited Inn ($49.99 + tax using a coupon). I wanted to eat at the China Garden Buffet adjacent to the hotel, but it was closed due to a kitchen fire.

It was a nice stay except for the fact that my room was just opposite the noisy ice machine (I should have checked the Feng Shui before taking the room).

Road Trip Day 16 - Georgia on My Mind

Left Kissimmee. Did a quick stop at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex. The cheapest tour seemed to be $38... I saw some fun stuff from the ticket booth area and parking lot, and I questioned whether going in would provide me with $38 of marginal utility.

Also did a quick stop at Daytona Speedway. There was news on the radio about some schools and roads being closed because of flooding.

It was raining so hard that visibility was almost zero, so I decided to get off the freeway in St. Augustine and go to a McDonald's. A number of people seemed to have the same idea. The grill at the McDonald's was "not working because of the storm". Got going again after about an hour.

Stopped at the Georgia Visitor Center (or G ORG A VIS TOR CENTER per its sign) - was watching The Weather Channel and using Wi-Fi for about 5 minutes when an employee came and turned off the TV. After a few more minutes, about 5:25pm somebody yelled "We're closing". There seemed to be several employees talking among themselves, and not really interested in helping visitors. It was not a particularly welcoming experience.

Drove to Savannah. Got a room at the very decent La Quinta Inn and Suites on Abercorn in Savannah Southside (only $49 plus tax using a coupon from a hotel discount book). I thought about going to Paula Deen's The Lady and Sons Restaurant, but I could not get through on the phone to check on the wait time. Instead, I ate at nearby Pakwan, an Indian Restaurant which had okay food, but very friendly service. I guess I will always wonder what I missed at Paula Deen's.