Day 1 (Tuesday May 12) Savannah GA to Chattanooga TN

As I mentioned, there was not a whole lot of planning done prior to leaving other than a general direction, which is easy when you're in Savannah and have spent most of your life in Florida: North and West it is.  I did want to get a lot of miles under us in the first few days, and I saw that the weather was pretty nice up in the upper midwest, so that was our target.  I found a cheap cabin (with power and heat but still pretty basic) near Mount Rushmore in Hill City, SD, and reserved it for nights 3 to 5 of our journey.  Now we just had to get there with ourselves and our vehicle in one piece.  By then, we'll know if this long-distance road tripping is for us.  

We went out in Savannah the night before since my old friend Tristan was in town for work.  Dinner at Tantra Lounge followed by drinks at Molly MacPhersons until way too late for me having a road trip the next day and Deri having to open her store.  Still, Savannah is a friendly town and we had a great evening.  So, a few short hours of sleep, then get up and load the Jeep.  I found someone on Craigs List selling one of those cargo platforms that goes in the trailer hitch receiver for $30 so I had picked that up and put a lot of our camping and cooking gear in there, leaving room in the back of the truck for an air mattress and the rest of our stuff.  That way, we would have the options of A) Tent Camping, B) Truck Camping, or C) cabins or hotels.  

We got on the road just after noon, which is about what I had expected so I was not overly ambitious with the first day's destination.  I wanted to get out of the South, but that would take a while so I settled for out of the state.  I found a campground online that looked nice called Racoon Mountain just outside Chattanooga, TN.  I got there right around 6, I guess, after narrowly dodging some traffic in Atlanta.  I appreciate those electronic signs they put up saying "bad accident, 4 lanes closed by airport".   Of course, turning off on the little mountain road to get to the campsite was another story.  There was an overturned car and the cops were directing everyone down a small side street without much further instruction.  Every time we turned down a different street to get back on the main road, we kept coming out on the same section that they had closed off.  Finally, we figured it out (or probably a local came by so everyone followed them).  

Oh, somehow we were getting 20 mpg when I budgeted for 16, so despite it's creaks and clicks and other alarming sounds, it seemed to be running pretty smooth and efficiently.  

Anyway, our first night was great weather (partly cloudy, low in the high 50's) so we were trying out tent camping.  I had always wanted to take Max camping but never had so I didn't know how he would do.  Now we were going to find out how he liked it.  Basically, it is being in his bed in a really small room with me, so he's fine with it.  I apparently remember how to camp from doing it so many years ago, and we successfully set up camp, cooked dinner, went for a walk, and went to bed.