Episode 4. Mississippi River and Uhaul.

View of Mississippi River from Grackle.

Grackle on Uhaul trailer.

Nathan loading Grackle on Uhaul trailer.

Ashley and Grackle.

      My favorite book is Mark Twain's, Huckleberry Finn. I wanted to go on the road trip for several reasons, but top on my list was to see the Mississippi River. So far, the road trip has been quite an adventure, and I felt a bit like Huck floating down the river on a small raft. So I take a picture from the window of Grackle as we pass over the Mississippi River (see photo above). Since are two days behind schedule, I wasn't able to get out and put my bare feet in the water, but I am happy to get to see it from the road.
     An hour later, we are waiting at the Uhaul store to get the truck and trailer. We decided that even though the Uhaul was over our trips budget, things could be worse if we continued abusing Grackle and our backs on the bad highways. Nathan loads up Grackle on the truck and trailer (see photo's above). I walk to a gas station that smells like ammonia and has no AC and I buy some hamburgers and waters. I bring the hamburgers back to the truck and we eat the hamburgers in the Uhaul with AC! I tell Nathan, "I would never go into that stinky gas station back home to buy us food, but we are in the middle of no where and I am hot and hungry and these hamburgers are delicious. I guess I should try some hole in the wall restaurants on occasions." He agreed and we drive home with Grackle in tow, and AC on in the Uhaul.
     We pass through lots of road work in Alabama, but the Uhaul was very comfortable for the rest of the road trip back to Georgia. We make it home that evening. We are happy to be home to feed our cats, sleep in our own bed, and most of all- to be a proud owner of a 1979 VW Rabbit that we call Grackle.

Episode 3. Raise it up!

Nathan prepares to jack up Grackle to raise the car.

Nathan removes the front tires, adjusts suspension, and raises the car. 

I 'help' to raise the passenger side.

Yellow Uhaul store in Tallulah, MS.

     In Louisiana, we sleep over night at Sleep Inn. The hot tubs were great! On the road again, we stop in at several tire stores. However, finding 165/45/15's in a small (or even a big town) was proving to be impossible. The tires were taking a beating from the bad highways and becoming so bald that we felt it was dangerous to drive on the highway. We tried another tires shop that couldn't help us, so Nathan pulls into a parking lot to raise the car, in order to save the oil pan from the bad roads. See pictures above. He raises the front end 3 1/4 inches and we cruise down the highway again. The over passes are crazy as we pass over the rivers and there is no emergency lane on the over passes. We say prayers on the over passes for sure!
     We cross into Mississippi and find a nice town, Tallulah MS, where we continue the search for tires. We stop in at McDonald's and Nathan asks an old man for directions to the tire shop. He finishes his breakfast and says, "Just follow me". We follow him to the tire shop and they couldn't fit anything on our 15 inch Porche wheels, so we follow him to the Uhaul Store (see above photo). The nice lady says the Uhaul truck is out for repair, but she gives us the main number and we locate another store about an hour away.