234...

...miles from Savannah to Columbus, this afternoon. The price of gas was so dang high, I would not buy enough to get me all the way home, so I had to stop twice to buy more. I'd get low, and pull off to buy $10 and go as far as I thought was safe, then stop in desperation and get another three gallons. Yeah - I know: crazy. But I would think, as is always true (Murphy's Law again) that if I did fill it up, it would be a nickel cheaper a half-mile down the road, right?

I left Columbus on Sunday afternoon, when I got off work at 2:00, driving east.  To spend the night with a friend who lives just south of Savannah, almost in the marshes of Chatham county. She is moving to Phoenix next month, so I have probably seen her for the last time. Though I just wrote her an email to say: stop by when you get started driving west, and I will jump on. I'm thinking when you are going straight across the US, you pretty much have to get across the Chattahoochee River here in Columbus, so if I could get her to slow down, we could have a really amusing road trip.

I went to visit a friend in a nursing facility in Savannah today, and started driving back home about 2:30. Listening to a talking book that was so amusing, I found myself laughing out loud on several occasions. Thinking about how strange it would look to passers-by to see me laughing uproariously  or possibly looking as if I were in great pain when we were stopped at a light together. At times so hopelessly amused, I'd have tears running down my face. Not a good situation when tooling along at 71 mph on I-16. Especially when I would take my glasses off to wipe my eyes, and then, of course, have profoundly limited vision.

I'd checked the book out from the library a couple of weeks ago, and just got started on reading/listening in the past couple of days. It's by Charles Portis. I kept thinking: 'what do I know about this guy?', and have finally concluded he might be the author of the story the movie the 'Shootist' was based on. I'll have to do some research, but I am pretty sure that is why his name is familiar.

 This book is hilarious. "The Dog of the South", about a man who's wife ran off with her ex-husband to central America. He takes off after her, but not to actually retrieve the wife, but in an effort to get his car back. The runaway wife and her ex left in his car, and he wants the auto back much more than the female. Can't say for sure how things come out - I'm only about half-way in, but  thus far, the adventure has been a hoot.