Day 24: Atlanta GA - Houston TX

Home at last! Drive three hours, turn left, have lunch, drive three hours, merge right, drive two hours through the swamp, have dinner, drive two hours. The sort of distances that can be covered in the US with cruise control and automatic transmission make Brits pale (and rightly so - 800 miles in the UK is Glasgow-London and back, and not even the maddest people I know would try that). And yet, actually, it's not so bad - even with two small boys in the car. We were home by 8.30 (even after a small, ultimately unsuccessful detour to the only place we've ever seen a North Dakotan license plate). By now, we've unpacked, put the bins out, put some washing on, opened the mail, picked up the dead cockroaches (Mike), relit the pilot lights on the boilers (Laura), and heartily reconnected with the cat. Our lovely neighbours have bought us milk and top notch croissants for the morning - I guess the vacation continues for just one more meal...

I'll post totals and conclusions tomorrow; right now, it's just good to be home.

Today’s statistics:

• Started driving: 7.50 EST
  
• Finished driving: 20.28 CST
  
• Miles: 762
• New States: 3 (we nearly did a ten mile detour into Florida, but every second counted)
  
• Favourite place-name: Iota, Louisiana
• Tank fillings: 3
  
• No. of times tank empty light came on: 2
  
• Emergency rest room stops: 1
  
• No. of traffic infringement notifications in mail: 1 (it was Mike)
  
• Breakfast: Super 8 Motel, Atlanta, GA
• Lunch: Cracker Barrel, Moss Point, MS
• Dinner: Chilis, Beaumont, TX
  

Today's discoveries:

• Either google maps, our milometer, or my spreadsheet is wrong. I tend towards Google maps. It says our journey today should have been 793 miles, and that doesn't include the various small detours for meals and gas stations... A very brief google seems to imply this might be because the earth isn't a perfect sphere - ooh!
• Being able to put the clocks back an hour when you're an hour into a long journey home is blissful.
• North Dakotans just don't leave the mid-north.
• The cat has NOT been pining for us.