The drive

We decided to stop and get some food and decide where we were going to go from there. We could drive to Charlotte and then fly somewhere cool, or we could just drive to Knoxville. Our only options were Savanah, GA (which was in the same storm we were, read NOT WARM) and Fort Lauderdale, FL. We nixed that idea because the taxi to get from the airport to the hotel was too expensive. We decided that I would fly home on Sunday, and we would take a real vacation at a later date.

It was now 5pm and we were on our way to Knoxville. Terra was navigating, which was my first mistake. She didn't understand why mapquest was sending us this crazy way to get to the freeway, so we took a different way. Her way took us straight through downtown Richmond, which was really neat. When we finally made it to the freeway, it took us on a big loop and one hour later, we were EXACTLY were we started from. Oh well, what's one more hour on a 7 hour drive? A LOT!

1st - you could not go more that 60 when other people were around because you didn't feel in control of the car. It was noisy and squirrely.
2nd - there is something wrong with the drivers seat and it tilts, just a little bit to the right.
3rd - Miata = NO LEG ROOM. I had more leg room on the plane. I am not joking or exaggerating.
4th - it is so low to the ground that I could see the underside of the trailers being pulled by the semi trucks. That is scary, TRUST ME!
5th - Getting in and out of the car takes way too much work. Terra was able to get in and out easier than I was (this does NOT mean that it was easy for her, just easier), but my legs are longer and I am larger than she is. Just to give you an idea, the door hit me on my side left and the e brake hit my leg when i was driving. I don't mean "they were touching me" I mean I couldn't move either way because they were there. It is a good thing I'm not any bigger than I am, or I may not have been able to fit.
6th - the car does not have cruise control. After about an hour of driving your right knee starts to ache because you can't move it, AT ALL. The steering wheel is in the way. Nor could you move your left leg, because the steering wheel was in the way. You were stuck in one position, with no relief.

I drove first, and after an hour and a half I HAD to get out. Terra wasn't happy about stopping any more times than necessary (read: once, to get gas), but she didn't put up too much of a fight because I was doing such a big favor. It was nice to move my legs. We got back in and about 3 hours into the trip, pulled over to get gas. This is when we switched drivers. The passenger's side is only more comfortable because the steering wheel isn't in your way. My knees still hit the dash and I still couldn't straighten out my legs.

Terra had been driving about an hour when she said "Now I understand about your knee!" All I could do was laugh and say I told you so!

We had a very nice conversation until my body revolted against me. I only got about 3 hours of sleep total on my flights. As long as we were talking while I was driving I was okay. At one point Jason called and Terra was listening to him. It only took a few minutes before I realized this was not good and I was going to fall asleep. Luckily she ended the call soon after that and we started talking again. Anyway, it was around 11:30 pm when we were talking and I realized that I was falling asleep. I tried to keep up my end of the conversation, but it wasn't going well. Terra said that she was talking and I didn't respond. She looked over and I was asleep. She turned on the music and I was awake. I immediately started appologizing for having fallen asleep. I felt bad because I was trying to keep her awake. She told me it was okay and I "reclined" the seat and fell back to sleep. I use the term reclined loosely. I will say that the seats do recline further than an airplane seat.

We pulled into her apartment complex at 1:30am, gather some of our stuff out of the car, and went to bed.

Current travel time: 15 hours 35 minutes