We
worked until after 2:00 am again last night so we ended up
with a later start than we had planned to today. To
make it worse, when we arrived in Columbus yesterday we
happened to pass the National Civil War Naval Museum on the
south end of town and thought that it would be worth
visiting before we headed out today. As with any trip
or vacation there just never seems to be enough time to do
and see everything that you want to, but this attraction
looked like one that we couldn't pass up. We arrived at the
museum around 11:00 a.m. and it took until almost 1:00 p.m.
to see everything. It was incredibly interesting to
see some of the salvaged ships from the 1860's that they had
re-constructed and to really get a sense of what life was
like back then, especially for the young soldiers.
After
leaving the museum we grabbed a quick bite to eat and
re-stocked our cooler with more ice and water. With
the trailer loaded (more like over loaded), we left Rome at
about 1:30 p.m. and continued north through Georgia on Hwy
27. We worked our way through several small towns,
along the way passing numerous fellow Jeepers (actually,
they were passing us) and quite a few people curious to see
where we were going, where we came from and most importantly
why? Once we explained our story to them, the most
common response was "how cool...you guys are lucky".
We agreed with every single one of them.
The Jeep and
trailer are a perfect match for each other and combined are
a definite eye catcher. We would be shocked if there
were more than a handful of folks that we passed (actually,
they passed us) that didn't do a double-take or wave or give
us a thumbs-up. The one thing for certain is that our
Jeep and trailer are real attention getters and a phenomenal
tool for promoting our cause...just as we expected it would.
The suspension system that Adventure Trailers (out of Upland
California) installed on our trailer works so well that we
can’t even tell that the trailer is behind us. We have
the trailer packed to the top with all of our gear and if we
still had the stock suspension on it the little Jeep would
be jarred and jolted all over the place which would have
made this trip dangerous and very stressful. We both
agree that we simply would not make this trip if we had to
tow a stock military trailer.
We
spent a total of about six hours driving today and reached
Rome Georgia at about 7:30 p.m. By the time we stopped for
the day we were both ready for a break out of the Jeep.
Two days into the trip and we are having a fantastic time
but we find that we need to stop and stretch once in awhile.
The best hotel we could find in Rome was the Days Inn which
is pretty much in the center of town. After getting
checked into our room and hauling our gear out of the Jeep
and trailer we grabbed a quick dinner at Applebee's and went
back to the room to get some work done on the Jeep and the
website.
We
started off by giving the Jeep a quick check-up to ensure that
we would be good to go in the morning. When we checked
the transfer-case we realized that it had leaked out about a
half a quart of fluid so we topped it off. The
transmission was running a bit low as well so we topped it
off too. Everything else checked out good. Tomorrow we
are planning on pressure washing the underside of the Jeep
so we can try to determine exactly where the leak/s are
coming from and asses whether or not we should fix it
or just continue to monitor it and top it up as required.
If we do decide to fix it we will be looking for a mechanic
shop with an auto hoist that we could use rather than laying
in a paved parking lot to fix it.
Now as we
wind down the night we are once again working until 2:00
a.m. trying to get today's journal and pictures posted to the
website.
