Back southwest towards Tallahassee, with the idea of having a look at the vicinity of Augusta, GA. Since I was completely out of clean shirts, I first stopped at a Wal-Mart to buy a new one.

Dry, and some sun, part of the day. I was determined to avoid both Deal's Gap and the Blue Ridge Parkway this time, having done these several times already. I still encountered a lot of gap-like mountain roads, (and even a Miata club on an apparent trip,) and had as much fun as prudence in the rain allowed. My Yokohama AVS ES 100 tires are very confidence inspiring in the rain; I would think even better than the Toyo T1-S tires. Not bad, in view that I bought these tires on a few hours notice, finding a nail in my old tires on the morning of the day I left for this trip.

Lodging is hard to find in these parts. I ended up skipping a few roads marked scenic on my Rand McNally map to drive through to Anderson. In any case, I was not very impressed with the roads marked scenic that I did take, like US 19 and 11 W; the various smaller unmarked roads, such as 70, that I took were a lot better, if you ask me. I wonder what procedures are followed to decide whether a road is scenic: for example, there is a road along the Florida east coast marked scenic that is worse than strip malls, with absolutely no view of the ocean.

In Anderson, I got a room in the Quality Inn there, next to the Applebee's, so the idea was to walk over to the restaurant and wine and dine. Turned out that they do not serve booze on Sundays. No problem: I had seen a microwave in my room, so I ordered to go. I have better booze anyway. A microwave oven should be mandatory in hotels, if you ask me. The Quality Inn also has a complimentary hot breakfast in the morning; really a good find.

Pictures (click for larger size):