TripTales 0x0006: Day 1. And so it begins...

And finally, the day dawned. There was still some last-minute packing to be done. The plan was for a 6-hour drive, and I wanted to hit the campsite early. Finally left around 8 am from home.

I had bought a car sticker with an outline of the US states and plan to affix the sticker of each state I cross. There was a moment of concern as my over-thinking self wondered if it was a better way to advertise that I am from out-of-town anywhere I go, but my over-thinking self soon moved on to over-thinking about other things.

The drive was pretty easy. I stopped at the Museum of Aviation in Robins AFB, GA. The usual assortment of planes and stuff. But what caught my eye was exhibits that showed off uniforms, routes, etc. for when the USAF flew missions from India. Yes, from India. In WW2. In retrospect, it does seem obvious but had never correlated that.

Onwards and forward to the campsite it was. At the end of it all, it was a breeze to check in and setup the campsite. One thing to be said about life in the US is that when you buy a product or service the instructions are fairly idiotproof -- the tent came up easily, I didn't blow up the campsite with the propane cylinder, I didn't electrocute myself on the outdoor power socket, I didn't lose my way walking to the restroom and back. It was also probably the first time in my life I was going to spend the night sleeping in a car at rest. So there was that. It was a tad disorienting to wake up to pitch black darkness (the campsite had a no external lights policy at 11pm) but I had a David Bowman moment when I woke up in the middle of the night and looked out to see the sky full of stars!

I leave you all with this short summary of the day.