Today was a driving day. We only stopped to find a few geocaches and eat a sandwich for lunch. John plotted a route that avoided freeways and toll roads so we drove on some quieter roads through quite a few towns. We left our hotel at 9:30 and checked into our hotel at 3 Alabama time. We lost an hour when we crossed the Chatahoochee River which forms the border between Georgia and Alabama.

From St. Augustine we drove about half way across the top of Florida then entered Georgia again as we had to go north before we could go west to Alabama. We drove about halfway across the south end of Georgia before we reached the border. Dothan is only about 30 miles from the Georgia/Alabama state line. Tomorrow will also be a driving day and we will go all the way across Alabama into Mississippi.

Green Cove Springs on St. John Lake in Florida. It flows up to Jacksonville and opens into the Atlantic.

We are still in flat, tree country. Other than going through towns this was the view most of the day. Sometimes the trees changed from whatever these are to Long Leaf Pines. We passed quite a few large tracts of land that had been planted in the pines.

There was a geocache hidden in the fence across the road from this nice little lake in Cairo, Georgia. There a couple of guys fishing from the shore so it must have fish. Although it also has….

I don’t know what this tree is but we have seen quite a few of them here in the south. There is another one we see a lot of that has pink flowers. I haven’t managed to snap a photo of it yet.

Some people keep interesting things in their yards.

I do not know what this building is, nor do I remember what town we were passing through, but all along the perimeter of the property were American flags with a name in memorium for service men and women from various conflicts. They may have all been from the town or county. They were obviously put up for Memorial Day. It was a nice touch. We saw the same thing in another town a bit further down the highway.

There was a geocache hidden at a small cemetery just west of Cairo, Georgia. The crypt is for Dr. Joseph H. Griffith who was born in 1888 and was a black surgeon in Decatur County, GA during the 1920s to 1960s. He established a hospital for black citizens and has had two books written about his interesting life. All of the graves on both sides of the crypt as well as the one in front belong to Griffin descendants.

There were only a few other graves in the cemetery and they were all in clusters. A Davis family, and a Williams family and some right up at the back that the names had worn off. Other than those dozen or so graves it was all just a nice park, so we stopped by the shade of a tree and had lunch.

We crossed the bridge over the Chatahochee River and left Georgia to enter Alabama. The Welcome sign was just a small highway sign on the far side of the bridge. We drove right past it before we processed that we were in a new state. John kindly did a U-turn a bit futher up the road and U-turned again so we could cross the bridge again and I could snap a pic. This is the most non-descript “Welcome to” sign we have ever seen.

The US is full of Interstate highways with varying numbers of lanes. They connect every single city or town of any size. We were on Route 84 a lot today and it is a double lane divided highway. But it, like many others we have driven while down here. have periodic left turn lanes that give access to the opposite direction so you can safely U-turn without worrying about getting rear ended by the traffic behind you. They are wonderful. They even have them going through the towns; seems to be wherever there are barriers between the opposing traffic lanes they make a safe spot to U-turn. As we are driving to our hotels or a restaurant Mary Lou, our navigations system, regularly says: “Make a U-turn” to get us going in the opposite direction to access our destination.

We were able to check into our hotel even though it was only 3 pm in Dothan. We took in the bags and then went to find a few geocaches. This one was not far up the road and had been made by the people in the big scrap metal yard beyond the trees as a monument to a major industry in this area. They wrap the sculpture in lights at Christmas. Dothan also bills itself as the peanut capital of the world.

Another cache we found in Dothan was at the “Smallest City Block in the World.” This land triangle has street names, a yield and a stop. It has been officially recognized by the Guiness Book of Records.

Thus ends our first driving day. We spend tomorrow night in Laurel, Mississippi and then head to Natchez the next day.