We’re near Chattanooga, TN. We’ve been driving through a horrid rain storm. Blinding conditions, fog, and heavy traffic. It’s been scary but John always seems to keep his cool so I feel surprisingly safe even in a bad situation like that. It lets up for a while, and then hits us again.

We have about 190 miles before we get to our second night destination in Macon, GA.

Last night’s motel was very convenient but it had one negative quality: cigarette smoke. We had requested a non-smoking room and when we got there, it was fairly fresh smelling. But last night, while we were relaxing and watching TV, smoke came in. It was like a half dozen heavy smokers were in our room. It would come and go. I have a feeling there was a ventilation connection between our room and a smoking room and whenever they’d light up, it was pumped into ours. I’d give it another chance, because maybe it was just a fluke and maybe our Room 115 had the problem.

Dinner was at a better than average Cracker Barrel.

Tonight we’ll have steak at Logan’s Roadhouse. We’ll be ready for it, because we didn’t really eat lunch. We’d stopped in Knoxville for gas but decided it was a tad too early for lunch. Then we drove into that lousy rain storm — which right now is hitting us again extra hard. Our lunch consisted of cashews, some potato chips, and a peanutty brownie.

The sky is a little brighter, so maybe we’re nearly past this rain storm.