Part I, Day 15: 080623

Corbin the Cockroach, who I found semi-insensate from the heady mix of bacon grease and waffle batter, lying on his back on the floor of the hallway between the Men’s and Ladies’ washrooms at Jasper’s Waffle House. Further proof that Alabama sucks.

Today started with a lovely tasty breakfast, followed by my discovery, pictured above. Matt greeted Corbin only with a pause and the words “Alabama sucks”.

We visited Guntersville Lake on our way out of Alabama, where we found some lovely terrestrial isopods. I had unexpectedly poor luck collecting amphipods here, so Matt helped me out with a dozen or so that seemed to swim from his otherwise-identical-to-mine netfull of algae.

Guntersville Lake, our last sampling location in Alabama. Not pictured: Matt’s inexplicable amphipod-calling skills.

We entered Tennessee, bid farewell to Alabama, and proceeded to Lynchburg. We didn’t have much time to spare, so we didn’t take the tour of the Jack Daniels distillery, but I did pick up a couple of bottles, one for me and one for Carlo.

We examined several creeks and lakes in Tennessee, but found no amphipods and very little else, besides. Still, the drive was lots of fun, up and down the Cumberland Plateau, and round Tennessee’s many twisty smaller highways.

Sunset viewed from Interstate 40 Eastbound in eastern Tennessee. I don’t know why, but both Matt and I were impressed by this cloud.

Matt is quite the night-person, gaining remarkable driving prowess and endurance as the sun goes down. So, we drove almost all the way through Tennessee, staying tonight nearly within sight of Virginia.

Tomorrow we’ll visit a few places near Interstate 81 through Virginia, and stay in Pennsylvania or perhaps in the short dangly bits of Maryland or West Virginia.