The trip down was quite interesting. Rain had been forecast for the morning. It sounded like I'd be out of it once I reached Montgomery - but no...

We stopped near Cullman for a break. I noticed that the tires on the trailer seemed a bit low. I checked and they were 28 psi - too low for sure. I put air in them up to 50 psi. Afterward, the boat seemed to be easier to pull.

Just north of Birmingham on I-65 I was in the middle lane. In the right lane there was a vehicle with flashing lights. I couldn't see really what it was in the rain. A tractor trailer was coming up in the right lane. I was passing the tractor trailer when the flashing light vehicle slammed on the brakes. The driver of the tractor trailer shifted over into my lane and slammed on the brakes. I shifted over half a lane to the left and hoped no one was beside me. He screeched to a stop. I passed him and saw that the vehicle with flashing lights was a fire truck. They were stopping to put out a burning car. The whole front end of the car was involved. I passed the fire truck. I came out unscathed but I was furious. I considered putting in a complaint to the Birmingham Fire Dept for stopping in the middle of the highway.

We encountered blinding rain near Prattville so I pulled off into a gas station with a canopy. It turns out the boat had about 1/2" of water in the cockpit. I sponged it out.

We continued down through Montgomery, then Troy and Ozark. I saw two wooden boats parked at a restaurant. We continued past Dothan via the 231 bypass. Upon reaching the Florida border the two boats passed us. We tried to catch up to take a picture but they were really "hauling boat". This is the best we could do.

These folks were really "hauling boat".

We pulled off at the Florida Visitors center to sponge out the boat and otherwise take a break.

We then took 73 through Marianna, picked up 71 and followed it on through Wewahitchka to Port St Joe. Then we took 98 east to Apalachicala. We got there about 1 hour before dark. I dried out the cockpit.

Later when we were walking back from dinner I saw lightning. I put a tarp over the boat to keep the cockpit dry.