Matt was having a nightmare and it woke me up.  I rolled over and picked up my phone - 5:40 AM!  UGH!  It wasn't time to be awake yet.  I was already unhappy about 6:15!  I snuggled up with him and tried to go back to sleep, but it wasn't working.  I got out of bed at 6:05, turned off my alarm and took a shower.  I woke up Matt at 6:30 so he could hop in the shower and I turned on the computer to check the traffic. 

There were two ways to get to New Orleans.  The shortest route - 987 miles - took us down 85 through Atlanta, Georgia and Montgomery, Alabama.  It was only 10 minutes faster than the alternative route that took us down 59 and 81 - 993 miles.  In our experience, it's usually a safer bet to go the route that doesn't pass through major cities.  Most all highways pass through some cities, but we didn't want to end up in Atlanta during rush hour.

I made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for later in the day and we left the house at 7:00.  We grabbed some drinks and my breakfast sandwich at McDonald's and stopped at Panera so Matt could get a bagel.  While he was inside, I ate my yummy steak, egg & cheese biscuit.  We were on 64 heading west at around 7:15.   At 7:30, I made several calls to Emma to make sure she was up and getting ready for school.  When she didn't answer, I figured she was in the shower.  Emma seldom sleeps in.  She called me back and confirmed - she was getting ready for the day. 

The first few hours or our trip were very quiet.  Matt fell asleep and I left the radio off because I didn't want him to wake up.  When I first set out on a long drive, I'm overwhelmed with the idea of how far we are going.  It was roughly 1,000 miles.  When I hit the 100 mile mark, I thought "Yay!  We are 1/10 of the way there."  It's a game I play with myelf.  Always trying to find the positive.  My Diet Coke was empty so I started drinking his tea.    I was hoping to drive until we needed to stop for gas.  There was a small incident on the road, but it only added a few minutes to the trip.  The traffic was moving along at a pretty good pace and we were making good time.  Matt woke up before we got to the end of 64.  He needed use the bathroom and was surprised that I didn't have to go.  I was trying to think about other things.  We managed to make it to 81 before we stopped to use the restroom.

When he wasn't sleeping, Matt was working on his business website - Sheer Cliff.  I didn't mind driving and managed to make it 365 miles (just over 1/3 of the way) before I asked him to take over.  At 12:20, we stopped in Greenville, TN for gas - $33.89.  We ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and had some other snacks. 

I'm not a very good passenger.  I get very annoyed when people don't drive as fast as I drive.  I told him that he needed to drive at least five over the speed limit because speeding was offsetting our frequent our stops along the way.  After 202 miles, we stopped in Trenton, GA to use the bathroom and we went ahead and filled up the tank...just $14.01!  Apparently driving slower increased our mileage to almost 26 mpg!  Given the fact that our van is 12 years old and has so many miles we were thrilled!  Added bonus...we were more than 1/2 way to New Orleans!  It was 3:20.  Matt had his Panera blueberry muffin before we got back in the car.  I wasn't hungry because I had been snacking on Bit O Honey candies while he was driving. 

Fueled up and ready to go and I was back behind the wheel where a belonged.  Matt worked some more on his website and I sang at the top of my lungs.  We were very fortunate.  We didn't encounter any accidents along the way.  I drove about another 150 miles before we stopped for dinner in Bessemer, Alabama at Los Sombreros for Mexican.  The food was yummy, reasonably priced, and the service was fast.  We were only stoped for about 40 minutes.  With tip, our dinner was only $24!

I continued to drive until we stopped for gas in Toombsuba, Mississippi.  We weren't far from Skydive Nawlins and Matt wanted me to be in charge of booking a room so we switched off when we got gas ($22.52) at Love's Country Store.  It was 264.7 miles since our last fill up my driving was averaging only 21.5 mpg.  Oh well...I was saving us time and in the grand scheme of things...our car is still getting over 20 mpg after 12 years!

While Matt was driving, I did a search for hotels near the drop zone.  I had asked the DZO for a recommendation, but she suggested Priceline as there were a number of hotels nearby.  I ended up using Bookings.com.  Our hotel was considerably cheaper using this service AND they do not charge a booking fee like Priceline.  I found a four star hotel - The Wingate by Wyndham in Slidell, LA for only$96.69.  This included taxes and a free breakfast complete with a make your own waffle bar.  Matt completed the final leg of our trip - 170 miles.  We arrived at the hotel at approximately 10:15 local time (11:15 EST).  When we were checking in, the cashier told me that the "best" rate she could give me with taxes included was around $125!

Our room was beautiful.  The bed was comfortable, everything was clean, the bathroom was spacious and the shower was hot.  After nearly a 1,000 miles of driving, we managed to shut out the lights at 11:10 PM.  We were exhausted from the trip, but we were thrilled to be so close to Skydive Nawlins - just 9 miles away.