I don’t know exactly who, but a wise man once said: “All good things must come to an end.” I’ll add to that: “and some of those things end sooner than expected.”
We all knew that this adventure would end somewhere-but none of us would have guessed it to be here.
Seventy miles outside of Tallahassee, Florida, at about four this morning, an over-heated bearing caused our tour bus to pull off on the side of I-10-for good. The bus, which we’ve been affectionately calling “Big Mama,” has reached her final destination on the 40/40 stop. The miles and miles were apparently too much for her to handle.
Ironically enough, this unfortunate breakdown probably serves as a solid metaphor for the end of this trip. We are all tired, worn-out, and longing for a stable night in a real bed.
Our fatigue started to show late in DC and into Williamsburg. Even a sugar high in Charleston wasn’t enough to provide some consistent energy. A few people have admittedly checked out. So, it’s kind of ironic that Big Mama broke down.
In the mean time, a charter bus from Atlanta is on it’s way to pick us up. We’ll be driving from Florida back to Atlanta, picking up another bus driver, and completing the route back to Nashville. Poor Montgomery will be completely by-passed, but our Nashville arrival time is about the same.
But the most bummed person on the bus might be our driver, Ruben. Ruben is a grizzled 10-year driving veteran. He’s driven everyone from Snoop Dogg to Madonna to Lil Wayne-and he’s never missed a stop… not one assignment. He’s the Cal Ripken or Brett Favre of the road-a true ironman. Today, that record went down.
It’s a big disappointment-an anti-climatic, drawn-out ending to this crazy trip. We’re all ready, though-the time has come.
The license plate on the back of our bus reads: “Tennessee: ‘Sounds Good to Me‘”. I’d have to say, we all agree.