the thanks-giving trip: 11 days - 4.700 miles
states: NE-IO-MO-AR-TN-AL-FL-MS-LS-TX-OK-KS-NE

Only a couple of days after our return to Lincoln, Thomas and I already started planning our next trip. This time we were more
then confident in the performance of the Caprice and wanted to see even more an, visit as many states as possible.


Since it was almost december already, we decided to take a ride down-south and were planning to
visit Memphis and maybe New Orleans. We left Lincoln right after our last class and got all the way down to
the southern part of Missoury on that first day. Since we were still taking only the back roads and hardly drove on the
interstate, we were again able to experience all the different landscapes and could stop in really neat little towns.



At the end of the second day, we arrived in Memphis - the city of the blues and Elvis - We stayed there for a total
of two days and enjoyed the view of the Mississippi River, the Elvis Mansion and the teasty souther food. But
we wanted to visit more places and drove east through Tenesse on the next day, past the Jack Daniels destillery
and then had our thanks-giving dinner in a hill-billy all-you-can-eat restaurant way deep in Alabama.



The closer we got to Florida, the more sure we were that we definately had to see the ocean.We decided to drive
the extra 500 miles and stop in Daytona Beach. On our way there we saw this private junk-yard - what a shame!
Compare the 1963 Impala to the left with a perfect '64 we saw in Daytona!



When we got to Daytona, we soon learned that we won't get away with a cheap room this time. But it was worth the
money, since we stayed in a hotel which was right on the beach and offered a perfect view at the sunrise of the
next morning. What we also didn't known before our arrival: it was the weekend of the Daytona Beach Turkey Run
Custom Car Show - the whole city was filled with Rods, Customs, Classics and Lowriders...
and Thomas and I were in the middle of everything, some people thought that we drove all the way from
Nebraska to Daytona just to take-part in the show!



The next day was dominated by a long walk by the sea-side, some relaxing in the sand, and - of course -
by a full-size cruise on the beach! That was really impressive, it is possible to drive right by the sea and park almost
anywhere on the beach to go swimming... that's absolutely so American!



But after enjoying the nice and warm Florida wheather (it was December first), we had get on our way back
to Lincoln... couln't skip classes forever! We stopped in Panama City on the next day, slept in Mobile,Alabama
and then reached our last big stop: New Orleans. From there we drove up north along the shore of the
Mississippi River, visited the plantaions and headed toward Dallas, Texas.



It was on our way to Mobile, somewhere south of Tallahasse and in the middle of the night, when our first and only
ever problem with the Caprice evolved. The front-right tire blew up due to the many miles that we had put on
them. We ended up putting on the spare tire in some ghetto-like part of town and hat to spent an extra night in Tallahasse.
The last part of the trip took us through northern Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. Especially the southern part of
Kansas had just been hit by a small blizzard, so as a contrast to the beaches of Florida, we now had to put on our
beanies and jeckets again.... still rolling summer-profile tires.

Click here to read about the final trip to Cali....


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