Don't Panic, Mr Mannering!

ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 19th February, 2023.

Despite having all day to kill, we're fully awake by 7am and breakfasted by 8am. We check out and head for Covington. En route, we find a DIY store that opens at 10am in about 15 minutes time. We drive to find the B&B with themed rooms based on GWTW at £300 a t night. Drive back to the store but they can't help us with the bulb for RJ's bug killer but off a suggestion for a village to visit. We walk to the B&B for a photoshoot. PG just loved the name of the courthouse, have you ever seen so many "Js" in one place?

We set off for Social Circle, choosing the scenic route from satnav and it takes us through some lovely countryside. Plenty of cardinals and some buzzards feeding on roadkill deer. Social Circle allegedly is named after an event where a stranger was invited to join some good old boys sat around drinking. His response being "This sure looks like a social circle to me!" And, the name stuck. A number of houses on the outskirts remind RJ of the mansions from GWTW. The centre looks like one would imagine a cowboy town to look. A single wide street with stores and bars on either side.

Lunch is taken in a wooden shack which houses a pizza restaurant, it's full for noon on a Sunday. There's only once choice of beer for PG!

Again we take the scenic option back to the airport. We stop in McDonough which is a bustling little place. It's named after an Irish American sea captain who fought the British. It sits in Henry County, named after Patrick Henry, a Founding Father (their capitals), who is credited with saying " Give me liberty or give me death". After all that history, we had to have an ice cream to cool off.

We carry on through the countryside until we hit the interstate to the airport. With 10 miles to go, we leave the interstate to fill up with petrol. RJ asks a fellow motorist to confirm that we can use petrol and we get the OK from him. Satnav takes us to a road loudly proclaiming " This is not Car Rental Return". Several wrong turns, including one to a large car park which annoys both the guards and the motorists behind. Eventually, PG starts to recognise some roads from Friday and we find our way to Alamo. We arrive at 5pm and handover runs smoothly, including finding the right shuttle bus until.......

Halfway to the terminal, PG remembers that his passport is in a bag still in the car. Initially reluctant to let us stay on the bus, the female driver takes us back via Arrivals where we pick up new passengers. PG finds his way back to the customer services booth where an agonising 15 minutes follow whilst a manager checks Lost Property. All's well that ends well, but it did nothing for my blood pressure.

Through passport control and then security where somehow one of RJ's goes missing. The guard finds it and uses a litter picker to pass it back to her. No further mishaps and we leave roughly on time. Straight after dinner and a glass of wine, we try to sleep with mixed success.