Day 4-June 4

We haven't had the phone plugged in to update the map because of lack of signal in general Wednesday, but even when we got a signal, there was no data service. I am shocked by the inability of hotels along the route either to offer Wi-Fi, or when offered, have it configured correctly. I haven't experienced this before. Wi-Fi isn't hard to set up.

We made into Birmingham, AL yesterday. It rained most of the day, which made things a little unpleasant. The challenge involved photographing certain mailboxes along a specific route, probably 15 to 20 miles long. We made a few passes and gave up and headed for Birmingham, which was about 3 hours from mailbox challenge. Some teams put more effort into it and were stopped by local police. I heard one story of one of the teams from the UK being stopped in Alabama because the cop ran the plates and the car was supposed to be white, but was painted black. HA!

I did notice driving that the further south we get the more often the vehicles look like they belong in the BABE Rally.

One of the members of the team with the bus owns a bar in Birmingham, so we congregated there last night, with parking designated for BABE vehicles! 'Normal' cars were waved off, and the employee managing the lot took pictures of everyone that drove in. Unfortuneatly, the bus broke down at some point, and were very late in arriving. I heard it was a water pump. The chase vehicle was the Matador, which broke down getting parts for the bus. Good times, good times.

Talking with a guy last night at the bar, giving out free samples from a microbrewery. In the course of the conversation, I learned that Alabama just passed (like last week) laws allowing beer with more than 6 percent alcohol to be brewed in the state. 'Free the Hops'. It turns out he had a 1981 Toyota Tercel before. He said it had no power but wouldn't die.