Wheeeeere's Johnny Day 9

I awoke this morning to rain, which is not the best weather one can hope for when touring grave sites; however, being the indomitable person I am I pressed on. The first disappointment of the day came when I opened Johnny’s trunk to find water had leaked in during the deluge the night before. Although maybe not totally unexpected, after running through rain in LA and during the drive yesterday and not getting any rain in the trunk, I really didn't expect it to be a problem. I guess as long as he’s moving the water sloughs off the back, but sitting is a whole ‘nuther story. Fortunately, there is a layer of cardboard that holds the old pax window and that managed to absorb a lot of it. Undaunted, I headed north out of Laurel to Sandersville to find the grave sites of one Benjamin Franklin Purvis, my great-great-grandfather and George Wesley Purvis, my great-grandfather. Pretty easy pickings as the church and cemetery were only about a 20 minute drive from my starting point and just a wee bit outside of Sandersville, MS where my grandfather was born.

After wandering around the cemetery a bit I found the markers quite easily, paid my due respects to the dear departed and headed out to find the elusive burial ground of John Purves II, my 4th great-grandfather, which I tried to find yesterday. I headed back to the original location and after stopping to talk to an elderly lady who had lived in the area for over 50 years, got no closer to discovering the plot’s location. Not to be deterred, I headed into the town of Bay Springs to check at the local court house. The clerk was extremely helpful as well as a local volunteer fireman who was chatting her up when I arrived. They were more than willing to give me more information than I actually needed, but hey, this is the south and that has to be expected. That said, neither of them ever heard of Old Enon Cemetery, not that that deterred them from discussing it at length. Finally, the clerk called a local funeral home and after being passed from one person to the other there was a gentleman who was sure he knew where the cemetery was located. Getting precise directions this time I headed out of town yet again on my quest for another dead Purvis, or in this case Purves. You might wonder what the difference in spelling, but you have to remember years ago not everyone was as literate as they are today (ahhh, right) so spelling was at the option of the person writing it down on some official document. In this case it seemed to change with Benjamin and the local draft board. This I'm a Purvis and not a Purves. Anyway, following the directions in was was now becoming a steadily increasing downpour, I managed to find the cemetery they directed me to, however, it wasn’t the right one either. After two and a half hours of searching I gave it up as a lost cause. Maybe I’ll return someday with better intel.

I decided I reached the conclusion of chasing things down rabbit holes so I set Waze for home and started out in and ever increasing rain storm. The roads through Mississippi and Alabama aren’t too bad for the most part, but Alabama seems to have a lot of I-59 under construction with miles and miles of road restricted to 50 mph, even though there isn't a damn bit of construction going on, only  “Begin Construction” signs and “End Construction” signs and of course “Fines Doubled in Construction Zone” signs along with a few orange barrels along the side of the road. All in all it was very maddening, especially when most cars and trucks seem to be obvious to the reduced speed limits.

They say prior planning prevents poor performance and in this case that adage is true. As I passed through Tuscaloosa, Alabama I saw a sign for the Mercedes-Benz factory and visitor’s center. Well, I just has to stop, didn’t I? I got there at 3:00 pm, an hour before closing. The place was all but empty. A couple were just finishing a purchase at the gift shop and were leaving, so I had the facility to myself. If I had planned better, I might have arrived earlier and been able to do the factory tour. That said, it was quite the enjoyable visit. There were a number of classic MB vehicles including the first motorized carriage (Daimler), first motorcycle (Daimler again) and first automobile (Benz). There was a stunning cream 300SL, a 280SE Cabriolet, a new Maybach and my next car (in my dreams) a fantastic new S-Class Cabriolet. In addition there was Lewis Hamilton’s F1 W02 along with other significant MB’s. I even had my picture taken with my new BFF Lewis Hamilton (wink, wink). The whole deal only took about 40 minutes and I was back on the road only to realize I was going to pass Barber Motorsports Park and museum. Sadly that will have to wait for another trip. As darkness fell I had no desire to continue in the rain, so I decided to call it quits for the night. More rain is in the forecast so I may have to get a little rubber ducky to float in Johnny’s trunk for the remainder of the trip, which hopefully concludes after a long drive tomorrow. If this does turn out to be the penultimate Blog of the trip, then I can only say Johnny has preformed admirably thus far and I’ve learned a lot about him along the way. We surpassed 3,000 miles on this cross-country jaunt as of today. I guess you can say we’ve bonded. Certainly I felt as though my  arse has bonded to the seat at times.

New BFF