Day 2 is the first actual day of following the Power Tour route. It finally set in that thousands of hot rodders, would be driving the backroads from Hampton, Georgia to Columbia, South Carolina. We met up with the crew and hit the road.

It was nice to see so many car clubs and groups along the route, waving and cheering us on. It was like an all day parade of enthusiast cars battling the southern heat.

The route took longer than expected as we experienced several bottle necks along the way. Small towns are fun to drive through, but thousands of cars encountering a 4-way stop in the town square can create a traffic nightmare.

The venue was a new stop for the Power Tour and proved to be adequate for the event. There was plenty of blacktop parking available. We made a quick lap around the vendor area, punched our Long Hauler passes, then headed to the hotel. It had been a long day. We were eager to eat and get out of the sun.

This stop was the only hotel of the week. The other stops were close enough to family for us to crash with them. I had blindly booked the hotel without really knowing the area. The star rating and reviews seemed fine and it was close to the venue. As I approached the hotel address, the neighborhood took a turn for the worse. The hotel was across the street from a vacant Wal-Mart center. There were people hanging out and the police were at the check-in area appearing to respond to an incident. This wasn’t going to work.

I had planned to meet up with a buddy from college, so we scrapped the hotel idea and met him for dinner. After dinner, we called around trying to find a decent hotel for the night. I even checked places 15-20 miles down the road, with no luck. I had one hotel employee tell me on the phone “the hotels are booked up all around Columbia, there is some type of car show in town.”

I finally found a hotel with a vacancy. It was tucked away in a business district and turned out to be perfect for stashing the Cutlass. I could even see the car from my room window. Next stop, Rockingham, North Carolina.