Shane is a worry wart. Friday night he was adamant we should leave for the airport at 4:00 am for a 6:10 am flight. I reminded him there are fewer gates in the entire airport (7) than my wife owns purses. We compromised on a 4:15 am departure from the hotel.

The yellow cab was dutifully waiting at 4:15 and we headed 6 miles down a deserted road to the Mobile Pascagoola Regional Airport. Along the way, our cab driver subtly switched the meter off. At 4:21 am, we pulled up at the terminal and were told it was $25 for the 6-mile cab ride.

I would say "Welcome to Mobile," but we were leaving.

With a bad taste in our mouths.

As I feared, the TSA security screening area wasn't even open yet. At 4:55 it opened 5 minutes early.

Yep — it took 1 minute to clear security and walk to the gate. But we arrived at the gate for our 6:10 am flight without a worry.

Fortunately, Mobile offers free wireless internet so I prowled eBay looking for useless things to buy until it was time to board. Victor and the rig crew arrived for the same flight — at a more decent time.

Shane took my camera and watched the sun come up in Mobile.

Unbeknownst to me, Shane had been saving his room keys from the entire tour. When I asked him to empty his pockets, you'll notice one thing is missing.

Cash. The boy was out of cash, which meant it truly was time to go home. At 6:00 we boarded, and blasted-off into the cloud-filled sky.

Shane had hoped we were going to fly over the Gulf, so he could see, firsthand, the oil disaster.

No such luck.

I closed my eyes for a few extra minutes of sleep on the way to changing planes in Dallas. In Dallas, we ate breakfast (I bought, since cashless boy was, well, cashless) and went our separate ways for connecting flights home.

All in all, the Tour was a great time. The Callaway 552 Camaro was a rocket on the straights, and a surefooted beast the harder it was pushed in the corners. You gotta love that supercharged L99 motor and Eibach suspension.

We also averaged about 22 miles per gallon. That's not too shabby for 552 real horsepower.

Rumors abound, as always, of next year's route. I'm keeping my ears open for confirmation. I'm also thinking out of the box for next year's transportation. I want to do something that's never been done before, because I'm not getting any younger.

Just wiser.

Thanks for reading my blurbs of life on the Power Tour. Over all the years, and all the miles, we've all had a great time. I hope you'll join us on the road in 2011. But, if you can't, there's always my musings of life on the road.

I have about 3,000 digital images to sort through so they can be uploaded to the photo gallery. Give us some time — it's not easy looking for a few good pix in between all the blurry shots and cut off heads. We'll get 'em up as soon as we can.

I sign off, as always,

Your humble and obedient servant,

Forrest Tosie
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