10,000 BC

And now, I must digress to a time very much before the journey begins. We lived in a VERY rural city named Tifton, Georgia. I have circled where it is on the map.

Do you notice anything about its location? At a small party we went to, someone coined the phrase "Tifton is in the middle of everything and close to nothing." And this is so true, it is close to NOTHING. The nearest large cities were Atlanta and Jacksonville. Both of these cities are about three hours away. Even driving to a Kohls took fifty minutes. Our grocery store was a Super Walmart. Our electronics store was a Super Walmart. Our department store was a Super Walmart. Our weekend entertainment was a Super Walmart. Life had taken on a new meaning: Super Walmart.

So, how did we get here? Originally we are from San Jose, California but through many turns of events that are way too complicated to delve into here I ultimately accepted a mathematics faculty position at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC) in 2007. The three years I spent here in Tifton and ABAC were priceless for experience and knowledge. My time at the college and its proximity to a neighboring college, Moultrie Technical College, eventually led to my current occupation as an online mathematics instructor. This enables us to travel and have a paycheck as we travel. I have since been hired at an additional community college, Georgia Northwestern Technical College, in the same capacity.

Tifton, however, was a great place to use a "base of operations" for our many excursions into Florida and Georgia. There are places in Georgia that are priceless to see. One that stands out in my mind is the Okefenokee Swamp. I took my brother and sister in law, the ones from San Jose, to see it and my brother still mentions he "will never forget it." It is not a place that, I think, most people in the U.S. would think exists. It feels and looks like something out of the movie Deliverance.

This brute is about 500 pounds. Because of "little things" like him signs are posted like this.

But the swamp has its beauty. The water is black due to secretions from the roots of trees that grow out of the water. It forms a black mirror like surface and yields a smell unlike anywhere else I have been. Notice the reflection in the water of the jumbled lettered sign by one of the trees that deposits the black material.

But enough of this, this is the story of the Transit Connect Chronicles. I have laid enough groundwork to continue my story. We move forward in time to the beginning of the Transit Connect in the next entry.