Chilly Billy Travels

“How do you spell ‘harrowing’?” asked Harry, as he was texting his brother.

“H-a-r-r-o-w-i-n-g” I regurgitated. 

We left early on Tuesday morning and it was 11 degrees. Brrrrr!

Too cold to snow…the snow, was crunchy and the roads? Well, they were covered with black ice. Sweet. Over the many years that we’ve been driving to Florida to do the Fort Myers Kiwanis Medieval Faire, we’ve seen our share of shite weather.

Merlyn posted Angels on every side of the car and also at the doors to her home and we set off. Thank God that we know how to drive in the snow and ice, and thank God that our faithful old Suburu has “goat feet” and all wheel drive. We saw SO many accidents along the way to the Washington D.C. area.  Even police cars and tractor trailers off the road. We were very lucky. But yes, a white knuckle drive for Harry the whole way. 

We arrived safe and sound at friend Kathleen’s and after hugs and kisses she brought out bottles of Scotch for a welcome “tasting.” We also slipped and slided our way down an icy hill as we took a winter walk to a wonderful Chinese restaurant for a fabulous dinner for a lot of tea, dumplings and hot and sour soup. Harry and I happily practiced for a couple of hours in Kathleen’s living room and we all sang and had fun. That night, we got some good sleep on an awesome BeautyRest bed and set off again in the morning. 

We continued on south and I tell you, it seems that our home winter weather was following us as it was NOT balmy. We got into Georgia and stopped for the night and it was a whopping 45 degrees here!
 Got checked into our modest Motel 6 room (they left the light on for us :)  It was clean and cheap we were grateful to get off the road for awhile. We then went out to get some dinner at a “Southern Buffet” down the road.  

Traveling Tip: When a waitress with a deep Southern drawl asks you if you would like cornbread, TAKE IT. Mmmmmm.   

It's a different world in the south you know. 

This was the bizarre billboard in the parking lot outside the restaurant there.   

Christ, you just don’t see that everyday. 

LOL.

Leaving the restaurant, the roads were dark and not well lit nor marked. It seemed to be a divided highway but without an apparent concrete meridian. We waited for traffic and crossed over in a safe manner…well, that was what we thought we were doing.….but as we were headed back to the motel, we suddenly realized with horror that we were now  traveling down the one-way road -ON THE WRONG SIDE FACING ONCOMING TRAFFIC!!! 

EEGAD!!! Swiftly using some race car driving techniques, Harry did an instant U-turn hairpin turn and we finally found a way off the fecked up engineered road and got safely back to our abode for the night.

Well, thank you Jesus! (and all the other Gods and Angels that Merlyn invoked) 

for all the safe travels and BONUS good cornbread.)

We have made it safe and sound to our friend, Ravyn's house in Gulfport in Florida. We look forward to a visit with her this night and some down time tonight. 

Off to Fort Myers tomorrow to meet up with our favorite minstrel buds, Jay & Abby (The Harper & The Minstrel) and to see our buds Dre and Max in Cape Coral!

And guess what? They have Sunshine here!