My husband, DB, and I have made our annual migration south to Florida. It is a three day drive. Here is how it went. NB. Photos were only taken by the passenger not the driver!!
DAY ONE
“We’ll get on the road at 7am….well maybe closer to 7:30.” Ok so we left at 7:55. Considering we had maneuvered through family house guests and a total of 10 for Christmas Day and Dinner I think that one day to pack and get everything sorted ,to be away for 3 1/2 months, we did well to be on the road by 7:55am.
This year we shipped DB’s truck so we could drive down in my car together. Heading to the border we saw other car transports on the road. These can carry up to 9 cars.
When we arrived at the border in Detroit we were surprised to find that things were moving quickly. Due to the Federal government shut down in the US, border officials are working without pay. The officer who we saw looked at our passports, asked where we were going, and waved us through.
The drive on this first day was a long one and we arrived in Lexington Kentucky at 7pm. We always stop for lunch and take breaks when filling up for gas.
DAY TWO
On the road by 7:30! Our little dog Tia travels with us and she settled right in to her bed like a travel pro. In Kentucky I like to tune in to Country and Western Bluegrass music. Here is a clip taken as we drove. This section of the highway is divided for construction. This is C&W old school not your cross over country rock!
It was a grey, wet day that did not offer much chance to see the scenery.
We drove on south to Knoxville and then headed east. This part of the drive is visually impressive and fun to drive with many twists and turns. But there were bursts of heavy rain and it seemed, looking at the rivers, that here had been much rain in the preceding days. In places there was water pouring from the rock cuts. Look at one on the left in this photo.
The scenery is beautiful going through the mountains and is enhanced by the clouds.
Later in the afternoon the rain became torrential with blinding downpours and traffic slowed down. There were accidents. One involved a tractor trailer. HGV, or Juggernaut are other names for these massive rigs. You can see one on the left in the photo above. The tractor trailer had jack-knifed and the truck was heading backwards and the trailer was off the road into the rocks. I was driving at this point and gave thanks that we had not been there when that happened.
Progress was slow and the rain relentless. We decided to stop early and at 5:30 we stopped for the night.
DAY THREE
The rain had stopped and we carried on south. But ….. that did not last long and more rain fell. There were reports of flooding in many areas. By mid morning we were in South Georgia and stopping for gas I saw some of the Spanish Moss hanging from the trees.
I thought that this path into the woods led to a place that time had forgotten. To be honest the whole gas station had a feel of being in a time warp! This is what makes travelling by car fun; you know you are travelling in a foreign land.
Florida! We crossed the border but we knew from 10 years of doing this drive we were still hours from our South Florida destination. And guess what….. it did this…
I would like to point our that I took this photos in between swipes of the windscreen wiper. That is how much rain was lashing down. However as we continued south the temperature rose and finally the sun appeared!
3 pm we made the turn off to Palm City and made a short stop on the way to say hello to a friend.
He said :”Hey Ma….what took you so long?”
Leave a Reply