POTPOURRI--

We delayed our planned, snow-birding departure from Ohio one day due to fairly heavy snow Jan 2nd and enjoyed a sunshine-drenched ride the following day--just a day or so before the blistering cold clamped an icy fist on the northeast.

Talk about good timing!

We toasted our continuing good luck when we managed to avoid a huge traffic jam on the Columbus outer belt by hearing a radio traffic report, changing course and sailing through town on I-71.

Our navigation luck continued when we diverted from I-71 as we were entering the Cincinnati metro area.  A semi had spilled its load of steel just ahead of us.  Our detour timing was exquisite and we rolled around town on the east outer-belt without a traffic hiccup.

Our game plan was to avoid I-77 and its torturous course through West Virginia's snowy mountains by taking I-71 to Cincinnati, I-75 to Knoxville then wiggling back east on I-40 to I-26.  That put us back on our routine course and we arrived right on schedule for our first over-night stop in Columbia, SC with the polar weather and the mountains behind us.


The only calamity on our trip was when we attempted to wash the white glaze of road salt off the car and the South Carolina car wash managed to dribble only a stream of soapy water through its obviously frozen nozzles.  They refunded our money and provided a hose for a temporary rinse.

We left Columbia and headed straight south toward our next planned, overnight stop in Jacksonville by following the old main highways of US 321 and US 301.

What a marvelous relief from the high-speed mayhem of the interstate highways.  We trundled leisurely through southern SC and enjoyed the ambiance of the old deep-south with its cotton fields and decaying small towns who mostly lost their economic vitality when traffic was routed away on the BIG highways.

In spite of the visual pain of abandoned motels everywhere the charm of the deep south blessed our comfortable passage and a simple sign silently announced our arrival in Florida!

We celebrated our second overnight stop with daughter TJ and grandson Eli with a delectable dinner and even nicer conversation after one of those too-long absences which occur between scattered families.

Our final leg was a 200 mile chip-shot to Vero Beach along which we quietly celebrated every advance in temperature through the upper 70s until it clicked into the 80s just before our destination.

This was Sunday just before lunch.  Two days earlier we had seen minus 8 degrees in southern Ohio.

Can you see our smiles?