"RoseGarden" - - - - - - - from - nscave

The snowbird journey south is once again complete as we take up temporary residence in Panama City Beach, Florida.

Maine Snow flurries

Our taste of winter included some moderate snow flurries in the state of Maine. Heavy enough to cause limited visibility, and enough road spray that our blue vehicle turned white, with only windshield tracks to see through.

Did you ever try to clean your mirrors, headlights and tail lights with toilet paper? The difference between single layer and double layer was evident.

GPS Do Not Take Me There

I would not think of traveling without a GPS. However the “map bitch” was hard to get along with for awhile. (Sorry, that’s what I call her, she is always telling me where to go.)

For some reason when we got in the New York city vicinity, she was bound I was going to take I-95 through New York. I was determined before I left my doorstep not to do that.

No matter how I programmed it, or what towns I tried as intermediate points, she was trying feverously to turn me around towards the big apple.

After much stress and more than several cuss words she got her act together and we were on the route that ‘I’ preferred to take.

That night, (the second), I tried to track down a place to wash our vehicle. After getting directions for the only one for miles around, so we were told, it was a shabby little place, coin operated, with no instructions of where or how to get it to operate. Mission aborted!

Third Day Stares

Being well south by the third day, our white salt covered blue vehicle was gaining lots of gawks and stares, as we cruised the interstates. Stopping near Spartanburg, P.A. that night I figured a wash job had to be in order.

I spied a Valvoline wash/oil change facility near our motel for the night. As I approached the establishment, a young gentleman came out and asked if he could be of help. “is your wash still open?” I asked.

“It is,” he replied, “What the heck is that all over it, is that salt?” “Yes, and a lot of dirt mixed with it,” I said.

“I don’t think my wash will take that off,” he said. “Drive around, we’ll give it a try.” He pushed some buttons and I ended up with a full wash under and over, along with the typical spray wax.

It did a wonderful job, taking every bit of gunk and salt off. Big Blue was blue and sparkly once again. I drove around to the front again, and the owner came out again.

“How did it do?” he asked. “Terrific,” I said, “What do I owe you?”

“Not a thing,” he replied, “this one is on me, thanks for dropping in, I hope you enjoy your trip.”

What a wonderful person to have contact with on such a long trip. There are people that care. I hope to do something like that for someone some time.

Atlanta

Our heaviest traffic was in the 14 lane city of Atlanta. If there is any place as busy in Canada I would be surprised. But the map b…. got us through with little problem. There was an accident which slowed progress to 10 ft per minute for about half an hour. With that many lanes, you have to be all eyes to survive.

Added to the confusion was the fact it was beginning to rain heavily. Seen on CNN after our arrival in Florida that the I-85 through Atlanta was closed for a time due to flooding, and the pictures showed an area we went through where the water was ‘hood’ deep.

Is that luck or good timing?

Long, Sometimes …

The rest of the trip was long, sometimes boring, as we made our way to Panama City Beach. As the palm trees began to increase in number, the feeling of contentment began as we entered familiar territory.

It was 25 deg. C. on our arrival, yesterday afternoon. Today it dropped to 8 deg. C. in the early morning. But the thoughts of no snow for our winter makes even that feel warm.

You know what that means. Stay tuned for more adventures from our southern vantage point. Some strange but true, some just the facts. And some YouTube additions as well. Hope you can join us.

This work by NSCAVE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License