Florida Bound

Dorcas and I left this afternoon bound for Florida. This is the first winter since we both retired and our first real snowbird experience. We have gone to Florida for a week or so each winter for many years, but this will be the first time that we can really stay a while. Our plan is to bounce around in Florida until near the end of February and then head to Mississippi to visit my mother before returning home. About 2/3 of our destinations are known; the rest we'll figure out when the time comes. Our first destination is Lazy Days, near Tampa, where we are having some fogged windows replaced. Then we will move to Thousand Trails Orlando, a membership resort which we belong to. Then the day after Christmas we will meet some paddling friends at Alexander Springs in Ocala National Forest. Shortly after New Year we will move south to Thousand Trials Peace River near Wauchula. We have a week planned at Hillsborough River State Park near Tampa. Near the end of January we will be attending an RV rally near Clermont. In February we will meet some friends from home at Blue Spring State Park, which is an excellent manatee viewing area. Near the end of February we are attending another RV rally near Tampa. At some point we hope to get to south Florida and the Everglades area. We did bring some camping gear, so we can do an overnight paddle if we wish. Whew! Life is good!

We left home about 2:00 pm and had made arrangements to meet my Aunt Sarah for dinner in Charlotte at 5:00. We had plenty of time and had allowed for Friday afternoon traffic right? Wrong! Normally it takes about two hours to get to Charlotte from home. We elected to go down US 52 and I-85, rather than I-40 and I-77, since that was closer to our meeting place. Near the Kannapolis exit on I-85 traffic ground to a halt. Chatter on the CB revealed a wreck in our lane about 1 mile ahead and another wreck in our lane about 16 miles ahead. Traffic was stopped the whole way between the two wrecks. Dang. We decided to jump off at exit 63 and took the Old Salisbury Concord Road to the center of downtown Concord and then US 29 to I-485. We finally arrived at the Arboretum on Providence Road, only 15 minutes late. We dined with Aunt Sarah at the Cajun Yard Dog, a small Cajun restaurant recommended by my cousin Steve. We hadn't seen Sarah for several years and had a very nice visit. We were on the road again by about 8:00 pm. We bought 125 gallons of diesel fuel in Rock Hill (ouch!) and spent the night at a rest area on I-26 near Orangeburg SC.