Sunshine!!

So yesterday, the sun did reappear, but the temperature was a bit chilly. We even turned on the car seat warmers and they felt very good on our old behinds!!

 

 

It was nice to know that we did not have to get on the road  and continue driving because we had arrived in Fort Myers. After breakfast, we took our time getting ready for church. We received a warm welcome back at Hope Lutheran Church.

 

 

After church, we ate a quick lunch at McDonald’s. They now offer a Mac Jr. which I like a lot. The Big Mac is usually too much food for me, but they remind me so much of the Mighty Mo’s that we used to get at the Hot Shoppes.

 

 

We had a little time to kill before we could check into our condo so, we looked for one geocache. I confess that I became too cold while looking for it and the wind made it feel even colder. I retreated to the car and suggested that we come back another day when it was warmer. But, Cordell never likes to give up so he kept looking and about 5 minutes later, he found this cleverly camouflaged pill bottle. It is fun to see all the different ways cache owners try to conceal their containers.

 

 

 

 

 

When we drove through a neighborhood near the church, it was interesting to see this warning sign for not only bikes, but also for golf carts. Many retirees use these carts to travel around their neighborhoods and never play golf.

 

 

We bought a few groceries and then checked in to the condo. This is our 4^th year here and it almost feels like home.

 

Today, Monday, when we woke up we noted the difference 980 miles can make in the outside temperatures. While at home it was 10°, here it was 43° at 7:00 a.m. We also noted that there has been snow at home and schools are closed today.

 

 

We had some chores to do today. We went to the grocery store and bought a ton of stuff! They are selling firewood that is stacked outside. I suppose there are some folks who burn it now, but it was much, much warmer today and felt more like Florida.

 

 

Somehow doing laundry is not as boring when we have a view like this while we are waiting.

 

 

 I brought some decals with me that I put on the sliding glass doors. The decals are needed to keep us from walking into the doors, which we have done at least once each year. But these decals also remind me to be thankful for the blessing of being in this part of God’s world at this time of the year.

 

 

 

 

Where’s the Florida Sunshine?

 

Brrr—it was 50° and raining this morning! We hardly saw the Florida sunshine at all.

  

 

 

 

While some northern folks were having issues with driving in the snow, we passed this semi that ran off the side of the road and obviously had trouble driving in the rain.

 

 

We really didn’t want to look for any geocaches in the rain, so we just kept heading south. We arrived in Fort Myers well ahead of our 3:00 pm check in time and were glad that they had a room ready for us.

 

After depositing our bags in our room, we dashed out to McDonald’s where we encountered our first automatic ordering machine which does everything. Our order was accurate, we paid by credit card and there were no problems understanding English.  This definitely is the future for fast food restaurants.

 

 

Back at our hotel, I took time to exercise on the treadmill since it continued to be misty outside.

 

 

It was rather sad to note that the weather was not Florida enough for people to use the outside swimming pool.

 

 

We snuggled in and enjoyed watching the NFL football games. We may or may not have taken a nap or two! Between games, we went to dinner at Two Meatballs in the Kitchen Italian Grill. We groaned when we drove into the parking lot and it was full, but someone was leaving and we got a space very close to the front door. We groaned again when we saw people waiting inside and the hostess told us it would be 20-25 minutes before we might be seated. However, we were blessed to get a table in less than 5 minutes. The food was excellent and served in a reasonable time. When we left, there were even more people waiting to eat. We have decided that we will definitely be going back here before our time is up.

 

 

 

 

 

North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and finally FLORIDA!!

 

 

Well, 16 days of winter was enough for me!  We woke up to a 40° temperature this morning. We had no complaints though since we received a photo from Maryland that showed snow falling there.

 

 

As we drove south, the weather got warmer and warmer and by 2:00 pm, it was sunny and 68°. This was a day when we began to shed layers of clothing. I started out wearing a vest over a long sleeved shirt that was over a short sleeved T-shirt. By noon, I was in my short sleeved shirt.

 

It always excites me to see the scenery change from winter like to more like spring while we are traveling south. First noticeable is that the grass in the median begins to look green.

 

 

Farther along, we saw trees with green leaves.

 

 

After driving 493 miles from home, we saw our first palm trees.

 

 

Our goal when we left Fayetteville this morning was to drive to Starke, FL which is about 40 miles south of Jacksonville. There is a certain geocache there that will complete one of our geocaching challenges.

 

We have heard weather predictions for significant snow fall at home and especially in some of the southern states. Roads at home had already been pretreated before we left. But, the highway department in South Carolina was out spraying chemicals while we were traveling this morning. It made me wonder how frequently they need to do this.

 

 

After we stopped for lunch north of Brunswick, GA, we took a break and looked for 3 geocaches. One of them was located about 120 feet from a parking lot at an abandoned shopping mall. I felt like we were explorers while walking through the overgrown vegetation. There was a lot of Spanish moss all over the place.

 

 

 

The cache was hidden beside a huge tree and I wished we had some information about it.
 

 

 

 

The only wildflowers we saw blooming was the hardy dandelion.

 

 

Another cache was at an old cemetery which is the burial place of African Americans who were enslaved on the Sidon rice plantation. While the number of burials is unknown, it is estimated to be 313, which includes some that were relocated from nearby construction, as well as those for American Indians.

 

 

Most of the burials are now unmarked as they would have been located with hand-made wooden markers which have since decayed. It was interesting to learn that often the burials may have been decorated and marked with personal belongings, stones, or seashells that were commonly left on top of the grave for use by the dead.

 

 

It grieved me to see this cemetery so neglected and seemingly forgotten until The Georgia Department of Transportation recently erected interpretive panels at this site.

 

 

 

 

 

We finally crossed the state line into Florida and the temperature steadily climbed up to 73°. Now this is the kind of weather we came for. We are spending this night in Starke and plan to be in Fort Myers tomorrow. While there are plenty of folks traveling to Florida, we found the traffic to be lighter during this time as compared to driving during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

 

 

Rain is going to be arriving tonight and more is forecasted for southwest Florida tomorrow. Temperature will be considerably cooler, but at least it is not snow!!

Traveling South

 

We saw our last Maryland sunrise for 3 ½ months. After hearing the weather forecast, I wonder if there is any truth in “Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning”.

 

 

We are not sailors, but we took the waring and left town. We were happy to escape the 36° temperature this morning. The sky was overcast and it sure looked like snow is on its way.

 

 

The most traffic we encountered all day was at the bridge on Route 301 where we crossed into Virginia. Due to some type of work, traffic was one way.

 

 

Since we haven't been geocaching for a while, we took time to find 5 caches as we travelled through Virginia. Three of them were placed at historical locations.

 

 

Presidential Cache 4 was hidden on the 261st anniversary of the birth of our 4th President, James Madison, Jr., who was born about 1/4 mile east of the site. Emmanuel Church was built in 1859 and I found it interesting to read that "the church was spared during the Civil War".  I was cold while looking around the grounds.

 

Sacred Lot is the site of another cache. In 1820, this was the first church built in Port Royal. It was a Methodist church, but other denominations also used the building. After the building fell into disrepair, it was demolished in 1944, my birth year. The "corners" of the church have been reconstructed and reveal a small footprint.

 

 

We found another cache at the site of an old school. It was remodeled a few years ago and is now used occasionally for meetings, etc.

 

 

It was cold in northern North Carolina today, also--42° at 2:00 pm. We can pretty much guess which states other people have travelled through by observing the extent of the road chemicals on the vehicle bodies. We have seen a few that are entirely covered and there was one camper that had snow/ice on the top.

 

 

 

The sun never did shine through the clouds today. This certainly is not like the Florida sunshine that we are expecting to see in two more days.

 

 

We saw a post on Facebook that snow began falling in Dunkirk this afternoon. I will enjoy seeing any photos that might be shared.

We are spending the night in Fayetteville, NC. Our room does not have a luggage rack, so I decided to use the ironing board. I wonder why I never thought of this idea before now. I like it even better because I can adjust it to the height I want and it holds more items.

 

 

We had a relaxing dinner at Ruby Tuesday’s. It is nice to experience the southern hospitality which is still alive and well. We had good travel all day and are looking forward to continuing south again tomorrow.

 

Ready or Not???

I thought I had my packing and house preparations under control, but I spent most of the day tying up loose ends. We did make time to pick up lunch and eat with our son, Andy. Even though we thoroughly enjoy spending 3 months in Florida, we miss being around our children and their families. Some of them have been able to spend a week with us while we are there. 

We heard that there is a wintery mix of precipitation forecasted to begin tomorrow. It is hard to believe it though since it was sunny and a balmy 52° at 2:00 pm. It almost felt like March weather. However, the Highway department took the prediction seriously and they had already pretreated the roads before noon.

We spent a while at our community pier on the Patuxent River to watch the sunset. The wind was blowing fairly strongly and 46° felt more like winter. This is going to make us appreciate warmer weather so much more.

Counting Down & Preparing

There are so many things to do besides packing clothes, etc. to take with us. We also have to take care of other matters since we will leave the house vacant for an extended time.

We already took down and stored our Christmas decorations. This week we emptied and cleaned our indoor hot tub. We cannot leave it full of water when there is no one around to maintain it.

 

It has been a cold and rainy day and we can’t help but remember that in past years, we were already in Fort Myers by this time. We stopped by the post office and put in an order to suspend our mail delivery and forward it to Florida. 

We noted that the temps in Fort Myers were in the 70’s and expected to reach the low 80’s today. That sound so much better than the 40’s we had.  We are so ready to leave on Thursday morning. It makes me feel like a kid waiting for Christmas to arrive!!