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I'm in Spartanburg, SC ... about two hours from
Charleston - on the coast.
Could have kept going but that would have put me there after
dark and besides
I got tired. ... the mountains weren't bad, but you
definitely had to pay attention.
I actually got on the road about 11 this morning and made
about a one hour stop mid afternoon.
The high temp I heard reported on the radio today was 59 and
lows were expected to be
in only the high 30s. Too cold to try my first van-sleep
and I just kinda wanted to
settle in for the night.
I'm at a Red Roof Inn ...they have $39 rooms. Yup, you
get what you pay for. LOL
It's pretty pathetic.
All is well. But the van did give me some concern earlier
today once I started into the
foothills. The temp gage went up and I didn't think it was
going to quit. But it did
settle in and I discovered that turning off the automatic
overdrive helped also. So, all is well.
Like I said, am tired and also hungry. I can see a Waffle
House sign from here. I
think that's where I'll go have a quick ... and hopefully
cheap ... supper. Smile.
It nice to discover after a long winter in Cheboygan that
there actually is a world out here. LOL .... so far it's not
terribly exciting,
but it is there.
Boy, these people sure do talk funny down here. LOL LOL Am putting on a few pics ... not very exciting, but here they are anyway: (It's a bit of a challenge to shoot while driving on these roads. LOL |
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BETTY'S BIRTHDAY
ROAD TRIP 2011
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From A Laymans Pen
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This 'story' is being written and updated as I travel - as
often as time and circumstances permit.
I will do my best to notify you by email when an update is
made,
but you might want to check back on your own to see where I am and what's going
on..
[ Initial posting: 2/23/11 ]
| My initial 'plan' is: Cheboygan. MI to Flint ... then Howell, MI, ....then to Norwalk, OH ... on to Lexington, KY .... over the mountains to Charleston, SC ... then south down the Atlantic coast to Jacksonville, FL .... then south along the eastern FL coast, then west over to Punta Gorda, FL .... then south to Islamorada, FL (Keys) ... and Key West, FL ... then north up FL's Gulf coast to the FL panhandle ... and perhaps to Gulf Shores, AL. |
The journey begins on Friday, 2/25/11
| Posted Sunday, Feb 27 All is well so far. In Howell, MI at the moment. Friday's trip from Cheboygan to Flint was easy, uneventful, and unremarkable. Spent the night at Laurie Franklin's house. Visited with her and her son, Mike, and also got to see her two grandkids on Saturday afternoon. She's a great friend and a remarkable woman. The trip from Flint to Howell to stay at Rob and Gary Mischler's house (Laurie's sister and brother in law) was a different story .... US 23 South was downright nasty. It was snowing and then freezing in some spots. Traffic was moving at about 45mph and I must have seen at least a dozen cars in the ditches. I was glad that that leg was only about an hour and a half. My new GPS was really great ... made the trip a lot less stressful. Had a great visit at Rob and Gary's. Gary has a new Plasma Cutting machine that he's working on getting set up ... a very long and complicated process. It's all computer driven ... need I say more? But he's almost some sort of genius when it comes to machines, so he'll get it figured out. Gary and Rob operate a hydraulic hose emergency repair and fabricating business. Will be heading out of here to cousin Gary's place in Norwalk around 1 today. GPS says it's about a 2 1/2 hour trek. Nothing seems to be going on with the weather ... anticipate that the roads will be okay. No photos. ********************************************************************** Tuesday, March 1 // 1:30ish PM SUNSHINE! Stayed last night in Lexington KY at long time friend's, Patty Boyne
... formerly from Marlette MI. Had a nice evening visit with her and
her long time boyfriend, Randy. Patty sure does
Am about 25 miles north of Knoxville TN .... doing a McDonalds break.
All is well, etc.
Still have about 6 hrs driving to get to Charleston SC ... my 'goal' for
today, but might
pull up short ... dunno. Just drifting I guess. LOL LOL ... and
'adjusting' to life with no
schedule. Smiles. More later .... gonna' do the dollar menu and fill up the van ... fuel is $3.28 here. Later. Road Tripper ***************************************************************** Still Tuesday ... 9/16 PM
********************************************************************* Wednesday, March 2 .... about 9pm It's been an interesting day. I'm in a nice county campground in
Charleston, SC., doing my So, at the moment I'm over-nighting in the van, and am just plain worn out. I still need to fix some supper. Unfortunately, about two hours ago I decided to purchase and download an Internet TV application, thinking that would be pretty cool to have. It sucks. What little I've been able to view on it is mostly foreign and so far I'm not getting the 'channels' that the ads said I would. On top of that, I'm not feeling 100% confident that I haven't corrupted my computer. Perhaps co-incidentally my computer started acting up at that time and perhaps co-incidentally my email program went to pot. Questionable. The email seems to be okay now. I've experienced a similar incident once before and Yahoo quickly corrected things. (It was on their end.) Perhaps that's what happened tonight. We'll see. So, for the moment I'm not going to get out the camera and download the day's photos. I'll do that later on. I must say, I love my GPS! So very very cool. I had
it set for 'center-city' Charleston and it sure took me right there.
I found myself right in the heart of the city. It looked very
cool. Reminded me a little of New Orleans. Narrow streets, lots of people,
etc. etc. I didn't do any exploring ... I wanted to find a
campground and put my feet down for the day. I simply entered the
address of the campground that I had looked up online this morning and it
took me right there. Never could have done all this without it.
Anyway, signing off for now. Am safe and sound. Road Tripper *************************************************************** 11PM /// Thursday, March 3 Am alive and well.
On top of everything else that's happened, I'm having computer
problems up the ying yang. Again, am alive and well. Cold weather, rain and high winds coming in.... of course! Seems to fit right in. Road Tripper .... and not entirely happy about it at the moment. Smile ******************************************** Friday, March 4 /// 10PM ish Okay, I've re-grouped my head and am going to try again. LOL
I've now been on the road
It's not cold here, but rain off and on. (temps are right around 70....
winds very strong)
Am in a motel in Titusville, FL ..... about even with Orlando,
but to the east, nearer
the Atlantic.
I gave up on traveling on A1A (old costal route) .... too much
traffic with all the bikes.
The bikes are everywhere in the entire Daytona area and about
30-40 miles to the north. I knew Bike Week was big, but holy
crap! Like I said, they're everywhere.
So I cut inland this afternoon and picked up the I-95 x-way going
south .... that took me down past where the big forest fire was.
It's apparently out now, but there were areas where it burned right up
to the edge of the concrete on the road. The whole stretch stinks to
high heaven.
Like I said, I've given up on the east coast venture and am now
heading south to the
keys. I'm about 200 miles north of Miami, so about 3 hours
tomorrow will get me to
the start of the keys.
I'm going to drive down into the keys for maybe 40 miles or so
which should put me about in the middle. I think I'm going to
get another motel room
and probably stay there for two nights while I look for a campground or
something ...
unless the motel is very reasonable - which it likely won't be. LOL
(My landing-place hosts in Islemorada in the Keys backed out on me. So much for that one and no further comment..)
Anyway, that's my plan at the moment.
But, I'm safe and sound and am just back at the motel
after getting some food,
so even my tummy is happy. (iHop waffles)
Gotta tell ya, unless this trip gets a whole lot better in the next day
or so, I'm going to
regret it for a long long time. I'm so far 'over budget' that I'm not
even counting anymore....
and trying not to care. What few pictures I've taken ...
mostly out the window while driving .... are awful. Again, it's way late to be doing this and I'm tired. Don't know if I'll try to post anything tomorrow or not ... may wait a day or so and see if I can get settled in at one location. Maybe the Keys will be more lucky for me. If so, maybe I'll just stay there until spring. Actually, I'm realizing how cool Michigan is ... even if it is cold this time of year. Okay, most of the year. LOL LOL (Gas ... $3.59 and going up as I go further south.) Road Tripper *************************************************************** Tuesday, March 8 /// 10pm I'm only going to summarize at the moment - mostly for those who I haven't had an opportunity to talk with over the past day or so. I'm back in Cheboygan and all is well. Why I'm back in Cheboygan is sort of a long and involved story. It might be helpful for me to just say that I likely should have 'planned better'. As it turned out, my timing totally sucked, a lot of plans fell through, I couldn't find a place to stay in the Keys, and frankly, I got tired of doing the adventure alone. On Sunday morning in pouring rain, I made a gut-level spur-of-the-moment decision ... Give it up and head home. There's no place like home. Oh ... I made the return trip from
the Keys to Cheboygan in 31 hours. I think it might be some kind
of a record - at the very least, the kind of thing that legends come
from. LOL Wolfe When I've
mentally and physically recovered I may post the 'entire story'.
|
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