Black Mountain

A grey spring day at Lake Tomahawk, Mar 22, 2024

Saturday, April 20, 2019

Flying down the road!

You have very little opportunity to take photos when flying down an interstate highway (as the driver at least.)  So I was happily surprised that some of these actually show what I was aiming at.

 One of the steep grades downhill as I left North Carolina a few days ago.

 After leaving the parking lot known as Interstate 95, I was glad to pull over at the Georgia Welcome Center.  Here even worse slow traffic is going from right to left headed north.  I had pretty bad cross-winds the whole way on Wed. afternoon on I-95, but felt for the slower traffic going north.  And there's one of many Walmart trucks I passed (reminding me of my cousin who drives one!)

I broke up my drive to give my feet a chance to have blood circulating...at my age that's more likely a problem than you'd imagine. They don't exactly go to sleep, just turn off, a worisome thing while driving.


The welcome center had some very nice displays...including this turtle replica.


By 5:00 pm I was thinking of stopping for the night in Brunswick, GA...my original plan.  Then I talked with my son, who I was headed to visit. We considered how on Friday there was due to be a huge line of thunderstorms coming across the south...so I said I'd try to get a bit further before I nested for the night. My aim was to stay somewhere near Jacksonville.

 But I zipped right around the outskirts, and then headed to Gainesvilel FL.  My trusty map guide on my phone gave me some good short-cuts, and before I knew it I was on the other side of my old Alma Mater town, (go Gators).

Paynes Prarie was suddenly there, as well as 20 or so cars parked along US 41 South.  I didn't know why, except I remembered this as a great place to see birds and stars.  I remembered I went to see Haley's Comet but it was too foggy.

 The full moon was just coming up on one side.

And the sun was going down on the other side of the car.




Once I got past Gainesville, I saw no reason to postpone till the next day the 2-1/2 hours of remaining travel.  And it was fun not having bad traffic nor the cross-winds when I got on I-75.  I just stopped one more time before I got to my son's house where I was welcomed by my grandson, Michael.  My son was home later in the evening, after I'd happily closed my eyes, while behind my eyelids the earth was still coming toward me between white lines at 80 miles per hour.

And the storm did come through, inundating my home town of Black Mountain NC, and giving a good dose of thunder showers in Brandon FL while we were eating lunch.  I would have pulled to the side of the road if I'd still been traveling.





3 comments:

  1. Hello,

    Love the views of your trip to Florida. I am glad you arrived safely. Hubby and I enjoyed a visit to the Paynes Prairie, it was a great place to see the birds and wildlife. Happy Easter to you and your family.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's quite a trip. Glad it worked out so well.

    ReplyDelete

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