Coming home repost

In 2012 I posted these photos as I returned from a Florida or Georgia visit.

So here's the important part of coming home.

It's hard to tell that this picture is in one part of the state or another, but for me it's the first glimpse of a mountain straight ahead.

Whow...look at those clouds over the pass.  Will I get smacked with another rain storm?  (I exited the highway at a Mt. Airy exit earlier, and got turned around getting onto I-40 west.  It just felt like I was going east for the first 5 miles)

Not a bad shower, but left windshield a bit wet as I went slowly around the switchbacks of Old Fort Gap.  Notice I'm driving over in the truck climbing lane...and there wasn't a single semi on it!

I hope Linda Starr sees the highway right here in Black Mountain that has the Blue Star title...in honor of American Ex-Prisoners of War.  I dare say half the people that live here have no idea that's the name bestowed upon our "State Street" or Hwy 70 as it comes into town. (I don't remember if this sign is still up on Hwy 70 in 2023.)

 

I turn past the primary school on Richardson and love the yellow flowers and yellow busses together, seen through the reflections in my car windshield.

And I'm so happy to see my little cottage is sitting here waiting for me, and my friend Tim has mowed while I was away.  What a sweet feeling!  Home sweet...you know.

2023 note: I lived in that one bedroom cottage on Beech St. until 2015 when I moved to Blue Ridge Apartments.

Today's quote:

It is never my custom to use words lightly. If twenty-seven years in prison have done anything to us, it was to use the silence of solitude to make us understand how precious words are and how real speech is in its impact on the way people live and die. -Nelson Mandela, activist, South African president, Nobel laureate (1918-2013)

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.

Travel notes

 A smog stayed along the highway until I got almost to Cincinnati, this was in Oragania, OH apparently.

About to cross the Little Miami River (so says the sign)

One of my favorite restaurants, but there's not one near me at home, so I stopped here for a favorite meal.  However, when using the rest room, I saw no toilet paper or towels had been installed, and I told myself, this is not a good sign.  I had to wait a long time to give my order, and the clerk shared that she is due to give birth in 4 days.  She said the restaurant is having some problems.  But the food was good.  How often do we think of what is going on in the lives of those who work to prepare our meals.

Yes, gas was amazingly low everywhere except North Carolina...where it's around $2.72 a gallon.  Forty three cents a gallon for traveling 500 miles makes a difference! Enough to buy several hamburgers.

PS, Black Mountain Ingles Gas is now wonderful 2.69 on Nov. 27!