Well, it isn't all fun and games down here in Georgia. Today we were talking to our neighbors out in the yard when we spotted a big Eastern Rattlesnake! Oh yikes, and we have been wallowing around in the tall weeds and grass for the past week as we cleaned the weeds out of all the flower beds.

Sunset over Lake Eufaula

The sunsets here on Lake Eufaula are spectacular. It is hard to not take pictures every single evening, as each seems different!

Thunder Beach - Panama City Beach, Sep 09

Fortunately, the motorcycle started right up after being garaged for the past 6 months. Ron polished it up while I loaded up an overnight bag, and we were off in shirtsleeves in sunshine early on Friday morning, Sep 25.

We were surprised by a phone message from our friends Janice and Johnny, who had come all the way from New Orleans to meet up with us in Panama City. They were completing the "Trail of Tears" motorcycle ride and had been on the road for 10 days.


Our friends, Huck and Debbie, who had invited us to the Thunder Beach motorcycle rally, were settled in at a campground in the middle of the millions of vendors that had taken over the strip. So we rode to their place and met J&J there and other friends from our motorcycle circle.

After going together for a seafood meal fresh from the Gulf, Janice and Johnny and Ron and I dashed back to the hotel to watch the sunset from our beachfront patio.

As the clouds began to roll in this morning, Ron and I decided the prudent thing to do was hustle home before our 2 mile dirt road became a quagmire. Pleasant trip home before the heat of the day....no rain yet, but thunder heads all around. Should be another pretty sunset, and maybe a light show later!

Back in Georgia

Like usual, all the reports of flooding and disaster seem to be greatly exaggerated. We listened to the news all the way through Alabama and they were talking about swollen rivers, flash floods, etc., and we had already been anticipating high water from all the national news we watched along the way. However, we never saw a single sign of flooding anywhere on our travels. In Kentucky, the rivers seemed to be muddy and high but the rivers down here all tend to be muddy looking, so nothing very unusual looking compared to past trips. Since we live on a dirt road, we were expecting it to be impassable or at least pretty muddy. We were surprised to find it freshly graded and completely dry.

The lake is full but not overflowing, and the weeds are as high as an elephant's eye. I will be pulling weeds for a while! Already finished with two of the dozen flower beds though, and they look so pretty when tamed.

Six days on the road

I am feeling like I have been aboard a boat for about a month. I kind of sway as I walk and it feels like the ground is still rolling. We are nearly through with our twice yearly trek across the United States. When we go this direction (Northwest to Southeast) it always seems longer as we lose hours as we cross time zones. We are now in Central Daylight Time, and we haven't quite adjusted to going to bed at 9 p.m. instead of 11, but we have figured out how to still get up when it gets light (still 7 a.m. here at the equinox-equivalent to getting up at 5 a.m. at home) which rolls with the time changes, shorting us a couple of hours of sleep. :( Not good for a person like me that really values a good night's sleep!

A nice visit with relatives in Eastern Washington (brother and sister-in-law in Pateros and son and family in Tonasket) started our journey. Then we backtracked to go over Blewett Pass and down through Yakima to Oregon and then Idaho and into Nevada, where we stayed for a couple of days. We visited our son and his wife and her family in Salt Lake City and waited patiently (kind of) for 3 days for their first baby to be born. Running out of time, we drove hard the past couple of days and are within striking distance of our GA home for tomorrow, after stopping a few miles north of Nashville tonight.

We entered the biggest weather front we have ever seen yesterday around noon. We could see black on both sides and in front of us with bright clear skies behind for quite a ways. However, eventually we got fully into the front and watched lightning every couple of seconds for hours. When we got up this morning, we were still under the front and drove in it most of the day, finally getting on the other side this afternoon when we came into Illinois.

Ready to face any lurking problems from our six months' absence at the GA house in the interest of sleeping again in our own bed!

On the road again :)

I am trying a new plan for communicating - I am new to the bloggersphere so be patient with me. :)

Once again it is time to face the bittersweet challenge of leaving the place we love here in Washington to wimp out on winter in the dark and damp Pacific Northwest. It is especially hard to leave this year when the sky is still blue and the sun still warm as we are leaving earlier than usual. Greeting a new grandchild is worth the sacrifice though! We take comfort in the fact that we will greet the sun on the other end of this trip when we arrive at our winter home in Georgia, and can extend our favorite season, summer, for a few more months, and see all the wonderful friends we left behind in April.

We had a really nice family gathering yesterday and now it is time to get serious about loading the van so we can leave bright and early in the morning. See you from the road!