one more time ...

I'm safely tucked into my corner at the library, rather enjoying not having internet at home.  There are a lot of people here today because it has been raining, raining, raining!

Here is my account of the trip South.  Jubilee and I have it down to a science.  Alternating between 2 audio books - Herman Wouk's "Winds of War", and Rolling Stone Keith Richard's "Life" - we sailed down the highways in our little Yaris.

Before we left on Saturday morning, John joined us for one last walk in the wood.  Then we got a big latte at Starbuck's and were on the road by 9:30AM.

 Coming across the Ohio River in Pittsburgh ...

 Rainy and a little foggy coming through Southwestern PA ...

 Ah - West Virginia!

 Dunno ... seem to be taking photos of bridges ....

 The familiar rocks in West Virginia (everything about this drive is getting familiar!)

 Coming to the first tunnel ...

 ... the other side of which is the state of Virginia!

 And then the 2nd tunnel ...

 The skies became bluer in Southwestern VA ..

 More VA ...

 And then all of a sudden we're crossing the line into NC ...

... and then SC!  The only real "traffic" that we ran into was just north of Charlotte.  I thought we would avoid that by traveling on the weekend, but traffic snarls can happen anytime.

 We made our way all the way to the same flea bag/trucker Days Inn in Orangeburg SC where we've stayed many times.  I like it because it has a big field where Jubilee can run free.  I think they give us the same room (#146) every time we stay there.  650 miles the first day with 500 to go!

 Up early Sunday morning, we headed further South ...  That's my new GPS system in the photo below, bought it the day before I left.  Someone stole my other one!  I couldn't believe it, in the parking lot of our apartment complex.  Anyway, I'm trying to change my ways and lock the car when I leave it.

Crossing the Savannah River, we were in Georgia!

 Love the low country scenes from the this part of the country ...

Needed to stop for gas, and recognized the place!  Liberty Georgia.  It's amazing that along this 1150 miles, I tend to need gas at the same places.  I think I have these same photos back on one of the other trips ...

 And well before noon, we cross the last state line into Florida ...

 ... A bridge in Jacksonville, I think.  It was one of these walkways that go from building to building across about 12 lanes of traffic!

 Hi to Tony in Daytona ...

 Somewhere around Fort Pierce the sky darkened, and from there on in we drove through driving wind and torrential rain!  The kind of rain where you can barely see the car in front of you, and you're using his tail lights to guide you. 

 Anyway, we made it home a little after 3 in the afternoon.  The house was quiet as a monastery.  Dark and rainy.  A wonderful thunder and lightning storm this morning, when I woke up and didn't know where I was.  Jubilee is still a little dazed (me too) and follows me everywhere.  We both swam a lot of laps this morning.  The climate feels very different, with deep, rich wind.  Ocean air.

the drive north

Hell of a ride.

By the time we got to northern Florida, even though it was still warm, the colors of autumn were apparent.  I love the mysterious low country of Georgia and SC - vast grasslands with rivers running through them to the ocean.  Turned the A/C off somewhere in SC.  Charlotte NC looked to be in prime autumn color: red, orange and yellow.  It rained most of the way.

At Exit 1 (not sure if I was at the northernmost last exit of NC or the southernmost first exit of southerwestern VA) all traffic was forced off of I77.   The interstate was closed!  I stopped at a McDonald’s and next to me was a man in a very old car (older than mine) who was talking on a cell phone and looking at a map.  He looked like he knew what was going on and told me that the highway was closed down because of an accident on “the mountain”, and there were 200 cars or more in a pile up.  The only thing to do was to take a small, windy road that ran parallel to the highway and over the mountain for about 30 miles until we could get back on the highway.  So that’s what I did - creeping along with every other truck that was taking the detour.  It was actually very pretty country, but a lot of fog.

It took at least 2 hours to go those 30 miles, and then I took a wrong turn in WV that took me about 50 miles out of my way, so that it got dark and I still had 200 miles to go.  Really dark.  Nothing around but dark, dark mountains.  I almost stayed in Charleston, but the exit I got off at looked so ratty I decided to move on.

It is not easy to drive those WV mountains in the daylight.  I found myself in the middle of nowhere - actually it's probably the best of WV mountain country - but raining and dark, it was impossible to find my way around.

Somehow I ended up in a little place called Summit.  One of those little towns in the holler of the mountains.  It felt like I had stepped off of the grid, out of my comfort zone of highway fast food and motels, and into unknown territory.  The twilight zone.

Jubilee and I stayed in Room #2 at the Elk Motel - $35 a night, very clean.  DOT (Dept. of Transportation) trucks were parked before the other 8 or 9 rooms.  I walked through the driving wind and rain to a "Family Restaurant" next door.  The people I met there seemed poor but friendly.  The waitress was studying a "Criminal Justice" book, hoping to get a better job at a prison.  The food was oversized, fatty and very salty.  (In my opinion, poverty in America is tied to the food problem, and freeing themselves from that trap is integral to the empowerment of the poor, but that's another discussion)

I had wanted to explore the town some more before I left.  There was a river running through it, and an "historic" section.  But it was still raining in the morning and I decided to make the final stretch into Cranberry TWP.  The DOT trucks all started their engines at about 4AM, and let them warm up for 20 minutes or so before leaving, so we got an early start as well.  But I have to say that I slept surprisingly well in that little place, with lots of good dreams.

I want to go back to Summit, though, on one of my return trips.

It is winter here in Cranberry TWP.  So many shades of brown, refreshingly cold.  John is glad to have us back and the little apartment is snug as a bug.

(The car ran like a new car the whole way.  I have an angel at my side - a cousin, "Doug"(my mother's sister's son), who died many years ago at an early age.  A couple of years ago I decided to bring him along on my road trips to watch out for my car.  He's been good.)

driving south (top to bottom)

Ice on the car windows for the first time when I left Cranberry TWP on Monday morning.  Heading south, it warmed up quickly.  It's a different world down here.

Windshield getting dirty.  Above is one of the paper mills in S. Georgia.  I love this low country.

Got this moss at one of the gas stations (Georgia)

Definitely Florida Sky.

my shady office

The picnic table is serving multiple uses for me, not the least of which is a way to get out of the cold, air-conditioned room.  Besides playing scrabble with Sally, I'm actually doing some work!  I set up a Facebook business page for JAM this morning, and did some cosmetic work on a photo that a professional woman needs for a publication.  I learned a neat way to brighten and whiten teeth! And my usual apartment search.  Waiting for people to get back to you is problematic.  It looks now like we may just get a corporate rental ($$) until the first of August.  I'm waiting for the Carriage House lady to get back to me because that would be more fun than the corporate rental, but if I wait too long for her to call me back, the corporate rental will be gone!

I'm also settling in to my wanderer / nomad mode.

It is a mode in which you keep moving, and are non-static.  Sort of like an electron, whose position can never be determined.   I can feel myself letting go of the need for sameness even as I search for sameness - a place to stay - and becoming more detached.  Not holding on to anything.  Willing to move and change at a moment’s notice.  Learning a new way to be -  moment to moment response to ever changing surrounding, and learning to make this “home”.  Breathe with it.  There's not much space for self-reflection in this mode, and that's a good thing for me.  (I do too much self-reflection, as you can tell!).

The Motel 8 is filled up with mostly working men this week.  At first I thought that they were all coal-miners.  They wear boots and big black coveralls.  Small buses transport them from somewhere in the morning and evening.  Some of the men work all night, and others leave in the morning as they come in.  Lots of "do-not-disturb" signs on the doors during the day.  I read "Firefighters" on the sleeve of one of the coveralls and asked the man what they were doing.  Oil and gas, he said.  I wonder what that means?