Combining Business with Pleasure

Good morning, 

We are on our way South to Port Canaveral again.  We won't be away as long this time as we were the last time.  This time we are going for My Honey to attend a meeting aboard Freedom of the Seas.  We will only be aboard for a week, then will stop in the Smoky Mountains on the way home for a couple of days to enjoy the vacation there that we had planned before the meeting was announced.  The scheduling all works out very well.

Those buildings above are the world headquarters of Procter & Gamble in downtown Cincinnati. 

It wasn't long before we had crossed the I-75 bridge across the Ohio River and were in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

 The weather was gorgeous as we enjoyed the scenery of Kentucky farm land.








Before long, we moved into the foothills of the Smoky Mountains.










We could see the coal deposits in the layers of earth cut away for the highway.






We always get a kick out of seeing the houses going down the road.  This one is a split level!  Cool!

Every road trip is different, even when on the same route.

The thing that stuck out to us on this trip was the forest fires.  The area has been extremely dry this summer so the fires have been a big problem.



On the way home last month we encountered a great deal of fog that looked similar to these images.  This isn't fog, it's smoke.  At times it was so thick it the traffic had to slow considerably.  It was a choking smoke even though we turned off the fresh air intake until we got through the area.







We stopped at the Welcome Center in Tennessee.

 





 This is one of our regular stops.  The center was rebuilt recently and is just gorgeous.

There were fewer fires in Tennessee probably because they had more rain this summer than further North.

 

Soon we were in Georgia where we stopped at their Welcome Center.  The small print on the plaque is a salute to the State's veterans.









We could not have asked for a more beautiful Fall day.








These trees were at the Welcome Center.

 The trip went quickly, probably because we are so familiar with the route.  That's Atlanta over there again with all that traffic.

We've made a management decision to go out of our way to avoid Atlanta next time and stay at a different hotel than the one we've generally used South of Atlanta.

 

We had breakfast for dinner at IHop near our hotel.  Yum.

The next morning we were up and on our way early into Southern Georgia. 

We saw quite a few accidents.  Some looked fairly minor, but this ambulance had arrived at one that appeared quite serious.  I always say a prayer when I see people involved in accidents.



It was a gorgeous day for driving.





We were soon through Georgia and moving across I-10 toward Jacksonville, Florida.

This trip seemed to go extremely fast.






The bypass around Jacksonville, Florida, is beautiful. 

 We stopped at the St. Augustine (Florida) Outlet Mall to pick up a couple of items.  This is a great mall of brands that we like.  My Honey wanted a couple of pairs of pants and I was still looking for a certain style of Hush Puppies dressy strappy (medium) heels that work well with formal outfits.  We both found what we wanted.

That character on the top of a car was extremely noisy.

After shopping we drove down to Melbourne, Florida, for the night.  Tomorrow morning we will go on board Freedom of the Seas in Port Canaveral.

I've already published quite a few images about events on board Freedom of the Seas.  I'll have some different things this trip if you'd like to go cruising with us for the next few days.

Very best,
Lois

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 Savor: The Royal Caribbean International Cookbook

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