Final Leg of the Journey to Port Canaveral, Florida

Good morning,

This is the last day of our journey to Port Canaveral, Florida.  We will spend the night in Viera, Florida, which is very close to the port where we will board Freedom of the Seas tomorrow morning.

We believe 99.99999% of truck drivers are good drivers and are courteous.  The guy driving the truck pictured above was not one of them.  I almost called 911 and reported him for coming into our lane and almost running us off the road, then terrorizing the driver of a little car by tailgating at 70 mph.  Enough said.

This is an area along the roadway that had been burned in a wild fire, but is being revived by Mother Nature.  It is so good to see the green growth atop the burned bottoms of these palms.  Wonderful.

As we neared the Hampton Inn where we stayed the last time we commented that the car wash we got from the local high school students probably wouldn't be there again today. 

 Surprise!

 Here they are behind the Bob Evans Restaurant and in front of our Hampton Inn.

 The last time the car wash benefited the Viera High School LaCrosse Team.

 This time the proceeds were for Walk For Life - a cancer charity.  Note the young lady above is wearing an Ohio State University shirt.  Go Bucks!

 Lots of soap...

...and elbow grease and our car was sparkling.

After lunch at Bob Evans, we checked into the Hampton Inn.  We sat in the lobby for a few minutes while our room was being prepared.  My Honey chatted with the postal service lady who told us about the Wildlife Nature Preserve nearby.  Of course, we had to go take a look and found a fantastic place.  We got some wonderful pictures that I'll share with you tomorrow.

I hope you've enjoyed our road trip to Florida with us.

Very best,
Lois

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 Meguiar's Complete Car Care Kit

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South Carolina to Florida

Good morning,

We are on the move again.  As you can see above, the weather was ordered by the ducks when we left our hotel in South Carolina.

It stayed this way...

...for the first couple of hours.  Then suddenly the skies opened up and the roads were dry.

 Here we are ready to cross...

 ...the Savannah River.  This is about all of the river I can get from the car with the camera because of the high guard rail.

 On the other side we were welcomed into Georgia. 

 The roads were dry and wide...

 ...and all of a sudden we found ourselves in Florida and what feels like...

...a giant bowl...

 ...of concrete spaghetti.

 On our left is downtown Jacksonville, Florida.

 But, ahead is still more spaghetti.

 Only a few more miles down the road we will stop for the night in St. Augustine, Florida.

I hope you're having fun with us on our road trip.

Best,
Lois

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NCAA Florida Gators Garden Gnome 

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Hampton Inn Greeter

Hello and Welcome to the Hampton Inn, Columbia, South Carolina.

Please pull in and park where ever you wish.

I'll gladly provide guard service for your car...

 ...for only a small fee of a few nice juicy slugs...

 ...or, if you don't have those, I'll settle for a piece of bread.

;)

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Another programming note:

I wrote much of the following in a response to commments and questions to my post two days ago, but want to share it with everyone who might have missed it.

We truly do love these road trips, but we don't always have a choice of when we will take them. It is interesting how many different things we see when we travel the same route to and from various ports. We have done this in all seasons. The worst trip was when I drove from Cincinnati to the Port of Miami to join My Honey after a meeting in January, 2010. We had a snow emergency in the Midwest so my departure was delayed from 8AM to 3PM the day I had to leave.  I had roads frozen in ridges of ice from Cincinnati to the Tennessee border and I arrived in South Carolina at my first stop at 3AM. Another time several years ago, My Honey and I were literally chased home by a hurricane.


For those who have asked about the storms that went through the areas where we travelled this time, I just want to say we were so lucky to be there between them. We were much more fortunate to miss them than the people who live there and we pray for those who were impacted by the horrible weather. For those who want to help there are many organizations helping those in need.  Our preference is the American Red Cross.

We are currently at sea.  Since I am only able to upload images on Sundays when we are in US ports and I have enough band width with my own Internet connection, my images are lagging real time by a few days.  I do have email 24/7 which is great.

I hope you enjoy traveling with us and I sincerely appreciate your comments and good wishes.  I have found so many wonderful friends out here in blog land.  :)

-LAE

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 Ducks Unlimited - Since 1937 Metal Tin Sign 16"W x 12.5"H

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Spring in the Carolinas

Good morning,

The beautiful dogwood tree above is at a rest stop in North Carolina.

This beautiful place is more of a park than what we find at most highway rest stops.

It's a perfect place to enjoy a picnic lunch.

Look!  There's that handsome man I see everywhere taking pictures.  ;)

 Back on the highway heading South we found Spring trimming happening along the highway. 

 There were three of these teams trimming and cutting trees along the highway.  There was a whole lot of firewood out there!

We drove under the Blue Ridge Parkway and were soon in Columbia, South Carolina, where we spent the night.

More of our journey tomorrow.  I hope you're enjoying our trip with us.

Best,
Lois

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Best of the Blue Ridge Parkway: The Ultimate Guide to the Parkway's Best Attractions 

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Here We Go Again!

Good morning,

Here we go again!  We are on our way South to Port Canaveral.  These images are from the first leg of our journey from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Columbia, South Carolina.

Here we are crossing the Ohio River into the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Kentucky has beautiful farm land...

...of both old and new farms.

 We had wonderful clear weather for this leg of our journey.

 Big farms...

 ...old farms...

 ...cows...

 ...and barns with quilt patterns of the lady of the house.

 We truly love to drive to the port. 

 Here's another barn for the weekly Barn Charm posts.  ;)

 Now in the mountains of the Carolinas...

 ...or, should I say...

 ...through the mountains.

Stay tuned for the next installation of our journey.  We stopped at a rest stop where we photographed beautiful Spring flowers.

We hope you enjoy traveling with us.

Very best,
Lois

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 Plush Stuffed Duck (Sprinkles) toy with You are the light at the end of the tunnel T-Shirt

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