Hello everyone, Mrs. Hawk here, today is the morning after.....Hawk and I left Tampa yesterday at 9:11 AM and I was driving. We knew there was rain ahead before we got out of Florida, but did not realize how much. Sheets of gray pouring rain made driving 15 to 20 MPH the best we could do. Stopping for gas just before Gainesville, FL when the rain let up a little and being blocked in by a fire truck and an ambulance at the gas station was our first blessing (a lady in the bay next to us had some kind of medical problem and the emergency trucks were there for her). Back on the road, and rain not so bad, but traffic soon came to a stop. As we edged forward slowly, we came upon an accident with 9 cars smashed like coke cans. The cars were scattered for maybe 1/4 mile on either side of 75 North. Only one police car had arrived on the scene, the accident had just happened. Had we not stopped for gas and been blocked in by emergency trucks........
During the rain, I was driving. I kept commenting to Bob the way we were bumping along. I thought it was caused by the heavy rain I was driving through. After the rain slowed down, I could still feel the bump, but reasoned it must be the road.
I missed our exit for 10 West and we had to turn around. At this time the car gave a warning message of "low tire pressure". We stopped, Hawk checked our tires and found a bulge on the left front tire. A steel belt had separated. Using the GPS Hawk found a tire store 1.7 miles away. We got a new tire and were back on the road at 3 PM. It was 6 hours after we left Tampa and we had traveled 175 miles. Our second blessing was not having that tire cause us to crash........
About 5:30PM yesterday, March 11th, and in beautiful sunshine we passed through Chipply, Florida, home of Carol and Harry F. Such a nice town. We had to get to Montgomery, Alabama where our overnight reservations were, or we would have made contact with them. We will see them in 3 weeks in Eufalla and will visit then.
This morning we see again rain ahead for our trip home up 65 North. Looks like the bad storms are now over Atlanta. By God's Grace we will be home to Greenwood tonight.
Peace and love, Mrs. Hawk
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Interesting, Mrs. Hawk. Since you'll be on the road this comment won't help with your travels today, but I had a very similar experience some years back on the same roads you covered and decided to take a different route. Our Interstates are a blessing and a curse. When they work as planned, they're a great way to cover a buncha miles in a short time. But I-75 between Gainesville and Tampa/St.P. is just scary...
WAY too much traffic going WAY too fast for conditions. We checked the map and figured Highway 19 would be a much preferable route. It was a good decision.
Your Guardian Angels were working overtime yesterday.
As you've seen, there IS rain in your future along your path today. But temps for the next few days are forecast to be normal or above normal. It's really beginning to feel like Spring, and buds on trees look ready to explode.
Be careful, enjoy your journey, and update us when you're safely home.
I also know about I 75 if you don't 80 people talk ugly about you. I was running 80 and had 3 state police pass me like I was sitting still. Mrs Hawkeye you should have call we could have shown you all the good places in Chipley and you would have lost less than 2 minutes of travel time. We are in the woods.
Looking forward to seeing all of you in Eufaula. We still have room. I also know we WILL see some gators. Remind me to tell you about the gator and a duck. Duck big loser. H of H&C
Mrs. Hawk here, Thanks to you GB and carhar2. I looked at the 19 and it does look like a good alternative. Either that, or travel the 75 early, like 2 AM.
The rest of our journey was thankfully uneventful. We did stop in Lynchburg, TN and take the Jack Daniels Distillery tour. Jack Daniels was 5' 2" tall and wore a size 4 shoe. He never married and died because he kicked a safe he couldn't get open. He broke his toe, infection set in, he eventually died from this. If he would have only soaked the toe in some of his whisky...... Jack Daniels Distillery is 31 miles off of Highway 65. The sign off of the interstate does not tell you mileage.
It is good to be home.
Glad to hear you're home safe. It's always nice to get away for a while and REAllY nice to get back home.
Ferdy
Glad you are safely home, Hawks. Maybe the car knows I-65 well enough you can just give it its head heading back South to Central Alabama in April?
I had heard the Jack Daniels story before... some temper! Probably an indication of what the "Little Man" must have been like to work for, huh? Stories of folks dying from such seemingly harmless injuries long ago are instructive-
Alton, IL was the home of Robert Wadlow... the world's tallest man in his day. He wore HUGE shoes...
I saw one of 'em on display in a museum somewhere and I remember it being like two feet long! I think they were specially made for him by one of the big shoe companies, (Brown Shoe in St. Louis? Florsheim?)
They made him a new pair of shoes and he got blisters from them...
He had a pituitary gland problem and I suspect walked with a strange gait. Anyway, the blisters got infected, then spread that infection throughout his body. He died from sepsis. (And out the window went that "Shoes for the world's tallest man" ad campaign!)
HF sent the directions on how to get to the Eufaula rental properties. I'll include them in a post next week.
Are you coming? There's still time and room!
Just a little info about Eufaula trip. The houses are side by side.
Our normal weather would be in the high 70's to mid 80's. We are in the mid 70's today. The sun is out with high white clouds and blue bird skies.
Worked on some extra spinning reels today. Ready to go now. Both houses are under trees and have docks and porches facing the water. We have been in contact with the people over both houses. Be careful with the GPS we have tried 2GPSs and both took us to the wrong road. We will talk more about that later.
The FLW had a tournment there this week. Chad got a pay check but was only in the top 50. $5000 not bad for a weeks work
(just got his entry fee back). Steve and Terry he is going to give me one or two of his spots.
We were thur Eufaula this week. The people are getting ready for the Pilgrimage. Things are looking good. GB is right we have room for more people. The company will be great and the stories (well shall we say wear tall boots). I will talk Carol into taking her camera she got for Christma (she has taken 14 pictures total)(never remembers it till on the way home. Hope she doesn't read this (I'll be in trouble again)...... H of H&C
Welcome home Mr. & Mrs. Hawk.
You are giving GB a run for his money on intersting posts.
Seems like every time Shifty and I go to Florida we get held up for an hour or two with traffic jams and accidents. Glad you are home safe.
Echo
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