The trip begins.....

We left our frozen yard early in the morning on December 31st. The first challenge was just getting up our hill with the camper! Luckily, there were no problems there, but we did drive on icy roads through a long stretch of Wisconsin. After driving almost 600 miles, we stayed in Effingham, Illinois and never even waited up to see the old year out.


The next morning we were on the road before 6 a.m.
At a gas stop that afternoon in southern Kentucky, I decided to see if I could get a newspaper. The lady in front of me in line asked for directions. As she and the clerk carried on a conversation, my mind started to fixate on their accents. I realized I was taken immediately to


Then it was my turn, and as soon as I opened my mouth and started to talk the clerk's eyes opened a bit and I suddenly became very aware of those very tall vowels and clipped consonants coming out of my mouth that mark the accent of the people from the frozen north. I wondered if in her mind she was picturing

All I could think of was that foot sticking out of that wood chipper. It just isn't fair to think about those horrifying scenes from a movie and place those stereotypes on an entire population! But, it does happen, obviously!!! Incidentally, there were no papers available. Hmmmmm.

The second night we made it south of Atlanta to Forsyth, Georgia.


And now we are at our first destination, Homosassa, Florida.

We have found this to be a wonderful slice of "Old Florida." I will share pictures as soon as I can.
Tomorrow we check into Oscar Scherer State Park in Osprey, Florida, which is right by Venice. I am excited to see Kent and Margie!!! And, Beth and Gary, too!!!!

We'll keep you posted!