Dodging Storms

 

Woke up at 6 am and looked at the weather...large storm system headed right for us.  We stopped the night at Cracker Barrel in Greenville, Alabama.  The weather looked real good when we went to sleep at 10 pm, by 6 am it was time to get out of the way.  We quickly got going and by 6:30 we were headed to Mobile Alabama.  At Satsuma, Alabama we pulled off at a Pilot Truck Stop and about 10 minutes later the storm hit.  Lots of rain, some lightening and wind, but not the killer storms other faced further north.  Two hours later (I took the opportunity to sleep a bit), we headed for Mobile with a light to moderate rain still going on.  Traffic was not heavy until we turned west on I-10 and got into Mississippi.  Huge slow down, but by the time we got up to where a wreck must have been, it was gone and the slow down speed up to 70 mph again.  Had some road work in Mississippi and especially Louisiana, but nothing that slow us up too much.  Stopped at Atchafalaya Welcome Center just west of Baton Rouge.

 

Above is a picture of my daughter Stephanie (lives in Salt Lake City), and my two boys, Ryan, the youngest on his graduation day back in 2019 (Chiropractor) and my oldest Michael (works for the State of California at the Capitol).  Plans were to see Steph on the way to Sacramento...until she called me Saturday to inform us she was not going to be in town...she was headed to Cincy to visit Ryan, then she has a conference down in Kentucky.  She will be gone the entire period that we could have been there.  So we will head to SLC after mom's birthday, probably in May, and visit some parks and stuff during that trip before heading back to Sacramento area.

This picture includes Ryan's wife, Kaelyn (also a Chiropractor) and Michael's wife Anna.  Since this picture Michael and Anna have had a baby girl, who will turn 3 in July, AND THE BIG NEWS IS, Anna is pregnant and we will have another grandchild in October.  (Grandpa is smiling big time!) 

So our new plans are to get past San Antonio tomorrow because the risk of major storms drops down to nearly ZERO at that point.  We plan to be outside of Phoenix on Thursday night, visit our friend Laurie on Friday before heading out Friday evening to get to Sacramento by Sunday late afternoon.  Lots of miles ahead of us, but after tomorrow, we won't need to worry about tornadoes, hail, etc., etc.

And There is ALWAYS a Route #3

 

We are near Peachtree Georgia, Marcia is visiting her friend that she has known for well over 50 years.  Due to weather (see above), we are changing our route...going to head back down to I-10 towards Mobile, Alabama.  The route I showed previous is littered with possible storms, even possible Tornadoes, so the far southern route is going to be our route.  It is about 11:45 am et, and we plan to leave here by 1:00 pm.  We will hit some rain, but the chances of the extreme storms will be way less than if we headed over to Little Rock.  

Visit with the Great Grandchildren was wonderful (as with Granddaughter and her husband).  Slept at a Cracker Barrel in LaGrange, Georgia last night, and other than a little road noise, it was very peaceful.  Hoping for another good Cracker Barrel 'over-niter' tonight.

 

Tallahassee Granddaughter

Left today around 10:30 am, went over to Masa Sub and Grill with a Touch of Mediterranean Restaurant, a place we found out about 2 weeks ago.  Ordered various Greek foods to take up to Tallahassee where Marcia's granddaughter lives with her husband and two children... granddaughter was dying for good Greek food.  Arrived at there house at 4:45, enjoyed visiting, she heated up the food and we enjoyed the meal too.

After more visiting tomorrow, we will head toward Peachtree Georgia and stay at a Cracker Barrel about an hour from where Marcia's oldest and dearest friend, Gerry lives...who we will visit with on Sunday.  

Winter Over, Time to Head West

 

There's Indy, sitting in the sun, looking for the Alligator that lives in the pond at the local library.  Well, I think she was looking more at the Birds, which were out of the picture to the right...but DAD always has a vigilant watch while there for that Alligator.  Sometimes I see it, sometimes I don't.  I have never seen it out of the water.  A funny thing happened about a week after this picture was taken.  

Out on the lawn was this HUGE turtle with a long neck, like the one seen in this picture.  Indy looked at it...the stare down lasted about 3 seconds...then Indy took a step toward the turtle, and BAMMM...the turtle ran down to the pond.  Indy did not bark, did not try to follow...I only wish I had it on camera.  It is called a Florida Softshell Turtle, found mainly in Florida, but also in neighboring states.

As we prepare to head to California, there are certain things that need to get done.  One of which is our taxes.  Well, that dirty deed is done as I mail the IRS our 2024 tax forms, and mail our 1st Quarter taxes.  Never a fun thing to do, but someone has to do it, and it is done.  I have done my own taxes since 1973 when I filed my 1972 taxes...of course, Dad helped.  In 1974, I did my 1973 taxes and Dad looked it over and gave me the big OK.  I have pretty much done my taxes ever since then, except for a few years after marrying Marcia when her accountant did them.  There were some write-offs back then that spanned over six years or so, so Tom did our taxes until those write-offs were finished.  The year they stopped, he did the taxes, but so did I.  When we agreed that I could handle them, and I have done them ever since.  Of course, our taxes are very simple so I just have to triple check all the math before signing and sending them off.

This (above) is most likely the general route that we will be taking.  "IF" the weather allows, we will be going through Salt Lake City.  I have a route going this southern route, and I have another taking us up to I-70...but my thoughts are that it will be too cold at night to go that route.  And as we get close to SLC, like in New Mexico, the weather will tell us to head up that way, or to stay south on I-40 and skip SLC, going on in to Sacramento.  Having lived in Utah, I know that Utah Snow Storms can dump a lot of snow, and can do so into April, even May.

So Friday we head north, will be gone for about 4 months.  Will try and keep the blog updated each day, after all, I want to test out our newest purchase...The T-Mobile AWAY™ – Unlimited Plan.  Costly at $160 per month, but it can be put on vacation twice a year for up to a total of six months, costing $10 per month.  That brings the cost down to $85 per month.  As for speed, tests here at home had speeds of over 250 Mbps.  Of course, speeds will vary while on the road, but should be better than our 4G Verizon Aircard gets.  Draw back is that we will have to run the inverter to power up the 5G Gateway TMO-G4SE device (shown above).  When we get back, I am dumping Frontier (100 Mbps at $115 per month) and get the T-Mobile All-In Home Internet for $70.  Overall, when we dump Verizon phones for Consumer Cellular, we will have faster service at about the same price.