Pages of my trip to see my dad and brother

Aug. 28 - Sept. 6th, 2013

To start our trip, we picked up the car late on Tue. thinking we were going to leave early (by 4 am) on Wed. So we get the retal car and go to pay for our hardwood floors since they came in and don't you know the 'check engine' light comes on and won't go off. By this time the rental place was closed and didn't open until 7:30 in the morning. We did not rush ourself either to make sure to pick up my medication since we knew we had to be here in the morning because of the car so we just took our time back from the floor place and figured we would leave at 9 which gave us enough time to return the car and pick up my meds. Well, next morning we called the car rental and they thought it was just because it was close to the milage to get the oil changed so not to worry about it but if anything happened on our trip to call the 1-800 number and they will have a new car to us within an hour. Ok, no problem so we waited til just before 9 and left to get my medication and jump on the highway to start our trip. We get to the drugstore and they don't have any of my medication, it won't be in til noon. Now we go back home and wait until noon then go back so it ends up we left for our trip 1pm.

As if we weren't behind schedual enough, we run into this storm that was so bad that the winds were blowing branches off the trees and the rain so hard even though we were lucky enough to park at the rest stop, we couldn't see beyond the hood of the car. That lasted about another hour.

We didn't get no where near where we should have been but we spent the night in PA, we had enough. We got on the road early the next moring hoping to make up some distance. So off we go again and a bird flew right into the windshield and scared the heck out of us. We both thought it broke the windshield but it didn't thank goodness. (This is when we were on the highway going 65 so you can imagine it wasn't pretty.) This should have told us something was up but we kept going and we finally got out of PA and were so excited we got to VA but that was short lived. Once we got near Roanoke, VA we found they closed the hightway and we had to take a detour. Now this isn't too bad you would think only there was one problem....there was only ONE road that could be used because VA don't believe in side streets so everyone was on that road. It was a three hour detour. (The reason for the highway was closed is because they were doing some construction and I guess they used a little too much dynamite and side of the highway fell across the highway.) Needless to say, again we didn't get as far as we wanted and just pushed ourselves until we got to TN and spent the night.

The following day the drive wasn't too bad and we got to Hattiesburg around 4 (5 to us but this is a different time zone). We grabbed some things to eat and just spent the rest of the night relaxing. The following two days I spent visiting my dad. Oh it was so wonderful to see him! He is doing really well (he is 82 and has diabeties) but naturally he has aged since I last saw him 15 years ago. We had a wonderful time talking and he said he will try and come up to CT to see us next. (It is so hot here, I think I melted some.) It was really sad to say goodbye and leave there but I am just so glad I came. It was worth all the hassles. Now on to GA to see my brother.

Boy! Alma, GA is sure in the middle of nowhere. It was so good to see my brother.

After spending the day with him (and seeing him before we left) it was time to head on home. It was basically a slow uneventful ride. We stopped in NC to check on our property and it is just as beautiful as the day we bought it. It was nice to be home with the dogs...I missed them so much.