I probably could have blogged but didn't. Our extended trip south is over with visits to Nazareth (Jeffrey's new digs), a visit with Wayne Guymon, Nico and Alexi (dogs), and dinner with Mariadela and Leonas. All that went well.
However, it was a tough drive down. I consider any extended road trip from house to house tough anyway (as opposed to just getting it done in a straight shot), with three additional overnights as we did some visiting, heavy rain and heavy traffic (I hate the drive on the east coast around Washington and Baltimore and Richmond) and then, to top things off, when the end was "in sight" south of Jacksonville, a trailer flat tire. Having to completely empty the back of the car to get at the jack and then empty the trailer to get at the spare tire at the front, on the shoulder of I95, was not a fun time. The tongue of this trailer is very short and hard to attach a spare, but I need to rethink that. I also need to keep a jack handy and a wrench. I ended up removing the lug nuts with vicegrips. The trailer was swaying in the truck draft; I was worried about it falling off the scissor jack ... but that's over.
Most everything was ship-shape with the house although we do still have a moisture problem from the new roof. They're going to have to go up in the attic and figure out where water is coming in. Last year's repair didn't do it and we're going to have to have it repainted .... again .... It was a very wet summer.
Crossing the border at Queenston Lewiston was a bit of a hoot. Naturally every car but us, or so it seemed, was Canadian. We picked the slow line; I always do. Watching ahead, he was sending quite a few cars over for secondary inspection. I was ready with my "groceries, wine, no fresh meat or veggies" line but he didn't even ask. He walked to the back of the car to get the license plate (can't see it due to the trailer) and said "have a nice day". Oh yes, he did ask if there were any people back there, referring to the back seat, and I opened the rear window for Cassie to say hello. That was it.
As usual, I stopped at the Agriculture Inspection just inside Florida. It's not clear that we have to do that but the sign says all trailers. For the first time, the fellow asked what was in the trailer - "two bicycles and luggage" - and another "have a nice day". Of course that was just before the trailer tire blew ... I did see a couple of small trailers not pull into the inspection and no one chased them down. I suspect that we'd be ok but what the heck. We're in there along with all the 18 wheelers :).
There was quite a pile of mail but I've plowed through most of it. There were no tickets from photo radar from Europe :). I had wondered about that. Greg Smith got a few from his day driving in Austria.
Hot. Humid. Well, that's what we came for !
Onward !
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