South Into Spring

Where were we when we were last together? Ah, yes, the EconoLodge. Right.

Well, after we checked out, we continued driving south.

South through the snow . . .

. . . because in this new, upside down world, it snows in the south and it's sunny in the north.

(I love runaway truck ramps)

But none of that is important right now. Because on Wednesday we arrived in Asheville NC.

And a beautiful woman ran down the sidewalk toward me, to give me a giant hug.

I don't know about you, but this does not happen to me very often.

I felt like I was in a movie.

Aw, Julie-Girl.

By the way, I have inches on my sister Julie. She was walking home from work in her work shoes, though, which outheighted me in my sneakers. Harumph.

We continued on our merry way, for a lovely late afternoon sunny walk.

Mistah was with us too, in his capacity of go-to-photographer-pit-man. The walk was a great chance to catch up, and stretch our legs after days on the road, and revisit the lovely Montford section of Asheville.

Julie's kids are pretty lovely too. I mean really. But we did miss Chapel Hill Girl -- it was our first visit to Asheville without Herself.

We had a great visit to Asheville, and there will be more Ashevilleness forthcoming, don't you worry about that for a second.

In the meantime, though, we had to leave town before another huge storm hit.

Oops, too late.

Because we were in the south. Where it always snows.

We drove through the most harrowing 20 minutes or so of ice storm, heading down the mountains, south on I-26.

Mistah handled the driving with aplomb, as usual, but I was actually nervous, I really was.

It was beautiful, but it was nerve-wracking.

And then? Bam. Out of the snow, out of the snow-covered south, into the pine trees and snowless ground of northern Georgia . . .

. . . to one of our favorite Georgia state parks . . .

. . . and our first night of camping. We immediately got right to our usual tasks: I got everything set up . . .

. . .and Mistah shot cool nighttime photography.

And when we woke up in the morning we finally, finally, felt like we were in the real south, with a warm day and the sun shining.

It was a gorgeous drive south through Georgia on Friday.

And Westy?

She had herself a banner day that day too.

And then, 1315 miles from New London CT, there it was, the sign we've been looking for. The symbol of our Vitamin D tour.

The Sunshine State.

We headed straight to our beloved Gold Head Branch State Park, home of the long-leaf pines . . .

. . . and our first campfire . . .

. . . and our favorite campsite in northcentral Florida. Where we're unexpectedly and most delightedly picking up a rogue wifi signal while camping under the Spanish moss.

.

This Vitamin D tour is working out just fine.....