Winter Travels 9

March 1-3: Going Home We stopped at a Walmart in central Alabama for the first night. As we drove along in the late afternoon that day we went through a little bit of rain and had a strong WNW wind, so in a few miles and about 30 minutes the temperature dropped from 87° to 64°! The second night we ended up at a Cracker Barrel in Scottsburg, Indiana after the Walmart there said they didn’t allow overnights anymore. The Cracker Barrel said that, because of liability issues, they couldn’t give permission but they wouldn’t kick us out either, and by morning we had one neighbor. Although there was a lot of development and building along the freeway, the area around the Courthouse in the town square was mostly abandoned when we went into Scottsburg to find a local dinner. There was one nicely decorated Bar on the square that was full of locals and we had pretty good sandwiches. Saturday morning we stopped at Sarah’s and bought doughnuts to enjoy as we celebrated Jordan’s 10^th Birthday and then went on to Ken’s to watch the Spartans lose to u/m in the Semi-final of the Big Ten Tournament. That made our return to the snow and cold of East Lansing that evening doubly depressing. But we had traveled many miles in safety and comfort and were grateful at least for that. 

Jordan opening his present as Analyn and Boppa look on.

He wanted to do his U.S. map floor puzzle right away, even before he opened his card.

He was really excited when he saw his special amount for reaching double digits!

2018 Take-aways to remember:

1.     We had sun and record high temperatures nearly the whole time we were gone, and had rain only the second night at Hillsborough River State Park and the second to the last night at Holder Mine, and none other. Even the natives and meteorologists were exclaiming that it felt more like summer in Florida. The only things that changed were the humidity and the wind.
2.     We left Michigan as the Larry Nassar scandal came to a head and we followed from afar as he was sentenced to many consecutive terms in prison, where he will live the rest of his life for abusing young girls as a gymnastics doctor.
3.     On Valentine’s Day we were horrified to hear of the massacre of 14 high schoolers and 3 teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, FL, and followed both the Florida and national debates on gun control and mental health issues.
4.     We found that we really, really enjoy our new trailer. It is easy to set-up and take down to move, and gives us a nice amount of living space during the day when the bed is folded up and we can be outside so much. My favorite thing is the bigger refrigerator with freezer which doesn’t require us to shop so often and I don’t have to be on my hands and knees to look into. The one bad thing is the very low gas mileage (around 9 MPG) we get when pulling it, even with our Ford 150 truck with Ecoboost.
5.       While we were gone we managed to watch all but one MSU Basketball game, and all but the last one were wins. We watched two of them from our campsite and most of the others at Beef O’Brady’s and were surprised that we rarely saw others who were interested in the game, on either team’s behalf. The first few games, in the midst of the Nassar troubles, when people would see our Green and White clothing, someone would always comment on the scandal but no one was ever nasty about it. Later it became a none-issue, I guess, as it faded from the News.
6.      For the first time in years. I got a cold that remained in my head and never went to my lungs. Since it was a really bad year for flu, I was so grateful to just be sneezing and blowing my nose and not feverish or achy. We took it easy a couple of days and I took Day-Quil and Night-Quil and managed to get through okay.