The Trip Home 2011

On our last day at the villa, we did the remaining laundry, re-made the bed, put away the towels, vacuumed up our footprints, and left.  Oh yes, one last thing before we headed north, Poppa swept the front walk and the driveway.

 

It had been very windy on Friday and there were little leaves and things all over the place - even some of the bark from the flower beds!  Once he was satisfied with everything, we got into the car and headed towards home.  It was a lovely day and the temperature was about 82F when we left.  The forecast had it going up to 94F before the day was done!  So, with our shorts on, the windows open and the sun shining we set out.  It was a lovely drive until we reached South Carolina.  The temperature was 27C and it was still sunny, when an alert came on the radio, announcing a tornado watch for south and central South Carolina.  We decided that since we were quite close to North Carolina, we would probably be out of range by the time it got there.  Oops!  Wrong conclusion!  We were almost to North Carolina when the sky turned black and it was just like driving in the middle of the night.  We kept going (and praying at the same time!), but soon it started to hail.  Poppa pulled off to the side of the road to keep the hail from hitting the car any harder - it was kinda scare-ey!  A lot of other cars pulled off too.  When the hail stopped we started moving again - hoping it was over.  Nope!  We drove through another dark-as-night storm, with heavy rain and dramatic lightening - but at least no hail!  It was rather early to call it a day, but there were still tornado warnings out, so we decided to stop for the night, just north of Charlotte, North Carolina.

We awoke the next morning refreshed and ready to hit the road again!  We had thought about stopping for a visit with Becky and Whitey, but decided that we had lost time already and just wanted to get home.  Also, due to the fact that there had been severe storms and they both work for the power company, we thought they might be busy at work.  Once again, we were sailing along in a beautiful day, with temperatures in the high 20'sC.  Before long however, we found ourselves at a standstill.  There was a road crew out paving (on a Sunday no less!) and the traffic was reduced to two lanes, which naturally slowed everyone down.  This long construction zone lost us about two hours!  Once we got past the paving, the traffic cleared up and spread out and all was good.  Across the border into Virginia and darned if we don't hit another traffic jam.  We assumed it was another construction zone, since there were signs out.  After about half an hour of stop and go, we reached the critical area and discovered that there had been a fatal accident.  Believe it or not, the temperature stayed around 27C all the way to Buffalo.  As soon as we got that close to Lake Erie, it dropped dramatically down to about 13F - Brrrr!  The windows were quickly closed!  So............we reached this place...

....about two and a half hours later than we had anticipated.  It was still beautiful - there was so much mist, and the water temperature was still so cold, there was ice and snow along the edges and heaped at the bottom.  I could get the best picture of this on the American side of the falls.....

...and even then it was hard to actually capture the ice and snow, since it was mostly obscured by the mist.  We checked into the Day's Inn on Victoria St. - which we found pleasant last year - and got the very same room!

Taffy thought it had been a long day and couldn't wait to get comfortable and watch TV!  Hee!  So, once again we retired for the night, with a plan to stop in and see Munchie the next day!