Our Dumb Blog

Southern Tour – Anniversary

Today is our wedding anniversary. Three years ago we got married on an Alabama beach. Today we left Alabama for Orlando. Neither one of us like Florida very much, and we’ve spent most of today driving through it with the air conditioner on.

Florida drivers are the worst in the country. (It’s true. I heard a news report about a study done recently.) As far as I can tell, they all drive in the left lane, forcing all the drivers from other states driving down to Disney World to pass them in the right lane. Passing on the right is dangerous anyway, and it’s even more so in a little bitty car that no one can see. On I-75, which is three lanes all the way to the turnpike, they all drive in the middle lane and the rest in the left lane. That leaves the right lane clear except for all of the really slow moving trucks. So if you want to drive faster than the speed of traffic, you have to do it in the right lane.

Florida drivers are even worse than Memphis drivers. In Memphis they play this game when entering the Interstate by trying to speed up and pass people already on the road on the right before the pavement for the entrance ramp runs out, even if there is no one behind you and they could easily pass you from behind. This happened to us five times in the first 24 hours we were there. After that, we learned to drive in the center lane.

We’re on our way to visit Berck’s mom and possibly siblings in Orlando (Apopka, to be precise). We spent Christmas in Mobile with my whole family, including my two nephews. It was fun to experience Christmas morning with two little boys (even if one them was only interested in pulling bows off of packages). Ian, who is two and a half, loves unwrapping presents, and he went around to everyone saying, “Can I help you open it?”

After giving next to no thought to Christmas presents the last two years, Berck announced as soon as we arrived at my parents’ house that we had to go buy wrapping paper at Walgreen’s. Then he wrapped all of the presents (except for the few at the end when he got tired) in blue wrapping paper and silver ribbon. And a fine job he did too, even if it did take him 45 minutes a piece.

We gave Ian a Thomas the Train portable track, but his favorite gift that morning was a motorized motorcycle that travels 1 mile an hour when you push down on the foot petal. (It was from my mom and dad, but I did the assembly.) He ran it around and around the house until someone finally made him take it outside.

Now we’re in Apopka, so I’ll post this.

The forecast for Colorado Springs:

This Afternoon: Periods of snow with widespread blowing snow. The snow could be heavy at times. High near 29. Windy, with a north wind between 25 and 35 mph, with gusts as high as 50 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 12 to 18 inches possible.

And another foot tonight! That’s a lot more snow than I’ve ever seen. And w’ere gonna miss it. Argh!

Well, the car made it, eventually, to Knoxville. We left Memphis on I-40 heading east when the car shut off. Berck coasted off the next exit, opened the hood, and wiggled some wires. The car started up again. The same thing happened at the next exit, then at the next. Berck declared it was the cam angle sensor and tucked its connection in tight behind the engine block. We didn’t have any problems after that.

We had a wonderful dinner of delicious chicken.

Amazingly, the car went back together without too many left over parts yesterday afternoon. It appears to be working just fine, which is something of a welcome relief. Unfortunately, I’m not totally convinced that I didn’t screw something up that will show up a couple hundred miles down the road, but there’s not much I can do about that. Joanna’s been busy washing and waxing it even.

The current plan is to leave Monday morning for Knoxville, spend a couple days there, then head on to Mobile in time for Jesus Day. After that, we’ll progress in a southerly direction to that lovely wasteland my dear mother has chosen to call home. Maybe we’ll put the top down or something.