Quick Trip to Florida

Beautiful flowering dogwood

Took a quick trip to Florida to see Mom and had a great time! I watched the temperature climb and the flora emerge as I drove South and, on the drive home, got to see the absolutely beautiful pink flowering dogwood trees in Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee that were in darkness on the drive down.  On my way down, I went via Indianapolis and ended up staying overnight in Horse Cave, Kentucky -- I mean, how can you not want to stay at a place called Horse Cave?  Turns out that it is very near Mammoth Caves and just south of Fort Knox.  I really had no idea of the things that were all right there together and I'm thinking that it would make a great weekend trip in the summer.

Wisteria grows over everything in Georgia

Had some relaxing times with Mom, Dean, and Carol.  Mom had fallen while touring a battleship in Charleston and was limping quite a bit.  But we were still able to visit Fred's (absolutely excellent place to eat) and Mom's favorite:  Golden Corral.  On Friday, Aunt Jan and Dale came over, along with Dean, Bill, and Kim (Carol was at work) and we had a cook-out.  The boys were able to do some swimming and relax a little after two very long days of driving.

Mistletoe growing live

Wisteria up close

On Saturday (March 17), they headed to Disney for two days and I took off for home hitting some rain along the way and seeing those beautiful flowering dogwood trees and gorgeous purple wisteria.   In Tennessee, I pulled over to take some pictures and I picked up a nice big rock for my garden.  Now I have one from South Dakota and one from Tennessee.

Tried to find a motel on Saturday night but I was in an area of Indiana where they had had tornadoes so the locals were using the motels.  Finally, I just pulled over and slept in my car in the parking lot of a motel for a while.  It got kind of chilly toward morning, but it worked out ok.  (Later, I remembered that I had a blanket and a travel pillow in the back of the car.)

I'll be heading back in early April to spend a couple of days at Disney with Steve and his family, and to drive with Mom back to Rice Lake.  The weather has been so amazingly good in Wisconsin that everything is well in bloom here so it might actually be kind of refreshing for Mom and Sandy to leave Florida where it is consistently in the high 80s now.