QC21-02 Mountains to Forest

January 25, 2012 (Wed) Mars Hill, NC (6) 33/57° - Yummi Yarns is a wonderful shop in Burnsville. Pat, Joy and Kaye had planned to check it out this morning but Pat had to fill in for Bob delivering the Meals-on-Wheels so Joy and Kaye went by themselves and had a great time. They even found time to shop at a nearby quilt shop.

Robertjohn and Claire live deep in the mountains at the end of a very long barely maintained single lane dirt road which ends at a ford crossing a small brook that defines the beginning of their driveway. Their house is somewhat modern (very modern compared to most of their sparsely situated neighbors) and  is filled with wonderful art. Calling their location remote, borders on understatement. That's where we went this evening with Bob, Pat and Kaye for a delicious dinner, lively jamming (Roberjohn plays the fiddle) and stimulating conversation. A great time.

January 26, 2012 (Thu) Mars Hill, NC (7) 43/61° - A slow relaxing day

January 27, 2012 (Fri) Mars Hill, NC (8) 53/49° - The old high school building in Marshall, NC, which is on an island in the river, has been converted into artist studios. Pat and then Bob were going to take us over there to see their friend Libby's quilting studio but things came up for both, so we went by ourselves. We had a very nice talk with Libby as she showed us around where she and her daughter Jennifer work at their quilting and weaving. Libby's specialty is landscape scenes and the works-in-progress hanging on the walls were wonderful. While there we stopped in and had a chat with the artist in the room next door, a weaver. The other studios in the building, which included a pottery, graphic artists and others, were closed - not surprising as the building housed work areas not shops.

The highest temperature we saw on the thermometer today was 53° when we got up. Other than getting colder all day the weather was drizzly miserable until mid afternoon when the sun finally appeared for a few minutes.

January 28, 2012 (Sat) Mars Hill, NC (9) 32/49° - Woke up this morning to an outside temperature of 33° and an inside temperature of 32°. It had either already begun to warm up or we need to find a new location for our thermometer's outside probe. There was a heavy frost on everything exposed to the damp outside air so it had obviously been colder than 33° out there at some time during the night.

January 29, 2012 (Sun) Mars Hill, NC (10) 27/51° - Our original plans were to be here only a few days but Bob was going to give the sermon this Sunday and wanted us to stay. So we did. And we were glad on several levels. We have always enjoyed hearing Bob's sermons and it's been a long time since we have been around when he is in the pulpit. Today's was particularly interesting, some would say poignant. Also staying gave Mark another opportunity to jam with music group here in the afternoon. We are off tomorrow, headed for the Ocala National Forest in Florida

Q082872 Bob and Pat's Yard (x10)
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January 30, 2012 (Mon) Mars Hill, NC to Savannah, GA (340/1033 miles) 28/67° - It was a clear crisp morning - the last of the cold for a while we hope. We said good-bye to our hosts and got under way about 9:30. Thank you Bob and Pat and all your delightful, talented friends for a great stay. We hope we didn't over-stay our welcome! It wasn't a particularly exciting trip south. We made the usual pit stops to do what one does at pit stops, exercise Lamont, and eat lunch. We watched the price of gas go from $3.53 in NC to a low of $3.25 in SC (we missed that and paid $3.43 later) and back up to $3.42 in GA (We paid $3.32 at Walmart). Isn't that exciting?

Q083212 Camp Walmart Savannah, GA
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 January 31, 2012 (Tue) Savannah, GA to Ocala NF (203/1236 miles) 36/77° -  Our question last night was: will the price of gas go up or down if it changes. Prices have been going up of late so the chances are if it changes, it will go up. Wrong!! It went down 6¢. We could have saved $1.30 if we'd waited until today. It was good we only needed a half tank.

The ambiance in a rest stop is usually marginally better than in a Walmart parking lot. So after making some traveling coffee we broke camp and headed south on I-95. 50 miles later we were parked with the big-rigs for breakfast listening to their engines and viewing their trailers on both sides. Diesel fumes filled air. Oh well! At least it was warmer, 63°.

Going through Starke is always interesting (read sarcasm). Traffic is always beyond heavy and today an ambulance, siren blaring, worked its way through the the stopped vehicles on US301. It turned north on US17 and had to wait for an elderly lady in her small slow moving electric wheelchair/scooter finish her transit across the 4 busy lanes. She turned at the corner and was waiting to cross much heavier traffic on US301 as we continued on south.

It's warm here in Juniper Springs (76°) but we are still cold from all that we've had getting here. We look forward to some shorts and sandal time. We will be here a week, maybe more.

Q083418 Juniper Springs CG, Ocala National Forest. #9 $8.50 dry A