Travelling North

Another week has passed during which we have returned from Orlando to Lake Superior and my hometown. As we packed up Sunday morning, I checked the weather for Lexington SC... -8, -8! in South Carolina! It surely seemed an ominous sign! Were we making a big mistake? Was it too early to be heading north? Could it be that winter was not yet over? As you will see, the answers to all those questions was a resounding YES!

As we drove over to Daytona Beach and then northward up the coast we ground to a halt on the freeway–this has happened with disgusting regularity! A multi-vehicle accident had completely closed the northbound lanes. Surely this was another message to turn back! We carried on. A Jeep had tangled with three cars. The Jeep was the only one to sustain damage on both ends, so clearly it was a major player. By the time we got to the accident site (It was less than a mile ahead of us, but we were delayed over one hour while police and rescue vehicles attended the scene.), we noted that a multi-vehicle accident had developed among gawkers in the southbound lanes, totally blocking that side, and two or three more accidents had occurred among gawkers nearby these accident sites. As we continued northbound, we drove over ten miles before coming to the end of the stopped vehicles in the southbound lanes, and who knows how many more would be stopped before traffic started moving again. Freeways? I think not!

We finally got to Jack & Karen's, but we were over an hour later than we had planned. However, that did not diminish the pleasure of spending some time with these dear friends. We left Lexington on Tuesday morning, headed west. We got as far as St. Louis IL and spent the night there. On Wednesday, we continued westward toward Lawrence KS. As we approached Kansas City it began to snow. Once again we found ourselves in something less than a freeway as fender benders clogged the arteries. Once again we were about an hour late getting to our destination. Once again, we had the great pleasure of time spent with dear friends, Helen & Marti.

On Thursday, we awoke to the remnants of the snow storm. We planned to drive north, but I-35 was closed in Iowa. We waited. We changed plans. We enjoyed Invictus–thanks, Marti. We stayed another night! It was bitterly cold with a windchill that sounded frightening in either F or C. On Friday, we awoke to very cold weather, but the I-35 was moving, so we headed out and drove up to Minneapolis MN. The road was good, but the ditches and median were filled with stuck and wrecked vehicles, especially near Des Moines. We were glad not to have tried to head north earlier.

Finally, today, we completed the drive along the lake to home. It has been a month-long trip. We really enjoyed having everyone with us in Florida, but we're also really glad to be home.

I have managed one day of investments this week, but it was a good day, and I gained 0.7%—that's a full week plus some catch-up. Economic news was shaky toward the end of the week, but the TSX ended up in the green anyway.

Travis, Erin & Kristian have been holding the fort at home. We'll catch up with them now that we're home again.

And that's about it for this week.