Wednesday - January 27, 2010
We had made the decision after returning from China to head south in search of sunshine and warm weather for the month of February. Weather in northeast Ohio is particularly dismal from mid-November through February with mostly overcast days and little sunshine. Add to that numerous days of snow, slush, and maybe some freezing rain for good measure just to make things miserable. Last year we spent February in Phoenix and discovered that there are places where you don't have to endure the depression caused by the northern Ohio environment. One of those light panels that you can sit next to might be a good investment. They say that they actually do work. However, if you can why not go where you can enjoy real sunshine.
One of the reasons that the Ravenna Arsenal was built about forty miles northeast of our house to manufacture ammunition's for World War II was because of the high percentage of overcast days during the year. It was thought that any enemy bombers would unlikely be able to find it under the cloud cover. It's nice that we could support the war effort in this manner.
It seems that we were really busy in early January and had decided to wait until after a Habitat meeting on the evening of the 26th and then hit the road with the fifth wheel on Wednesday the 27th. We still had a lot of packing to do Wednesday morning but decided that whenever we were ready we would leave and that turned out to be about 2 PM. We planned on a stop in Charlotte to see our friend Jean for a day or two but knowing that it was about 9 or 10 hours driving time with the trailer we would be making an overnight stop someplace along the way. Fortunately we hit a break in the weather and the roads were good even though the ground had been covered with snow for a number of days.
Unfortunately the temps were in the 20's so I didn't want to put water in the holding tank of the trailer or fill the piping and take a chance that it would freeze. I had drained it and put in non-toxic antifreeze back in October so that's the way we started out. After all we would be in Charlotte soon and would be able to fill up there with it undoubtedly being above freezing.
So about 2 we headed down I77 towards Marietta. We decided to stop in Marietta to eat since we had kind of missed lunch before leaving home. By this time it was around 5 and the wise decision seemed to be to find a place to stay overnight. While we were eating we took out the campground guide and found out that there were two campgrounds close by. We called the first one and it had closed permanently. We called the second and they were closed for the season. Now it was either a motel or the Wal-Mart and we opted for the Wal-Mart parking lot. The furnace heated up the trailer quickly, Inky (cat) was happy and we had all we needed to be comfortable for the night - a well stocked refrigerator, our own bed, etc. The only thing missing was a way to flush the toilet. A trip to Wal-Mart and a purchase of a case of bottled water solved that problem.
About 2 AM I woke up to the familiar sound of a helicopter not far away and it just seemed to be staying in one place. I took a look out of the bedroom window and about a few hundred yards away was the helicopter hovering with a large spotlight flashing around on the ground. There was light snow in the air and the spotlight really showed up well. That was about the time that I remembered hearing on the radio as we approached Marietta that there was a manhunt on in Washington County and a helicopter had been loaned to the local police for the search. Time to check that I had locked the door. The familiar chop-chop went on for maybe a half hour or so and then quit so I assume that they got their man.
So ends our first day of searching for the sun.
Life is good.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
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