You probably figured out I meant Circle K, not K Mart from yesterday’s post. I mean, it’s kind of hard to miss – a big red “K” with a big red circle around it. Chalk it up to travel fatigue.
Gross! My hotel room! Years ago on a trip, I stayed at some hotel that the carpet felt very dirty and was evidenced by the soles of my feet. Ever since that time, I’ve always packed a pair of flip-flops for walking in hotel rooms. I’m getting old and I forgot to pack a pair. Big mistake. The hotel room carpet is really dirty. After a shower and simply walking over to the desk in the room over the carpet, my feet were icky.
Here’s my bath rag after cleaning the soles of my feet.
Double icky! The comforter on the bed. I think I need to have my eyes checked sooner than later. When I pulled the comforter back, I couldn’t find a top sheet. More confusingly, the comforter had a sheet sewn into the underside.
The top half is the top surface of the comforter, the bottom half is sheet-like material.
I thought they couldn’t possibly have put a comforter on a bed without a top sheet. I know they don’t wash comforters between visitors and even though the sheet attached to the comforter felt clean, my mind said it wasn’t. After trying to get some sleep with this arrangement, I gave up and gave it one more try to find a top sheet. It was indeed there and it simply blended in so well with the bottom sheet, I didn’t see it. I had needlessly spent about an hour with only the comforter on top of me.
Otherwise, the hotel was quiet and I finally drifted off to sleep. Either the place is not full or there are exceptionally quiet guests on my floor.
My GPS did indeed route me to Atlanta but thank the travel gods, it did not send me through downtown. For some reason, the GPS has a proclivity to send me downtown during rush hour. Thank goodness some of the by-passes are no longer under construction and I can get around the city.
I pulled into Smithgall Woods about 2 pm. I did not anticipate the cottage to be ready (check-in is 4:30 pm). However, the same park ranger that checked me in last trip checked me in this trip.
Smithgall Woods Visitor Center. The fall foliage is in full swing!
I had some trepidation about the cottage. The park website did not have a floor plan and I knew it would be hard to beat my experience at the Garden Cottage last year. I was pleasantly surprised when I walked into the cottage. It’s a very spacious layout with a galley kitchen, a living room with fire place, a “game” room with television, three bedrooms (two with full size beds and one king bed) and a shared bath with the two small bedrooms and an ensuite with the king bed.
Galley kitchen at Smithgall WoodsOne of two bedrooms with full-size bedThird bedroom, this one with a king size bed and en suite bathLiving room“Game” room with TVFire place in use!
Jimmie and Stephen arrived around 4 pm. I finally got a fire going and we all relaxed after a long drive – me from Waycross and them from Greensboro. Around 6 we headed for Helen and dinner at Paul’s Steakhouse. Stephen got the NY Strip and Jimmie and I both got the country fried steak (shades of the Gulf Cafe in Morton, Mississippi when we were kids). Heart healthy it is not – but oh so good!
Tomorrow, Jimmie and I may try a hike to a waterfall. Both of us are having hip trouble so it may be a short hike. We can console ourselves if we don’t make it to the waterfall with the home made tea cakes I made for the trip. It’s my great grandmother’s recipe and they are delicious if I do so say.
I hauled out of bed around 6:15 this morning and was out the door and on my way by 9:30. I made a quick stop at my local Subway and ordered a foot long BMT for the trip. Then it was left turn on Davie Blvd. to I95 all the way to Jacksonvillebefore my turnoff to Waycross, GA.
I stopped around noon at an I95 rest stop and had half my BMT and a bathroom break and was back on the road until 4:30 this afternoon until I pulled into Waycross. I passed the Laura Walker State Park where I spent one night on my last trip back from Smithgall Woods.
Strangely, I95 was a pretty easy drive. Somewhere around Coconut Creek in Broward County I got on the Express Lane until Boca Raton. Even more amazing, I95 through West Palm Beach was free moving traffic.
If you can believe it, I only saw two HP on the way to Jacksonville and everyone was pretty polite and safe in their driving with one or two exceptions. At least no one flipped me the bird for driving the speed limit!
It was either in Hillard or Callahan, Georgia that I pulled into a K-Mart for coffee and, I hate to admit it, powdered sugar donuts. I used to always eat those things on trips and haven’t in years. It only takes one pack of those that are stale to put you off them for a long, long time. These were squeeze-ably fresh. What was great about the K-Mart was the employee ringing everyone up. He was very talkative and had a great attitude and was willing to banter with you. He asked if I was going to some wild party and was stoking up my sugar levels. I said, sadly no, just a long drive trip. As I walked away after paying he shouted “Safe trip!” It was kinda nice to have someone so friendly at a service desk.
I’m staying at the Hampton Inn for one night. The place is pretty basic with a sometimes desk person. I think that’s because the Hilton app lets you check in the day before and you have the option for a digital room key so there’s no need to stop by the front desk. Either that or they run some illicit operation in the back of the front desk.
After getting to the room, I decided to get an early dinner and headed back out to check out the Waycross food scene. Although there are some independent restaurants in the area, I opted for Popeyes. Big mistake. I ordered a 2 piece white meat with Cole slaw and a coke.
Popeyes was asking people to pull up and wait and someone would bring your order out. I knew I was in trouble when a person came out and asked what I was doing. After explaining, she said the order would be right out. It wasn’t.
After about a 10 minute wait, the order came out, I thanked her and drove back to the Hampton Inn for dinner. Instead of white meat, I had 2 pieces of dark meat and instead of a coke, I had unsweetened tea (I think). At least they got the Cole slaw correct. As I drove away from Popeyes, I noticed the sign said “Help Wanted.” If I had seen that before pulling in, I would not have stopped. It’s got to be hard to run a fast food restaurant with recent hires.
Tomorrow is another 6 hour drive to Smithgall Woods. I have the option of a few back roads that lead around Athens or two options, both of which take me around Atlanta. My inclination is to take the longer, more back roads route but the last few times I did that with my GPS system in the jeep, I ended up on dirt roads and in one case, deeply rutted, swampy dirt roads. I may opt for the Atlanta route which is all of 25 minutes faster.
It’s hard to say what type of breakfast Hamilton Inn will offer tomorrow. Since the pandemic, all the places I’ve stayed (with exception of Wakulla Springs Lodge and one B&B) have pre-wrapped breakfast selections, all of which are pretty bad.
In any case, I should pull into Smithgall Woods sometime around 4:30 pm tomorrow depending on pit stops. Stay tuned!
On the road again – this time a repeat trip to Smithgall Woods State Park near Helen, Georgia. Helen, as some of you know, is the town in north Georgia that went Bavarian to draw in the tourists. It worked. It’s swamped during the summer and now they are pushing Christmas decor to bring them in during winter months.
I found this park my last trip to Georgia and so enjoyed my time hiking the trails and staying at a posh cabin I wanted to go back. This time met cousin Jimmie and her husband Stephen from Greensboro are joining me for three nights at the Parkside Cottage.
It has three bedrooms and two baths with a wood fireplace, a dishwasher, and wifi. Sadly, unlike my last “cottage” there, it has no hot tub.
There are several waterfalls in the area I want to visit. The lows are predicted to be in the high 40’s and the highs in the low 70’s. It sounds like perfect weather. Oh yeah, I’ll turn 74 on Tuesday!
As you also probably know, it takes forever to get out of the state of Florida. I’ll spend my first night enroute at Waycross, Georgia, about a 7 hour drive from my house, then it’s another 7 hours to Smithgall Woods.
On the way back, I’ll stop in Lake City, Florida, about a five and one half hour drive back home. To get to Lake City, I’ll have to go through Atlanta – a challenge in the best of times – and it’ll take me about 6 hours to get to Lake City from Smithgall Woods.
However, three nights in front of a roaring fireplace in 40 degree weather sounds about perfect right now.
September 15th is the peak of hurricane season in Florida but we get almost as many hurricanes in October. With the devastation of Ian on the west coast of Florida, it got me to thinking about my experiences with hurricanes. By my count I’ve lived through five hurricanes and since I’ve been in Florida, I’ve had close calls with 13 tropical depressions, tropical storms and hurricanes. If you look at the historical map of tracks of hurricanes of Florida, you can see why.
My very first hurricane experience was Hurricane Camille (August 17, 1969), a category 5 hurricane and the second most intense hurricane to strike the U.S. since the Labor Day hurricane of 1935 (in the Florida Keys). According to Wikipedia, the highest wind speed was 174 mph or 151 knots (1 knot = 1.15 mph) however, it was reported the anemometer on the Hotel Buena Vista in Biloxi blew off the roof at 200 mph. The hotel survived but barely.
It was my grandmother’s favorite place to stay while on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and I had a memorable run-in with a giant oak tree which grew up through a second floor patio. I think I still have the knot on my head. By the time Camille got to north Mississippi where I was at Ole Miss, it was still a pretty powerful hurricane.
In 1970, I enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard, went to boot camp in Alameda, California and Radio School at Governors Island, New York. I was sent to sea duty on board the CGC Reliance in Corpus Christi, Texas with very little sea experience. September turned out to be a busy month with two hurricanes near Corpus Christi: Edith and Fern. Strangely, Fern arrived first and then Edith.
What a lot of people don’t know is that when a hurricane approaches, ships do everything they can to put out to sea and not stay in port to weather the storm. The reason is seen below.
These ships were washed ashore at Gulfport, Mississippi during Hurricane Camille. They are not small ships. (Hurricane: Science and Society)
We put out to sea. A lot of people think the Gulf of Mexico can’t get rough because it is shallow compared to the Atlantic or Pacific. Not true. It doesn’t take much to make huge waves in shallow water. We were being hit by 50 foot seas and I copied one radio message from the CGC Dependable out of Brownsville, Texas that was towing a disabled shrimper off the coast of the Yucatan peninsula who reported 80 foot seas. Just to give you some perspective, from the keel to the top mast of the Reliance was 80 feet.
I remember sitting on the mess deck trying to keep food down when a wave washed over the side of the ship and through the water tight door (which apparently wasn’t so water tight) and flooded the mess deck. That will get your attention.
Hurricane Fern came through first and then Hurricane Edith. While at sea with Edith, three of the four engines on our ship failed. The Reliance was a prototype which had two diesel turbines and two diesel locomotive engines. We were down to one locomotive engine and could only do 4 knots. The hurricane was heading towards us at 5 knots. We limped back into port and rode the storm out in Corpus Christi Ship Channel. I got up the next morning and the mooring lines had been let out continuously during the storm and the gangway from the ship to the dock, normally at a 3-4 degree angle was now at a 65 degree angle. You literally had to climb the side of the ship to board.
Trust me to attract hurricanes. I moved to Florida in 1985 and moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1991. Hurricane Andrew struck on August 24, 1992. Even though Fort Lauderdale did not receive a direct hit, we certainly felt the effects. I lived in an evacuation zone and went to a public shelter (which was immediately declared unsafe) and we had to move to a second shelter. It was miserable. At dawn, without any sleep, I escaped and headed back to the house. The side of my condo was plastered in leaves. You almost couldn’t see the stucco.
In 1995, I moved to my current home and in August 2005, I met Katrina. What’s interesting about that is I had ordered a stand alone generator to power the whole house. It was delivered but getting it installed was the problem. It sat, unconnected, in my driveway all during the hurricane. We were without power for 17 days.
All the weather personnel told everyone that Wilma wouldn’t be too bad since it was coming through the Everglades to get to us. What they failed to take into consideration is there is not one mountain between the west coast of Florida and the east coast of Florida. It’s called the River of Grass for a reason. Wilma did far more damage than Katrina to Florida.
In what I would call “Close but not quite” are near misses. They came very close to Broward County.
October 12, 1987 – Hurricane Floyd – Category 1 – 65 knots June 30, 1991 – Tropical Depression Ana – 20 knots October 16, 1991 – Tropical Storm Fabian – 40 knots September 21, 1999 – Tropical Storm Harvey – 50 knots October 16, 1999 – Hurricane Irene – Category 1 – 65 knots August 30, 2006 – Tropical Storm Ernesto – 40 knots July 23, 2010 – Tropical Storm Bonnie – 35 knots September 30, 2010 – Tropical Storm Nicole – 40 knots August 2, 2013 – Tropical Depression Dorian – 25 knots September 3, 2018 – Tropical Storm Gordon – 45 knots August 2, 2020 – Tropical Storm Isaias – 6o knots September 12, 2020 – Tropical Depression Sally – 3 knots November 9, 202 – Tropical Storm Etta – 55 knots
Remember, on all these near misses, hurricane panels went up for the first 10 years and then shutters, and finally impact windows and doors. You have to clean everything out of the yard to prevent missiles from being launched against your neighbor. Coconuts are deadly in a hurricane.
If you live anywhere on the eastern seaboard or around the Gulf of Mexico, hurricanes are a fact of life. At least, with todays forecasts, you have time to prepare. However, there are always those who don’t. Evacuation zones are clearly demarcated and if you have a radio or tv, you cannot miss that you may be in one, yet people do not evacuate. What they don’t seem to realize is the danger isn’t necessarily the wind – it’s the water that kills you.
I’m overly cautious. I have impact windows but I kept my shutters. I close them each and every time. I figure it is cheaper to replace a shutter than an impact window. I’m also a former Boy Scout and I stay prepared. I have water filtration systems I use when camping and they are handy to purify your tap water if pressure drops from the treatment plant. I have a portable toilet with disposable bags. I have freeze dried food for three weeks. I probably am too prepared.
These days, experts say if you are not in an evacuation zone (I am not) then you should ride out the storm. The reason is if you leave, your are likely to be snarled in traffic for hours on the roads out of here and you may run out of gas before you reach a station to refuel.
I’ve done everything I can do to protect my house. The house originally had roof tie downs to the walls every fourth rafter. Several years ago I put them on every rafter (as the arthritis in my hands can attest). Still, there are no guarantees with a category 5 hurricane.
The greatest danger from all the near misses (as well as direct hits) are tornadoes. Ian generously donated at least three to Broward County and we were no where near Ian. Studies of Andrew indicated that many homes and subdivisions were destroyed by microbursts and F1 tornadoes, not from hurricane winds.
As a former Mississippian, I’m familiar with tornadoes. I’m the only one on my block who closed shutters for Ian. Everyone knew it would miss us but what they didn’t take into consideration were microbursts and tornadoes in the county which led to some fairly significant destruction in western Broward. The best thing I can say about hurricanes is they give you warning. Tornadoes don’t.
