Florida 2012

Well when the bell struck the New Year that signaled that it was time to leave the snow behind and head to Florida. We were traveling with our friends AJ and Sheelagh in their Winnebago motor home. We communicated with FRS radios.

The trip started out well with above freezing temperatures and early morning sun.

That did not last long as rain started almost immediately.  By the time we made it to Windsor Ontario the winds were quite strong and the wind chill started to drop.

By the time we got south of Toledo the temperature was below freezing and snow squalls where making driving tough. Finally we stopped for dinner in Troy at a fantastic little family restaurant called Lincoln Square Restaurant at exit 73 in Troy Ohio next to the Super 8 motel.  When we came out and got back on the highway the roads were very icy.  Fortunately the ice did not last long and we made it to Franklin , south of Dayton for the night. Parked in the local Super Walmart for the night.

Next morning started out well but almost immediately the snow squalls started and made visibility near zero and turn the roads to a sheet of ice.  After about 15 minutes of this I decided to pull off at an exit 32 north of Cincinnati. This was the first time I had tried to brake.  The trailer started to slide to the right on me, the beginning of a jack knife. I immediately decided to abort the action and moved back over into my lane and told AJ on the radio so he did the same. After a looking for another exit that was not icy and seeing many accidents I pulled over on the side of the highway at the 275 bypass. AJ kept going and told us that the next exit was good. So we started again and got off in Sharonville exit 15 and had breakfast at the Cracker Barrel where we decided to call it quits and AJ decided to continue.  We checked into the Red Roof Inn at 10:30am. Made for a long day of TV.  As AJ had not activated his US cellphone we did not hear from them the rest day or night. TV had reported a 35 car pile up south of Cincinnati .

Next morning was sunny and cold, so we got an early start.  The roads were good but as we approached Corbin exit 29 the traffic came to a dead stop.  There was an accident involving a trailer and pickup truck similar to ours.  It had jack knifed and rolled over.  By the time we got close enough to take pictures they had up righted the trailer and had the truck on a tow truck flat bread.  We could not quite figure out what happened but my best idea is that he was cut off by some one entering from the on ramp. Too bad one couples winter holiday down south is over.
We continued  over the mountains and finally heard from AJ at that time by phone and they were ok.
The rest of the day was uneventful but long, we had  started at 7:30am and made it to south Georgia about 9PM. We had almost caught up with AJ and Sheelagh only 35 miles ahead of us.
Next day we made it to Zephyrhills Florida.
We have been here a week and the weather has been great.  Boy do I love winter.



Bill