Go South

March 1.

2:13 PM. Off like a herd of turtles, as Grandpa would say. Our departure was delayed mostly (or at least ostensibly) by the snowy conditions that cropped up overnight. There was also a small matter of Don having neglecting most of his packing until the last minute. We made it from Connecticut to New York to Pennsylvania, encountering a friendly vole at a rest stop along the way. Stopped at a motel in Carlisle, PA for the night.

March 2.

Comparatively early start at 8:30…traveled through Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Warm and sunny conditions made for great roadside raptoring today, including American kestrel, Cooper’s hawk, sharp-shinned hawk, turkey vulture, and red-tailed hawk. AND…I saw a golden eagle soaring at low altitude just above the side of the highway in Virginia. At first I thought it was a big turkey vulture, but then it tilted and showed two unmistakeable white strips on its wings.

At 6:30 PM we arrived in Weaverville, North Carolina, and were welcomed into the palatial home of Marti Touchstone, a college friend of Don’s Mom. Marti introduced us to her Airedale trio - Pixi, Bubba, and Peach - and took us out to dinner (the local specialties include BBQ-somethinged pork, trout, and collard greens).

March 3.

Morning hike on the Blue Ridge Parkway with Marti and the three doggies. In the winter many sections of the parkway are closed unpredictably, which is inconvenient for driving, but we were able to walk along one of the closed sections to the head of a trail loop. We also got a better look at the impossibly quaint southern Appalachian community of Weaverville.

Despite our lateish start, we managed to drive all the way through North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama to Laurel, Mississippi by 9:40 PM (or was it 8:40? The time had changed at some earlier point, unbeknownst to us). As we sat in our fourth-floor motel room, a wicked thunderstorm passed over us and off to the northeast…but the tornado warnings in the region never materialized.

March 4.

Headed on our last leg south from Mississippi to Louisiana, turning west toward Texas.
P.S. Thanks so much to those of you who have written (I’ll get back to you ASAP…limited internet time for now).

--Abby