Going Back In Time
I do have things to blog about that are slipping into the past a bit now that I'm home and getting onto other things. My trip had several wonderful things about it that deserve sharing (preëmptively: shut up Ed!). First, Lycurgus flew up from Florida to come in to Washington Dulles Airport. He departed from Tampa which airport, he discovered, offers free Wi-Fi. Logon was quick and painless so he e-mailed me that his departure was on schedule. I love it. Cheaper than using the cell phone if roaming is involved. Yet we decided that when he arrived, he'd call my cell from his cell to let me know what was up. I was then delighted by something I found at Dulles: a "cell phone waiting lot."
Not a place to put your cell phone while waiting but a parking lot for people who are to be notified by a call when meeting arrivals. Perfect! I wasn't sure how much time it would take me to get from the waiting lot to the arrivals portals so when I got the call I proceeded directly only to find that it took me less time to get there than it took brother to get out of the terminal. So I circled a couple of times, we met up and headed out. I think the cell phone lot is a feature at a lot of airports now. I recall Lycurgus saying that he saw one at the Tampa airport. Really, every airport should have one.
After a too-brief visit in my domain, we hopped in the Outback and scooted south. And not a minute too soon. The morning we left, the snow (predicted at 12 inches) began to fall. We drove through a dusting of snow for about an hour and then through rain down into North Carolina and then clear skies for the trip into Georgia. A car trip goes exceedingly easily when good conversation flows. I so oftern travel alone that having Lycurgus in the car was a treat. We'd solved most of the world's problems and very few of out own by the time we made our exit from I-95. And we went directly to the Randy Wood shop to pick up the tickets before even finding a hotel. We ended up at the Comfort Inn in Pooler. The room was fine (more free Wi-Fi) but the gratis breakfast was awful. As close to inedible as any meal I've ever been faced with. Unfortunately the new Holiday Inn Express which was cheek-by-jowl with the Comfort Inn was full to the point that all the non-smoking rooms were taken. Oh well.
It is startlingly ungracious of me to complain of something given away but it's also the truth which I think needs be told. I would gladly pay for a better brekkies than was presented. But it was no impediment to getting back out on the road. And so we rolled out in the dewy morn for the remainder of the trip.
We did stop a couple of times on the way down. Once at the Orange Shop in Citra, FLA where I acquired another gobbet of orange blossom honey and I couldn't resist buying a jar of "Key Lime Marmalade" because of its violent green coloration. Mistake. I tried it and it could not have tasted more like lime Jell-O if they tried. Bummer. I left that behind for someone else to deal with. The honey is good.
We also stopped in a town whose name I don't remember because there were tiger cubs beside the road. Some people who were invloved in animal rescue were selling Polaroid snaps of "you with the tiger" for $10 to support their cause (or just make money, whatever). So we stopped, Lycurgus got snapped with the kitty and we gassed up. If you've never seen a tiger at close range, it's a treat. They are singularly beautiful. I want the genetic engineers to snip out the tiger's skin and fur coloration genes and put them in other animals (like, say, goats) so we can start having "tiger-skin" fur coats again. Without, of course killing tigers. I'm all in favor of charismatic megafauna.
And thereby hangs a trip. I'll ask Lycurgus to scan in the photo of the tiger so I can post it. I'll probably give him the benefit of visual anonymity so his mug isn't palstered on the blog but it would be fun to have the pic for y'all's perusal.