By now, most of you know we have the cruiser mentality embedded in our brains. That being said, Steve decided not to buy snow tires hoping that we could escape the winter and leave Canada before the snow covered our roads. Well, that didn't happen.
Finally, on Wednesday we waved good-bye to mum who walked us down to her lobby. She put on a brave happy face as we waved good-bye.
Next stop was at our son and daughter-in-law's and our former hometown, Burlington. We had a wonderful evening with them, never leaving the dinner table, chatting about future plans, with a wonderful glass of wine.. in general, just having a great chat. As we headed for bed, the reality of leaving was inevitable. That night I slept with heavy heart, knowing we were leaving family, mixed with excitement of our next adventure ahead. We left early morning for America, crossing the Peace Bridge on Thursday, Jan 8th 2015. As we headed along the shores of Lake Erie and south towards Blacksburg, Virginia the weather window closed on us. We drove all day through dark clouds and snowy conditions finding patches of dry payment. We called our travel time right though... The previous day there was a huge accident involving 27 cars along this stretch of highway and the following day Buffalo and Fort Erie were hit with another huge blanket of snow and the boarder was closed! On our choice weather window..Thursday, we drove carefully through the mess... for hours!! while other cars and trucks were off-roading. Ever so gradual as we drove south into West Virginia, the visibility and roads cleared and we enjoyed the changing scenery. The sun shone brilliantly through the changing terrain. We arrived to Blacksburg safe and sound and our cruising friends Mark and Julie "sv Rachel" welcomed us. We haven't seen each other since 2011 in the San Blas Islands of Panama.
It has been a wonderful five days. Each day has been filled with a daily 2 (some 3) hour walk-a-bouts. We've shared some great meals and had many hours of catching up. Mark and Julie have been live-aboard cruisers for almost 8 years. This year, kicking out their renters to tidy up their property to have some "down time" from the cruising lifestyle. While here, we saw an exciting basketball game, courtesy of grandson Alex and received lots of hugs from granddaughter Emma who excitedly enjoyed with us a car wash. they had a "snow day" from school because the water pipes had burst. We had a blast.
Memories of Blacksburg...Virginia Tech's unique, much-beloved HokieBird! Each one uniquely painted and found throughout the town.