In the approximately 20,000 miles we have driven around the US this year and during our six weeks of traveling in the UK, we have generally been pretty fortunate with the road conditions. Of course, there have been plenty of congested areas, road-works, and accidents along our routes but none that has caused us to be significantly late to our destination...until Wednesday (October 5th). That day, as we headed south from Crabtree, NC, to northeast Florida, we were detoured off Interstate 26 by a large accident near Asheville, could not return to I26 as planned in Columbia, SC, because it was closed to southbound traffic, and after a slow southward passage on minor roads, once we were finally on I95, we were then delayed for 45 minutes due to another accident blocking all but one southbound lane. We arrived at Bill and Dawn's house in Jacksonville after 9 pm, about four hours later than intended, but we were thankful to get there at all.

At that time, Hurricane Matthew was rampaging through the Bahamas, having smashed into Cuba and Haiti where it had killed hundreds of people and causing huge amounts of damage and misery. It was projected to roll along the eastern coast of Florida as a category 4 storm, making landfall either in Florida, Georgia, or South Carolina, and the authorities in those states were taking the threat very seriously. This included mass evacuations of the coastal areas and, hence, the switching of all lanes of I26 (which heads northwest, inland, and uphill from Charleston, SC) to northbound traffic only. On our cross-country route to I95, in every town with a traffic light, police or national guards were directing traffic to give priority to inland, westbound vehicles. So this was what an evacuation looked like and we were going in the wrong direction.

Dawn and Bill live about 6 miles from the ocean on a slightly higher elevation than much of Jacksonville, so they did not need to leave but they were taking the warnings seriously. On Thursday morning, we offered to help them put up their storm shutters (ply-wood boards that fit over the windows) but they wanted to wait until the afternoon and suggested that we get-going for Gainesville. Getting across Jacksonville was relatively easy but Interstate 10 heading west, was packed and we soon found ourselves making another back-road detour. Once at Karen and Bill's house, we were thankful to be off the roads and braced for the storm.

All day Friday, Matthew barreled northwards, just off the coast of Florida. There was wind damage at the Kennedy Space Center on Cape Canaveral, many areas suffered power-outages, and the storm surge caused extensive shoreline erosion around St Augustine and Jacksonville, and washed away part of Highway AIA at Flagler Beach (just north of Daytona Beach). Fortunately, the wind speed was significantly diminished by the time the system made landfall in South Carolina as a category 1 storm. However, huge amounts of rain dumped on North Carolina and Virginia, caused record levels of river flooding, and the death toll of 22 in North Carolina was higher than in the total (21) for the other four affected states.

All non-essential government offices, schools, and many businesses in eastern and central Florida were closed on Friday and people were encouraged to stay at home and off the roads. We obliged by spending the day sitting in Karen and Bill's beautiful, new, screened-in back-porch watching the wind agitate the plants in the backyard, listening for breaking tree-limbs, and observing the steadily falling rain. Bill and I took the recommended curfew as a good excuse to assemble a 500-piece jig-saw puzzle, a guilty pleasure that I love but cannot do easily on the boat.

A brief stroll around the neighborhood in the early evening, revealed a nearby business with its flat, metal roof ripped-up and rolled back; a large branch hanging perilously over the road and telephone lines; and a toppled tree that had deprived one block of houses of electricity. We were relieved to hear that none of our friends along the Florida coast had major problems but the havoc caused in Haiti is just dreadful.

So, other than being lucky in avoiding the strongest hurricane to affect northeast Florida since 1898, what have we been up to since we left Shev, Matt, and Fitzy (their new puppy) in Minnesota? We enjoyed staying with Randall's cousins Alan and Naundice in Newcomerstown, OH, where we: drove around the farmland where Randall's father had grown-up and visited an Amish community. There, we examined an extensive collection of extraordinarily detailed, scale-models of famous sailing ships from around the world...all completely carved (including flexible “ropes”) and scrimshawed (like tattooing) from antique ivory. We were also introduced to some of Randall's more distant cousins and shared many stories from his father's side of the family.

By the time we arrived in Washington DC to visit Doria and Dwight, it was sadly apparent that I was coming-down with a nasty cold. I sincerely hope that I did not pass this along to any of our host (so far Randall has stayed healthy) and it did cramp my style in DC where I had really looked forward to exploring the neighborhoods around DuPont Circle during my morning runs. Randall was able to enjoy his walks but I tried to limit my exertions. However, by accommodating afternoon naps and not being too ambitious, we did manage to see and do plenty with Doria and Dwight including: the obligatory walks on the Mall around the White House, Capitol Building, and Supreme Court; exploring the bizarre museum and Victorian hotel, “Mansion on O Street”; touring the National Portrait Gallery; listening to jazz in a pub and to assorted musicians performing outside during “Porch Fest”; and sampling excellent baked goods at the farmers' market just a block from the apartment. Doria and Dwight have fully embraced the city life and it was wonderful to see areas of DC that we would not have found on our own. I wonder if Doria and Dwight think that I am joking when I suggested that we should plan to stay for a couple of months on our next visit to them in DC?

After following the north end of the Blue Ridge Parkway for 30 miles and then driving through the Shenandoah Valley, VA, (a lifetime ambition for Randall), our next destination was just west of Asheville, NC, not far from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Here we spent a delightful evening on the Scottish Highland Cattle ranch owned by Wendy's father and step-mother, Bob and Arra Mae. They were generous hosts and it was lovely to see, and hear stories about, the beautiful ranch-house in which Wendy and Michael had enjoyed so many Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. We were sorry not to be able to stay long enough to view the whole property with its shaggy cattle, wide river, steep, narrow valleys, and winding driveway but we look forward to returning when their house renovations are finished and a hurricane is not looming.

Since the hurricane left, the weather in Gainesville has been marvelous. My obnoxious cold has been irritatingly slow to dissipate but Karen, Bill, and Randall have been supremely tolerant of my coughs and sneezes so I can think of no better place to recuperate. It is difficult to improve upon sitting on the back-porch watching a diversity of birds partake of Karen's many bird-feeders, including migratory species such as American redstarts, northern orioles, and the brilliantly plumed painted bunting.