Trippin' with Susan Straley

 For those of you who have hooked up trailers to pull, you know that there are two satisfying sounds.   The first is when the cup receiver on the trailer slides down onto the ball of the hitch on your towing vehicle.  At first it was a scary sound for me, but after a few times the sound was cause for a mini-celebration, a pat on the back.   The second sound is when one pushes the latch into place.  There is a latch that slides under the ball to prevent the trailer cup from bouncing off the ball.  Sometimes I have gotten the first sound (the receiver engaged with the ball) but I couldn't get the latch to move into place. That has required me to wind the trailer back up off the ball in order to free the latch and try again. I am telling you all this technical stuff because this morning I thought I heard both good sounds.  I thought I saw that the ball and receiver were engaged.  I guess I was relying a bit more on the sounds because it was...

 It is Friday night, October 9, 2020, and I am sitting at my little TV tray-desk in my little Weeroll drinking a little glass of red wine... or purple wine.  It is the last of the wine from the bottle that Jeannie Clayton gave me from the Purple Toad Winery in Paducah, KY.  It is Black and Bruised Red Wine.  It is sweet and potent, as I sip my writing might get silly.  Just warning you. This evening before I sat at the computer I hooked up Lilac and folded up my portable sink and horror of all horrors... I used the campground shower.  I have tried to avoid doing that because COVID might be lingering in the air from the last user. Now I am all hooked up and ready ready ready for.... HOME!  Yes, I leave in the morning and drive to Inverness.   Last I wrote I was feeling down about ending my journey, but the last few days I have stayed in one place on my own.  I have rested and reflected and thought about next spring and summer and fall....

Greetings from Mississippi.... Hattiesburg area. I have had a great time this summer traveling and now I am close to home and feeling like I just don't want this great summer to end!   I thought about canceling appointments and just keep going, but I need to stop and re-group and see all the wonderful folks in the Inverness area. I thought I had a good excuse to just turn the corner and go somewhere else when Debra sent me a picture from the weather station reporting on a storm heading toward the upper Gulf Coast... the winds and definitely the rains could hit the area I am headed tomorrow, Blackriver State Park near Milton, Florida. I had stayed there on the way up and enjoyed it and enjoyed a visit with my friend Joan.  Joan and I had just made a plan to meet and hike on Wednesday, October 7.   Later today I checked the weather again and some of the storm could start hitting on Wednesday or Thursday.  It isn't just the storm I need to worry about.  I...