Trippin' with Susan Straley

It is Saturday, October 12, 2019.  I am sitting in a... get this... two-story McDonalds in Fort Meyers. I don't think I have ever been in a multi-level McDonalds, except maybe in a big city like Chicago. I am here because... guess what... both my replacement cards arrived in the mail on Friday! I was greiving over the loss of my National Park pass and my State Park Pass that I was going to use on this trip.  When I was packing, I found them in  my purse!  Woo hoo! It was great to be home, but I am excited too to be taking this trip.  Camping in the Everglades has been on my bucket list.  As I am driving I am looking around for routes for biking this direction. This trip was meant to be.  When I contacted ATC hosts for the trip down and a different place back up, they both said, "Yes".  Easy peezy! I wasn't supposed to arrive until 7 p.m.  So when I got to Punta Gorda two hours early, I went to Anytime fitness, and then used googlemaps.com t

Hello, I am writing this on October 8, 2019.  It is a Tuesday and I am hoping to punch this out before I meet up with my bike group and ride on the wonderful Withlacoochee Trail today with friends. I left off the last post at Deep Creek Camp Ground near or on the edge of Smokey Mountains National Park.  Yesterday when I went by Dollywood in Tennessee I remembered driving through the area in 2017 when George and I were escaping Hurricane Irma.  This morning, after packing up in the dark, I drove toward Bryson.  We had stayed in Bryson a few nights as the storm blew through, following us all the way to Tennessee. I remembered going to a restaurant and getting a newspaper, but I was unable to sit and enjoy the newspaper because George couldn't sit still.  I wanted to return to that very restaurant, get a paper, and just sit for an hour or two because I can. I drove into town and passed the areas we had walked, the restaurant doesn't open until seven and it was six.  I st

It is evening of the same day of my last post, Sunday, October 6, 2019. On October 4th I was up and out of the Motel 6 before the sun was up.  On the road, driving, driving, driving.  I was on I75 which will take me through Atlanta.  I have experienced the parking lot that is the Atlanta Interstate.  I have heard horror stories.  I stopped at a wayside somewhere along the way.  I don't know if I was still on I75 when I stopped.  It had a short little hiking trail up to an overlook.  I studied the map and I decided to by-pass Atlanta.  But instead of going West, I chose to go on East side.  Which goes over the smokey mountains. Some of the highways I take are lovely.  After passing Dollywood.  I go to an Anytime Fitness in Sevierville.  I don't work out long because I am feeling so tired from all the driving.  Next door is an Aldi's.  I am hoping to camp and cook a healthy meal tonight.  I shop for some veggies to make my favorite dish.  As I am leavin

I am writing this on Sunday, October 6, 2019.  I am in a McDonalds somewhere.  I just finished gobbling down a McMuffin and a salad.  But my main reason for being here is to write to you. I have so much to tell and I wanted to tell it in order of when stuff happened.  It's too much between the last post and the loss of my wallet far from home. Days and days of driving and my body is so stressed I am almost shaking with adrenaline... or is that caffine.  On the way up to Wisconsin I drank two full thermal-cups of coffee each morning and didn't feel this way.  But then I didn't drive day after day after day, sometimes between big semis and sometimes sitting in heavy traffic waiting for the light to change so I can creep up a few feet and sit and wait some more. I have decided I love seeing people and visiting with family and friends.  I love seeing new places.  What I don't love is the driving day after day to get home.  It might be different if I had not booked an