There are no photos for today as we spent most of the day indoors waiting for the storm to hit us. Maggie says that we will get very little as we are on the outer edge of it. The community of St Johns is one of the places where you are unlikely to have to evacuate. Maggie showed me an evacuation booklet of what to prepare for and the areas that are most likely to need evacuating in the event of a storm or hurricane. She was not quite aware of this when they brought the place a year or so ago.

We had a couple of light rain showers and a few wind gusts but not much at all. One wind gust did blow over one dead Long leaf Pine tree into the rest of the bush. It is called Long Leaf as the needles are much longer than the ones we have on the Pinus Radiata in New Zealand Alan and the neighbour had been discussing getting it cut down so that it would not fall over onto one of the houses but that is no longer an issue. This tree is a native to the southern part of America and grows rather tall and skinny. It would take a lot to make a log cabin but I have no doubt that they were used extensively for building somewhere along the line.

So all in all, the storm in this little part of the world was a non-event but we did watch with interest all the flooding elsewhere.

I have remembered about the spouting on the house. Maggie informed me that the only bit of spouting required by the developers are the bits over a doorway. Anything else, the home owner has to get it done at their expense, and this is on a brand new house. The splash guards are in place as in a good, almost monsoon type rain, it flows down the valleys and completely over the top of the spouting. The spouting is not designed to hide the ends of the roofing, unlike we do in New Zealand. There are no stormwater drains around the house as such, but there are 'French drains'. They are the American equivalent of a New Zealand field tile drain.

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More historic stuff around the old town. Then I had to do a reverse rack with the GPS and the 'recent places' list to get back home. But on the way home I stopped in and had cruise around two of the other estates.

One had mostly two storey houses, while the second one had mostly just single storey house's. It had been a good day for me. When i got home I was asked if I had got wet as they had been subject to a rain shower passing through their part of the world.


Road trip USA. Day 35

This morning we leave the sanctity of Maggie and Alans house and go out and face the GPS and the traffic. It starts off well with it seeming to know that there are road works on the way out with a closed road. It takes us around it out onto the 295 north. I took this north route because that is where the purple line is heading but the words are reading to the South. Even I was able to work this one out. Once I had completed this manoeuvre, the GPS got its act together and behaved rather well after that. We kept heading north until I felt it would be prudent to refuel, and so I took an off ramp to where a gas station was nearby. We have not been into a Race Trac station quite as flash as this one felt. But it was the sign on the Men's Restroom door that I found quite humorous. WE do not often get that sort of advice.



Outside we had observed a large, bellied Harley rider talking with his female who was in a small pick-up truck. They were both quite loud talkers. He left on his Harley just as I came out for the last time from the shop and she spoke to me. I was just a bit puzzled by this as she acted like she knew me? It transpires that I reminded her of someone she knew from out of state. We did spend some time talking about where we were going and what to avoid.



Back out on the I 295 just buzzing away with all the heavy traffic flow which went well until we came to some new lay out and I missed a lane change. This then made the GPS want to do a U turn on my part, which was all very fine as I got off the interstate to look for a quiet place amongst the gas stations around. But twice as I thought I was in the clear to do so, some motorist would suddenly appear and I would have to 'recalculate'. As I was going around for the first time, I noticed tow larger type dual purpose rider sitting in a bit of an 'off site' from the construction. I did get back to where I should have been, only to miss the next move again!!! Back around I went again over, now familiar bits of road and to get it right the third time. The two trail bikers have now moved on.



I must have been going reasonably quicker than I thought as I caught up with the two bikers and so I just tagged along with them in a staggered file formation as much as three bikes can. I did observe one rider take both his hands off the handle bars to flex his arms and shoulders !!

The rivers we crossed were all looking like they had extra water rations in them. Possibly from the storm? The other thing I experienced was that if you are out in the fast lane and you have bit of a safety gap in front, the vehicle behind you seems to have this obligation to fill it regardless of if they will actually gain anything from it except, they are now in front of you. I watch them for a while and eventually they do disappear into traffic further ahead of you.so to them I guess it must make them feel good about themselves? Or am I reading it all wrong? I recall one incident when a faster vehicle came up behind me and I was beside this big rig and so I simply speed up to 90 and he still followed me untill I pulled to the right and let him go past. Then I pulled in behind him and he dropped back to 80 again. It still amuses me even after all this time the antics of some drivers who seem to be unable to read the traffic conditions ahead of them at times.



Still, in other situations where I am unsure of just who should go next at a junction or waiting to get out of somewhere, someone will aid you with a bit of a gesture. This was quite appreciated when I was trying to get out of a gas station where we had stopped for a break. Just as I was wanting to get across a small tow lane street, about five big rigs had decided that they had needed to leave from the truck park across the street. I am waiting patiently for them to go past and when they had all passed there were a few cars behind them. The first one simply stopped and waved for me to go. It is this sort of thing that then makes you do the same for someone else in a similar situation.

We crossed the state line from Florida and into Georgia not that the landscape altered much at all. But we did notice the Highway Patrol is being rather active today. But it seemed that they had mostly a commercial vehicle stopped. Into an off ramp that would take you to the town of Savanah if you wanted to go there, to pull into the BP station only to see all the pumps out of service. So, it is around the pumps and go to the Exxon station a scant 50 metres away. The lady behind the counter was unaware that the BP was out of service. Lunch was had at the Hardee's restaurant because it was handy to the gas station. Here we got smart and we shared a hamburger and fries but got ourselves a drink each. It worked out well.

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I took a photo of the road number sign just so you could make it out clearly rather than one that has been taken at 75 mph. It shows the state that you are in, although not all the signs have the state written on them. Just some now and then in a calculated logical sequence somewhere. Then it is the direction that you are headed in so I know which On ramp I should be looking for as the gps usually shows you which one you should be taking. The GPS also tells you which Interstate or road you should be looking for. They have things called Country Road, which is abbreviated to CR and a number.



We carry on along the interstate and after crossing the Savanah River we now find ourselves in the state of South Carolina.



Over a few more bridges undergoing a widening process and flyovers that have not long been finished built. These sites always have some masses of equipment parked up around the place somewhere. At times it is the sheer number of the same piece of equipment that astounds me.



Eventually I have to find some lodgings in the mid afternoon heat to stop my pillion from melting and so we find ourselves at a Days Inn again near a place called St George. Tea was held in a local sports bar and restaurant as it was within easy walking distance for Maree. It was an interesting place for us to go and eat with all the big TV screens around. The two very colourful signs with the sharks were well done.

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