This past month, we decided to accept a long-standing invitation to spend some time with Michelle's sister Jody and her partner Carole at their winter digs in Delray Beach Florida. The broad outline of the plan was for M. and I to make our way to Delray, spend some time there at their condo, the four of us then were to embark on an inexpensive (<$400/person) 6-day cruise out of Miami on the Norwegian Cruise Lines' "Norwegian Jewel" and finally return to spend some more time in Delray before returning to New Jersey. The first decision was whether to drive or fly to Florida. Since we were now both retired, I reasoned that we had no time constraints that would require flying (and renting a car in FL) so it made sense to drive. Also, I hate all the happy horsesh-t involved in going through an airport - from taking off my shoes to getting my luggage lost and I don't mind driving on an Interstate.
Well, we decided to drive, which worked out well for a number of reasons. First, we used Michelle's car (an Infiniti M-Class) which is extremely comfortable on a long drive, but at the same time handles well and lacks the "mushy" feel of a traditional "luxury" car. In my perception, a ten-hour drive in this car is like driving three hours in anything else. Then, since we were driving and passing through North Carolina anyway, Michelle made plans to stop on our way back and visit her friend Marsha who lives in a small town outside of Charlotte. And then, a few weeks before we left, Michelle, through the use of the internet, located an old friend from her operating room nursing days whom she hadn't seen in a dozen years or so. It turns out this lady, Gail, lives with her husband in the lovely little town of St. Marys Georgia, just at the Florida border and about five minutes from I-95. So, we had a place to stop on the way down.
Well, about a week or so before we left, I came down with a sort of 24-hour intestinal virus which produced the usual symptoms of those sorts of things and made me feel crappy (literally) for about a full day and not great for maybe one more day. What has this got to do with our trip? Well, apparently, despite diligent hand washing etc. I managed to pass the bug on to Michelle who was hit by it full force the night before we were to leave. We did have a day or so leeway such that we could have stayed home for a day for her to recover, but she decided to go for it and keep to schedule. So, there we were at Seven A.M. the next morning, loading the luggage and a somewhat out-of-it wife into the car and heading south. Normally, M. and I share the driving on a trip like this, but this first day, she was pretty much semi-comatose in the passenger seat so I drove the whole way to Florence North Carolina where we had a hotel reservation that first night. As I mentioned, her car is great on a road trip and since we managed to avoid the dreaded rush hour going around Washington D.C., the 11-hour drive was surprisingly easy.
Another pleasant surprise was the hotel in Florence, NC. It was called the Springhill Inn and Suites and it was terrific. The room was a two-room mini-suite with a microwave and refrigerator and it had one of the softest, most comfortable beds either of us had ever slept on. In fact, M. hit the sack shortly after we checked in and slept for about 12 hours which is exactly what she needed to pretty much recover from her malady. The next day, she felt 100% better and elected to drive the six hours or so to her friend Gail's at the other end of Georgia.
On the way to Gail's we had a couple of hours to kill since she would not be home until mid-afternoon, so we swung through Savannah GA. It's only a short hop from I-95 via a feeder interstate and we liked what we saw so much we decided to stop there overnight on the way back.
We arrived Gail's in St. Marys GA later that afternoon. Gail and her husband Hal were originally from New Jersey and when they retired a number of years ago, they first moved to Florida, but they grew dissatisfied and searched around until they found St Marys. They have a really beautiful home in a gated community. Their back porch looks out across a marshland and the St. Marys River to the Florida sandhills on the other side. Gail made us dinner and afterward we took a tour of the town and hit the local hangout for a beer. The main thing was that she and Michelle got to catch up with years of gossip, chat etc. from their days in the operating room together. The next day, we were up and off to Jody and Carole's in Delray Beach Florida.
Next: Delray and off on the Norwegian Jewel
