People of the Southeast!

We're fine here.  I'm about 6-8 miles from the coast, so we got almost entirely ice, but so far no power outage (fingers crossed).  Things didn't start freezing until about 5:00pm yesterday, but everything is encased in ice now.  The cover I keep on the BMW might as well be made of fiberglass at this point.  That car isn't going anywhere until temps get above freezing.  I don't plan to leave the house at all today as the roads have partially frozen.  They'd be completely frozen if it hadn't been 70 and sunny on Monday.  I can only imagine that the bridges and overpasses are pretty much impassable.  The Ravenel Bridge (the largest in the area and almost 200' above the water) was closed yesterday evening.  I expect that the other large bridges in the area have been closed as well.

 

The precipitation should be ending soon and we'll just have to wait out the temps.  It's not supposed to get above freezing until mid-day tomorrow.

Brrrr in NW FL!  All bridges closed due to icing.  They don't have road salt here.  Wait til Sunday - expected to be 72 then. Military bases closed at 2 pm yesterday and don't reopen til noon Thursday.  Here's picture of parking lot - notice ice on trees.  We've had issues with freezing water pipes.

 

 

 

 

When we were down there (about 1 hour north of Savannah) Savannah had no salt/brine trucks and forget about plows!  Ft. Hunter Army airfield would send out 3 or 4 of their runway trucks and brine the Savannah bridges for the city.  Otherwise, nothing would ever move down there, either.......

 

For those hearing about the Ravenel Bridge but never seen what a big thing it is, here's a shot looking (I think) from South Charleston eastward over towards Mt. Pleasant, where the Casa de Lane's at.  Fort Sumpter (first shot of the Civil War) and Fort Moultrie are just off of the right of the picture, as is the outer harbor and the ocean.  Tall enough to sail warships and HUGE container ships under it......

 

We have our heavy jackets and sweaters on, temps dipped way down into the 50s. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

This is why Nolan is laughing.  See you next week.

I was in Atlanta when a bit of mush/freezing rain fell. It was a comedy show on the roads, they have absolutely no clue how to drive down there. I did just fine, but it was very dangerous with the clueless masses all around bouncing around like pinballs off of EVERYTHING!

It is currently 19 degrees and not scheduled to go above 26 today.  The sky is bright and sunny and my driveway is melting.  I will be able to get the car up and into the garage this afternoon but plan to stay inside today, other than Zoey walks as needed.  She, of course, was fascinated by the snow and took her usual relaxed approach to gettin' r done, much to my chagrin.  We had about two inches which is not that unusual, but the very cold weather is slowing the usually fast melt that we have experienced in past years.  

 

Thankfully, it will be warming up later in the week, but we had no mail delivery yesterday, no morning paper and no roadside trash pickup so far.  Gee whiz, I sure am glad that we moved south to get away from cold and snow.  But, then again, at least we don't have sub zero temperatures and fifty inches of snow to deal with like other places.  Thank my lucky stars.  

23 all day long.icy too

OK, so keep all of that cold, icy stuff on the panhandle side of Florida.  

 

I'm headed to the Bahamas soon, and really want it to be skin-baking hot while I'm there!

10F. here this morning.....   The Bahamas sound really good right about now.....   

27F on the way in to work today.  Vacation's over.

22 hear,I just got done deicing my wifes car,it had about 1/4" inch of ice allover it so she could finly go to work.Doors welded shut with ice,wiper arms,windshield everything. I didnt think julia roberts was coming to sweep me off my feet, so I figured I'd better take care of the next best thing.She was happy to get into a nice warm&deiced car.

82* and sunny here.

 

Oh wait-- that's because I'm in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico this week. 

You can't intimidate me - we're heading to the Bahamas for our anniversary!

 

 

We're attempting this as a quick, inexpensive way to beat the cold next week: http://www.greatwolf.com/sandusky/plan-your-stay

Low 80's in Bahamas and mid-80's in Belize. I keep looking at a 7 day Norwegian cruise out of New Orleans to Belize.  NOL only a 3 1/2 hour drive from me - vs Tampa 7 1/2 and Miami, argh, over 12.

 

Belize is pretty cool. The national language is english (remember when it was British Honduras?) Had the best zipline experience there of any place we've been. Way out in the jungle, zipline into, through, and out of caves and through the jungle canopy.

 

Roatan is a gorgeous island. Hasn't seen a hurricane in something like 25 years and the jungle and mangrove swamps are spectacular. I was looking at buying an ice cream business there but wasn't fast enough.

Snowed here in Hawaii too!

 

Yeah, at the observatory, maybe.  Not feelin' sympathetic, Bill 

Tom,.

 

We have taken the kids to Great Wolf and Kalahari in Sandusky several times.  Great way to beat the winter blues...

 

and while everyone is sharing on winter weather, it was -23F AMBIENT (almost -50 with wind chill) temp here on Monday and Tuesday, same thing a few weeks back, plus snow, snow, snow...  The state made it illegal to drive for non-emergencies.   Plus, my kids have only been to school a total of 5 days in the last 4 weeks.   Just nuts!

I hear that polar bears are starting to hunt on land now.  You'd probably better be careful and keep the kids indoors.

Gordon:

 

That photo is Discovery Cay, Disney Cruise, correct? They do it right for families, don't they?

 

 

Now that it has warmed up, we are going to get 2" to 5" of ice/snow/sleet (they aren't sure what yet as the temps are unstable) over the next couple days, starting this afternoon.

 

Stan: Stay exactly where you are. 

 

I'm shipping my wife off to the Tampa area for a few days in the next week or so. She has had enough.

We just got back from two weeks in Cuba. 

 

 

Ron:  How was it?  We were "adopted parents" for a young Cuban girl who came out on the Mariel boat lift.  Spent a lot of time with her when she was going to Boston University.  She now works as an International Law lawyer at the UN and lives in Manhattan.  Very smart and classy lady.

 

Bob:

 

Yup - that one is from a Disney Cruise (Magic?  Wonder?  Can't remember) we took a few years back.  We've been on a lot of cruises with Disney and they have all been terrific except for the one where I got the "Cruise Flu".  Got confined to the cabin for two days on that one and missed Castaway Cay.  Not fun......

 

This time we'll be taking the extended family on the Dream to celebrate our 40'th anniversary.  Looking forward to seeing the faces of the grandkids all throughout the trip.  This should be a hoot.

 

BTW:  I was snorkling at Castaway Cay on a cruise in the late 90's and as I was heading to the beach in about 5 feet of water I saw a shiny glint on the bottom, went down and found some man's (very new) wedding band, just sitting on the bottom.  Took it to Guest Services when I got back on board and the guy who had lost it had already checked there to see if it was returned.  We were called by the Captain early that evening - he invited both of us AND the couple who lost the ring to have dinner with him at Paulo's (a really posh, adults-only restaurant on board) as a thank you.  Pretty classy act!

 

We usually go to the "Adult Beach" when we get to Castaway Cay - it's a lot quieter than the "Family Beach", and while I don't know these people, they found this pirate just wandering along the beach, schmoozing women: 

 

 

We've been on Disney cruises a couple times when our guys were in single digits. We found that if you combine three days at the parks on the front end followed by 7 days on the boat, you come out of it pretty well rested. The other way around might not be as good.

 

We always booked an evening for us at Paulo's as well. Pretty good.

 

Our biggest problem was to get the boys to leave the Kid's Club. They had so much fun that it was all they wanted to do.

 

I think what you are doing for your 40th is absolutely a priceless kind of event. Your family will never forget the time together.

 

Good man!

Ron:

 

We sometimes go to the Iberostar Resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico during the winter. The place is packed with Canadians, but most of them are there for two weeks to a month. I always envied their ability to take a solid month off all at once.

 

I had plenty of vacation during my last few years of work, but there was no way I could have taken more than a week or so off at a time.

Wow.....

 

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/s...n-effect-for-summits

Bob, we also stayed at an Iberostar resort (Varadero).

Interestingly enough, not many of the tourists at the resort spoke English, but all the staff did, to some degree.  The majority were from Spanish speaking and Eastern European countries.  Lots of Russians.

The one thing I didn't like about Cuba-and our resort- is smoking is permitted everywhere except in the restaurants, and there were A LOT of smokers.

 

Havana is a combination of awesome architecture and decay.

We've been to the Rivera Maya, Cozumel, Punta Cana... and Puerto Vallarta more than 12 times. We love Puerto Vallarta. We brought the kids a couple of times, and 2 of them honeymooned here. We come once every year, and would live here if we could.

 

I'm a confirmed tightwad, all inclusive is the only way I can make this work, or I end up eating .29 tacos in the supermarkato.

 

I'm with you, Bob-- every place we've ever been, it is 75% Canadians, down for the month. Everybody complains about socialism, but if that's what socialism delivers-- bring it on. I could do with spending 6 weeks in January/February in Mexico.

 

Riu Palace Pacifico on day 6 of 7. I'm selling the house, and living here till the money runs out.

Hey Ron:

 

Did you see a lot of 50's American metal driving around?

I did.  There are some really beautifully restored cars, but many are 25 footers.  Once you get close you realize how old and worn out they are.  Almost all the old Amercian cars I saw were being used as taxis and many of those have been converted to diesel power.  They sound like tractor/truck engines.

Lots of diesel engines and LOTS of pollution.

 

Here's an example of a taxi in Havana.