Visit with my brother

Most of this month was spent doing normal everyday stuff.

I forgot to mention in my last post that the weekend of March 7-8 was the 55th reunion of the Lake Worth High School Class of 1960 in Lake Worth. We had originally thought about attending, but decided not to since we would have only been home a few days after our trip to Texas.

We drove over to Kissimmee 3/28 to visit with Cyril (my brother) and Elaine. Mike brought our pressure washer so he could clean their front walkway and driveway. Cyril had never used a pressure washer and he was curious about how it cleaned. Mike had brought our rolling mechanic's stool to sit on instead of standing while he was pressure washing, so we had Cyril sit on the stool so he could use the washer.

March Genealogy Meeting & FL Pioneeer Descendants Program

I attended the March meeting of the IRGS (Indian River Genealogical Society) in Vero Beach today. Part of our meeting is called "Member Share" and I spoke about how I found on the internet 3 college papers that contained information on Mike's 3rd great-grandfather Silas Fletcher. I had learned how to specify what I wanted to find on Google search at our Valentine Seminar last month when our speaker was Lisa Louise Cooke. Several years ago Mike, Fletcher & I had visited Indian Key where Silas and his family had lived and the young lady who took us by boat to Indian Key had written a college paper on Silas! But I didn't think to get her name or any info about her paper. So what I learned at the Seminar not only helped me locate her college paper but 2 others that written about Indian Key and Silas and his family!

Our speaker at the meeting was Clyde Stickney and he gave a talk on researching at the county courthouse. Clyde spoke with me after our meeting and wanted to know if I had

Valdosta, GA to Sebastian

We were up early this morning (early for us) and had a quick breakfast at the motel. We checked out of the La Quinta ($72.24 for the room) a little after 8 a.m.

We took I-75 south and crossed into Florida.



We stopped at a Pilot station on I-75 near Jasper, FL to get gas ($2.299 a gal) before making our connection with I-10 and then went east to Jacksonville to I-295



and then south on I-95.

We arrived in Sebastian around 1 p.m. Before going to the house, we drove over to the Sandwich Shack and got lunch to eat at the house. Mike had his usual Philly cheesesteak sub and I had the Turkey, Avocado and Bacon Wrap.

We had a nice trip (except for that 100 mile 7 hour drive at Dallas), but it is nice to be home.

I went up to Little Caesars and got one of their Hot 'n Ready Pepperoni pizzas for dinner tonight.

Symphony's to Valdosta, GA

We got up this morning and had a quick breakfast. We loaded up the car and left Symphony's house at 8:30. We had a nice visit with her and Chrissy and her new dog Buddy, but we are ready to get home.

We drove south to Leesburg, AL and then east on US-411 into Georgia. Mike had Ashby ancestors who settled in Floyd County in the early 1800's, so I took a photo of the county sign as we went by.



We continued east on US-411 to Rome. We decided to stop at a Hardee's in Rome for an early lunch.

Shortly after leaving Hardee's, we saw some road signs saying that we were driving on part

Visit with Symphony

Sunday we went with Symphony to the Collinsville Baptist Church. It's a small church where everyone knows everyone. Pastor John greets everyone by first name and he remembers Mike and I even though we have only attended church there a few times. After the church service we went downstairs to the dining hall and had a pot luck lunch. They have some really good cooks at that church! We have never gone away hungry from one of their pot luck meals.

We spent the rest of Sunday and today just relaxing and visiting with Symphony & Chrissy. Symphony is one of those really good cooks that I mentioned at the church, so we didn't go hungry while we were here.

Tomorrow we are leaving and heading home. We're going to stop at a La Quinta in Valdosta, GA to spend tomorrow night just so we don't have such a long drive to get home.

Texarkana, TX to Symphony's house

We got up earlier than usual this morning since we have almost 600 miles to drive today. We all are still tired from yesterday's long slooooow drive. We decided to have a quick breakfast at the La Quinta. We checked out of the motel at 7:30 - our room cost $48.73. We stopped at the Raceway near the motel and got gas ($2.139 a gallon) before getting on to I-30. 

We continued north on I-30 to Little Rock where we connected with I-40 East. The roads were clear (no snow) and traffic was moving along nicely - such a nice change from yesterday!

We stopped at a Flying J in West Memphis (which is in Arkansas) at 12:30 to get gas ($2.259 a gal) and decided to have lunch there. We fed Tinker his lunch and then went inside to have ours. Mike and I ordered the chicken tenders with fries. We were back on the road by 1:30. Shortly after leaving the Flying J, we got onto I-55 and crossed into Tennessee.



We took I-55 south of Memphis to I-240 and drove east to TN-385 south down to US-72. We crossed into Mississippi. We stopped in Burnsville, MS to buy gas ($2.179 a gal) before crossing into Alabama and on through Huntsville.



I took this photo of Mike smiling while he's driving - we're only about an hour away from

7 hours driving 100 miles leaving Dallas

When we got up this morning, we found out that it had snowed during the night and we had just a little snow on the ground.




After a quick breakfast and coffee, we packed up the car and said goodbye to Chris and Carole and left their house at 8 a.m. We wanted to get on the road and out of the Dallas area before the snow got any heavier and the roads became a problem. Mike took a photo of the outside temperature that was displayed on our rear view mirror - 22° brrrrr!



Well, our plans to beat the snow didn't work out as you can see by the photo above. We stopped to get gas in Granbury ($2.339 a gallon) before getting on Highway 377 which would take us up to I-20. 

Once we got on to I-20 south of Fort Worth our day got worse. More snow had fallen and traffic was going really slow. At first the traffic wasn't backed up too much, but the closer we got to the south side of Dallas it became bumper to bumper and moving at a crawl. 



Tinker says he's tired of all this stop and go driving, especially when we stop and he can't get out. Boring!!!!!




We stopped for lunch at a Wendy's at 2:00 at Exit 465 on I-20. We had driven 75 miles since