That's Cold.

Well, we got back home safe and sound. Cappy is back out on da boat. The day we left for western NY, Cappy was outside in his short pants, picking oranges and lemons to bring north to family and friends. That night before we pulled into Nashville, we were running into sleet mixed with rain. The roads are steep, wide and winding, so I slowed way down, not wanting to go sliding anywhere. Driving at night in strange territory is bad enough, but then to have the roads all slippery and slushy, too...not good.

Now Cappy has seen snow before. In northern Louisiana they sometimes had gotten snow about an inch deep, so he seemed rather nonplussed when we began to get some snow 'spitting' around Cincinnati. (I do NOT like driving through Cincinnati...at all. Whenever we start planning a trip up north, I always start looking for alternative routes to avoid the place, but, alas, it's the only short and quick way to do it. As we drive through, my every nerve is always on emergency standby and I'm sitting on the edge of my seat.) We were in a merry mood nontheless, and singing, so I started (mock) shouting to the other drivers, "Ok, you city of Cincinnati 'cinners', out of our way; the Saints are driving through!" (New Orleans football Saints, get it?...well, anywaze...) All that day, through Ohio, we drove in light snow flurries, til nightfall in rush hour around Cleveland, which sits on Lake Erie, notorious for blizzards. We continued until we got to the city of Erie, in Pennsylvania, where they had gotten "socked in", earlier in the day with about a foot of snow. Not a problem, the roads had been plowed and were, for the most part dry. There were huge piles and drifts everywhere, especially in the hotel parking lots, and the sound of us driving through the packed snow was all crunchy and familiar to me. It was not familiar to Cappy, who thought we were driving too fast to negotiate the turns in the plowed mazes of the back streets and in the parking lots. I think it was, for him, like having been suddenly thrust onto a very strange and unsettling planet, so I slowed down and took it easy. Erie, aint it.

Since I didn't get us killed, the next morning as we drove through the hills of western NY around Jamestown, he had his side window open, his arm out the window, held aloft, taking pictures of the beautiful scenery.

We stopped to pick up son, Thom, in my old college town, Alfred. Thom lives on a steep hill, and the road, though plowed, still has a tight packing of snow, so getting up there, one has to pick up speed before getting to the base of the hill, keep the speed up, til getting to his driveway, then turn into the driveway and kind of slide on into it. Ya get a knack for it, after awhile of driving in the white stuff. It can be pretty tricky, tho'. Actually, I drove too far in, and had to back up, spinning the wheels, then pulling forward and backing up again about five times before I caught enough traction from the fresh snow between the icy tire tracks. The guys were talking about getting out of the warm SUV to push us up and out, but I made it.

Once we got to son, Dan's house up in Walworth, just east of Rochester, we found that they had no snow at all. But it was Cold. When we left, they were on the brink of a windy kinda/sorta blizzard, but not. The wind cut right through whatever we were wearing. Cappy experienced, for the first time in his life, his exposed ears and hands stinging from the 'scalding', freezing cold.

We have lots of stories to relate and plenty of pictures and videos.

Suffice it for now to say, that we got home safely, despite the fact that down south here, the weather was in the upper 70's, the wind was crazy and we drove through tornado weather to get home. In the morning I drove Cappy to work in the rain, turned on the radio to learn that Baton Rouge was getting snow and they were closing schools. Whaaaa??? By the time I got back to our little town we were indeed being snowed on and people were saying we brought it down with us from New York. To which I said, "Tah-Dahhhh!" and took bows.

A house on our street.

Only thing...now I'm dosing myself with vitamin C, echinechea, garlic tabs, hot soups, bundling up, and fighting a fever, snotty runny nose, cough, achiness and foggy head that accompanies my .....COLD.