Monday, February 17, 2003
Apparently the storm had been caused by a cold front moving thru the area because it was in the low 40s in the morning. The low temps combined with an ongoing wind to give a real wind chill effect while I was cooking breakfast. Packing away the damp tent made my hands go numb, but the truck’s heater is very effective and they warmed up rapidly as we drove north. Altho our ultimate destination was home, we wanted to stop off along the way to visit Helga and Jim in Auburn, Alabama.

Helga and Jim welcomed us and fixed us a wonderful lunch of thick, juicy steaks—which was definitely something we had not had in over 6 weeks! Truth to tell, we probably haven’t had steaks like that in many months. Anyway, we chatted for several hours about their family and their plans for finishing the renovations of the living areas of the house. Jim showed us a CAD/CAM program that detailed the renovations they had planned for their kitchen. We also turned on the TV to check the weather for the rest of our drive north and found that a large nor’easter storm was pummeling the coast from Washington to Boston with 2 or more feet of snow! It made us feel like either staying with Helga and Jim for a few days or even turning tail and retreating back to Florida, but we persevered and drove on to stay on the other side of Atlanta for the night.