We left sunny Florida on Saturday morning, it was 70 degrees and sunny.  The driving was good but lots of traffic going north.  We ran into a little rain but not enough to slow us down.  The sun was out and shining when it came time for lunch so we stopped at a rest area in GA and made chicken sandwiches for lunch and had some chocolate chip cookies.  We got into Byron, GA to the Quality Inn about 4 pm.  We had a nice room, with fridge, micro-wave, coffee pot, TV, and WiFi so had all the comforts of home.  We heated chicken, roasted vegetables, and had those with bread,  butter and sliced tomatoes for supper.  Then Norman went to bed and watched TV for a while and fell asleep by 6:30.  I worked on my family tree, trying to get that straightened out.  Norman woke up every half hour or so, just long enough to tell me to get to bed.  Reminding me he would be waking me up at 4 am to get on the road.  Finally at 8:30 I to went to bed.

True to his word, he was up at 4 am and by 4:15 he woke me up and told me to get dressed he was ready to get on the road.  I dressed, washed my face and moved the breakfast foods from the cooler to the picnic basket and by 4:30 we were on the road again.  The weather was a little cooler but not bad, the sky was clear and the traffic very little so we had a good trip north.  We made one stop in Northern GA so we could eat our eggs with biscuits, the dried fruit we always have for breakfast we ate before we got there and the donuts we ate later as we got into TN so we had a nice breakfast, spread out over the trip.  We arrived at home at 8:30am as we had picked up an hour with the change of time zones.  There was storm damage along the way from the bad ice storms that had gone through TN this winter but once we got up onto the plateau there was no sign of damage at all.  When we got home Norman had to take one small branch off the drive way and that was it.  Everything was as we had left it.  We were glad of the weeding and prepping we had done to the gardens in Nov. for now they all look good and will not require all the time weeding before he can till and plant the gardens.  This morning it is 28 degrees and the forecast is for cold weather and snow showers for the rest of the week so we will not be in any great hurry to plant.  We can get the things ready but not plant until this cold spell is gone by.  Today we will go down to Whitwell and see if the house there made out as well as we did here.  I also want to measure the back bedroom for replacement molding around the door so we can get that in before we sell the place.

I guess that catches everyone up on our progress into the new year.  Have a great day. Love to all, Ouma