We're Off! - Clarksboro, NJ

Well we haven't yet escaped winter's grip - but we're working on it!

We got up at Oh-Dark Thirty yesterday, shoveled another path to Winne's door in our driveway, loaded the last of the provisions, hooked up the Vue, and headed south at dawn.

We had a pretty uneventful travel day except for some snow slop on the roads in Maine, a set of balky windshield wipers that require some troubleshooting, and an hour long delay on the Jersey Turnpike due to an overturned dump truck. In spite of those minor issues - we made it all the way to here in Clarksboro, NJ yesterday - some 470 or so miles. It was dark when we arrived so I only did a partial hookup last night - just the essentials - Power - Cable - and added a bit of water to our internal fresh water tank so I could flush out the "pink stuff" antifreeze, fill up the water heater, and get the hot water heater going.

Shortly after our arrival we were greeted by Brian, Nicky, Alyssa, and Emily who came to welcome us and brought dinner! What was for dinner? What else - Domino's Pizza! Since Brian owns a franchise store nearby they arrived with a couple of Pizzas and an assortment of hot sandwiches. We were pretty hungry - as were they - so we chowed down and visited for an hour or so.

Once they headed home for the evening - it was rapidly night-night time for Mikee. It had been an early start - a lot of miles - and Mikee was beat!

We awoke to a "skiff" of new snow on the ground and a clear but windy day. It's still mighty cold and it looks like that won't change during the week we intend to stay here. I checked the weather up north along yesterday's travel path and it looks like we made a good decision by coming all the way yesterday. It's snowing and blowing along the I-95 and I-84 corridors.

So our 2011 winter warmup trip has started - it just looks like we'll have to wait a bit for that warm part. I know - we'll warm-up with grandkid hugs instead!