Nashville, Florence, Birmingham, Montgomery, Faunsdale, Green Cove Springs, St. Augustine, Tate City, Georgia (and points in between)

Tate and Melanie at Vanderbilt graduation reception

Good morning from Tate City, Georgia where we've been avoiding the heat and catching up with our good friends, Trip and John, since last Friday evening.  

It's been a while since I've posted mainly due to a busier-than-usual travel schedule and, being back east in our home territory lends itself to catching up with friends and family, not necessarily writing and documenting. We've also had some maintenance type items to take care of during this time.

Our son, Tate, graduated from Vanderbilt on May 10. It was a wonderful time of celebration, meeting new friends and catching up with family who'd been absent for too long. We experienced the last moving out day at Vandy on the 11th, a few great dinners were had in Nashville and then back to Birmingham to retrieve furnishings out of storage for Tate to set up housekeeping back in Nashville.  Tate is now pretty much settled into his new apartment. He'll start work as a Civil Engineer I on June 3rd.

Leaving Nashville after graduation festivities and on our way to Birmingham, we traveled to Florence, Alabama and spent the night with our friends, Robyn and Hank Sherrod. Always nice to see and visit with them and we're especially grateful for a great dinner out at Odette and being able to catch up on our laundry.

It was nice to visit Birmingham and catch up our friends and eat in a few of our favorite restaurants.  Special note goes to our friends the Nolans and the Andersons who were very gracious in allowing us to, among other things, park Miranda in their driveways for periods of time. 

On Sunday the 19th we were in Montgomery to attend March for Reproductive Freedom at the state capitol. The next day we traveled to Faunsdale, Alabama and spent the day with Melanie's dad. We then made our way into Florida to register Miranda and change our domicile to Green Cove Springs, Florida. We stayed in our first Florida State Park, Suwannee River State Park and spend a couple of days in St. Augustine too. 

We experienced enough hot weather in Florida to know Miranda needs to be in a cooler climate when possible. Our trip to Florida was productive, even if it was too damn hot. And also discovered traveling 500 miles in one day when the temps are too hot is something to avoid. While we were scheduled to stop in Athens, Georgia for the night on our way out of Florida and before making our way to Tate City, Georgia, temperatures in the mid 90's in Athens upon our arrival there made the decision to press on to the cooler temperatures of the north Georgia mountains a no brainer.

We're in Tate City until tomorrow morning, then briefly south to Gainesville, Georgia to have the oil in Miranda's generator changed for the first time, then we head back north again chasing cooler temperatures staying in Long Creek, South Carolina at Chattooga Belle Farm and Distillery Thursday evening. 

Our week here in Tate City has been great especially after the above average number of travel days we experienced over the last few weeks. We are grateful for the hospitality shown to us and the great times we've had with Trip and John. Long-time friends are indeed the best friends to have. They will be missed until the next time around.