One hundred years ago today, my great-grandparents left their home in Woodington, Ohio, and set out for Florida. This morning, I left my home near Cincinnati, Ohio, drove north to Woodington, then I too set out for Florida. I am following their path but not their schedule. They started around noon, drove a half-dozen miles to Greenville, had some work done on their Model T Ford, and spent the night with relatives. I was in and out of Woodington well before noon and my first day ended in Georgetown, Kentucky, 125 miles or so south of Greenville.
I made this trip once before in 2001 with nice August weather and no pandemic. I have a pretty good idea how traveling in November differs from traveling in August, but how the current COVID-19 pandemic will affect this trip is an open and rather large question. There is little to suggest that motels in and of themselves are particularly dangerous, and that is also mostly true for restaurants as well. But people are an entirely different story. Meeting people is easily one of the things I enjoy most about road trips. I always look forward to chatting with my neighbors at a counter or bar, but that’s really going to be at a minimum this time around. I can see eating a lot of carry-out and possibly microwaving packaged meals in my room. I’ve even tried to mentally prepare myself for aborting the trip if conditions grow worse. Starting on the 100 year anniversary was very important to me and finishing this year is pretty important, too, but I’m going to try to not be stupid.
This entry is to let blog only subscribers know about the trip and to provide a place for comments. The journal is here.
The Outer Banks and the Wright Brothers’ first flight are firmly joined in my mind. Although I’ve no problem remembering the year (1903), the month and date weren’t as easily recalled. I quickly looked it up the instant I first started thinking of the Outer Banks as a target for this year’s Christmas Escape and was very happy to learn it was December 17; Barely a week before Christmas Day, four days before the Winter Soltice, and five days before a full moon.
