We've arrived....

Last night, just when we left Chili's restaurant where we had a nice supper, the skies opened up. We were in Decatur, AL and we already heard that there was an extensive storm system going through there. Well...it sure did. Although there were luckily no thunderstorms with accompanying tornadoes in our area, the amount of rain was truly "biblical". We must have had a couple of inches or so overnight. When we got up the next morning, the bulk of the storm had passed through and only a few lingering showers hung around. We heard that last night a truck spun out on the bridge over the Tennessee River and closed I65 near Decatur. Lucky for us we were going south in stead of north and were not affected. However, when driving on I20/I59 shortly after Birmingham we just crawled along for the next few miles. A serious truck accident closed the interstate and caused us about a half hour delay. No sooner did we cross into Mississippi and the sun came out. The temperature started to get to a balmy 19 deg C (70deg F). Other than the accident on I20/I59, we had an uneventful trip today. Just after 4 o'clock we arrived at our destination in Kenner. Tom and Grace were sunning themselves in the parking lot and welcomed us to the DRS site. We're staying at the Methodist church here. They have an auxiliary building that is set up with dorm style rooms for the volunteers. We have a lounge where we can relax after work and a dining room-kitchen where we'll take our meals. It's all very well organized by the looks of it.

We thank God that we arrived safely and we're looking forward to getting our hands dirty next week on the job site.

We're also remembering John Murray who officially launched his book today. John, Annie and I, as well as Tom and Grace, wish you God's blessing on your new venture and we hope and pray that many people may be inspired by your book.

Well, I've just about covered everything that happened today and will join the new arrivals downstairs and get to know them.

We're getting warmer...

Today it's Friday and we woke up after a good night's sleep to a fine day. It was partly overcast with a temperature of 18 deg C (65 deg F). We had our usual "luxury" breakfast at the hotel and filled our coffee mugs ready to roll. The hotel is located about 20 miles NE of downtown Cincinnati. We were all prepared for a slow trek along I71 through downtown Cincinnati to meet up with I75. If we would have been back home and tried to get through Toronto via downtown on a weekday during rush hour, we would have taken at least an hour. Much to our surprise, with a few slowdowns, we sailed through Cincinnati at or near near highway speeds. I think Someone must be watching over us!


The day turned out to be very pleasant with about 50/50 overcast and sun. The wind was pretty bad though. Strong SE winds buffeted our trusty Honda and, combined with the hills of Kentucky and Tennessee, caused our mileage to drop quite a bit. We were using an extra 0.6l every 100kms. Yesterday we averaged 8.3l/100km, today it was down to 8.9l/100km. We really enjoyed the scenery in Kentucky and Tennessee. The Fall colours are still very nice and combined with low mountains made for a wonderful trip today. Gas prices are a little cheaper here in south. In Michigan and Ohio we were paying $2.70/gal, here the prices are from $2.45 to $2.55/gal.


When we crossed into Alabama, We noticed this mock up of a Saturn 5 rocket in a rest stop along I65. It brought back fond memories for me when I was a young sergeant in the Air Force. I was stationed twice in Huntsville, AL which is not very far from where we're staying tonight (Decatur). I was stationed on a US Army post called Redstone Arsenal where I went to school to study and train as a maintenance technician for the Nike Hercules anti-aircraft missile system at the US Army Missile Command School. Redstone Arsenal was also the place where NASA developed and test fired the Saturn 5 rocket. Werner Von Braun was stationed there with his team of design engineers. As you may or may not remember, the Saturn 5 rocket was the delivery system for the moon orbiter and lander. I can still vividly remember my time at Redstone Arsenal when they test fired the booster rockets. The test fire stand was about 20 miles from the building we were in but the windows rattled in their frames when they fired those boosters. Anyway, so much for memory lane.

We arrived at our hotel (another La Quinta) in Decatur just before 4pm. We have a lovely room and we'll relax again tonight. Decatur is a nice typical southern small town located on a fair sized lake. The hotel is again quite nice and comfortable. We have small, separate sitting area with a sofa and large computer desk. The usual wireless access allows me to write this blog for you. BTW, when you explore our blog, have a look at some of the links I have included on the left side, you may enjoy the YouTube videos. At the bottom of the blog is a widget that tells you the weather. Just enter the name of the city where we are and you can find out what the weather is like there.


Well, I think that's about it for today. Tomorrow we hope to get to our final destination, Kenner Louisiana and join our fellow workers as well as Tom and Grace.

We're on our way....

We got up at the crack of dawn this morning, it was still pitch black. However, it was 6:45am and the alarm went off so yeah, it was really time to get up.We had the car packed the night before except our overnight bag and travel mugs. After making a last home brewed coffee to wake us up a bit more, we stowed our last bag and left our home at around 7:20am. The weather was overcast but dry with a temperature of about 6 deg C.

While I drove the family buggy, Annie did our daily devotions and asked God for a safe trip. We travelled the usual route of 401W and 402W to Sarnia where we crossed the border into the US. We had the usual surly US custom's officer trying to trip us up, but in the end she wished us a good trip and off we went. Although I had counted on an hour delay at the border, we were across in 10 minutes (hoorah!!). We encountered some fog after passing London, ON which didn't leave us until we got past Toledo, OH. After that, the sky started to clear and the temperature started to get a little higher.

There was quite a bit of road construction on the various Interstate highways, proof that the US infrastructure push is in full swing. Not so great for the travellers though. Also, in spite of the ongoing recession, there are still a humongous number of trucks on the interstates. It's a good thing we are not rushed and don't get impatient when these highway monsters pass each other a 1mph and we're just patiently hanging behind the passing truck.

It's good to be on the road again, it reminds us of last year when we did a long road trip through Canada and the US. We're right back in the groove, enjoying the trip. Annie is doing well, in spite of her little physical problem. At the end of today's trip, she was ready to stop though. We're staying in Mason, OH for the night. Mason is kind of a suburb of Cincinnati. We arrived here just before 3pm and had our hotel reservation made earlier this week. We have a nice room with king size bed in the La Quinta hotel here which we will enjoy. The temperature reached 20 deg C (70deg F) when we got here with lots of sun. The roses are still in bloom here and the fall colours are just past their peak, but still very nice.

Well, that's about it for today. Nothing earth shattering or excitement (which is good). We'll have a nice meal and relax for the evening. Tomorrow we hope to reach Macun, AL.

Tom and Grace should have arrived in Kenner today and we hope they had an uneventful trip as well. Thank you all for your prayers and interest so far.