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March 8 – Finally on the way. Today the goal is to drive to Daphne, Alabama. I was watching the Weather Channel and there are severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings all across Louisiana and Mississippi. We'll just have to see what develops. Since today is Mardi Gras I decided to go most of the way on I-20 and then drop down across Mississippi to avoid going anywhere near Baton Rouge and New Orleans. This is actually the shortest route but once you leave I-20 you are not on freeways anymore for most of the trip. It's still some four lane divided road but there are cross streets, signal lights and you have to negotiate through several towns. However, unless you are unlucky it's also about an hour faster than the all freeway route.
Most of the drive was under cloudy skies, which is fine with me as full sun is hard on my eyes. It rained a bit off and on until we were about half way across Mississippi on the non-freeway roads. We drove through three thunderstorms that had such heavy rain I had the 4-way flashers on and was going about 45 mph. It was almost impossible to see. We hit one hail storm that had an unusual effect. The hail was so heavy and the lightning was so constant that the hail crystals lit up like small prisms of crystal on a large chandelier. It was sort of pretty but the intensity of the light blinded you for a few seconds just like a photoflash. With lightning strikes coming at about 1 every 4-5 seconds it was very hazardous driving. All in all we probably spent and hour under heavy rain lightning conditions. Not that bad on a 9 hour drive.
We are safely ensconced in the HiExp, Daphne and ready to relax. I rented a Crown Victoria for the drive and it has it's advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that the profile says, "Here come the cops." to almost anyone looking at it in their rear view mirror. I like that because everyone clears the passing lane for you and you don't have to put up with the rolling roadblocks you get when someone doing 61.25 mph is passing someone doing 61.2 mph. I really don't like that when the speed limit is 70 mph. Just step on the gas and pass for crying out loud. The disadvantages of the Crown Vic are poor gas mileage and a very driver intensive experience keeping the boat on course. I buy cars based on handling characteristics and am used to them behaving themselves with little input from me. The Crown Vic acts like a cork on a rough sea, it's tossed to and fro in a very whimsical manner that doesn't even allow you to get in a rhythm to counteract it. You'd think a large heavy car like that would not be so willing to wander all over the road. Maybe there's something wrong with the suspension on this particular car. Although I seem to remember having this problem with pervious examples. I did have a Grand Marquis last year, the Mercury clone of the Vic and it didn't have this problem.
Tomorrow we drive to Naples, Florida to visit some Canadian friends that winter in the south. Actually we'll visit them on Thursday because tomorrow is another 9 hour drive.
March 9 – Daphne, AL to Fort Myers, FL. Today started off like yesterday ended. While I was eating breakfast in the hotel I was watching the local TV station and all they had on was weather updates. A large super cell and a long line of severe weather was coming east. At 8:30AM it was passing through Mobile, AL heading directly towards Daphne. The continuous coverage is a lot like they do in Texas, a constant update which means nothing to 99% of their viewers. They kept showing the Doppler rain and wind reports and guessing where there might be tornados on the ground. Of course, when they tried to get eyewitness reports on them, there hadn't been any in the area. There was some wind damage but not where they were saying it would occur. All things considered, this type of weather reporting is much like professional wrestling. Lots of shouting and threats but very little in the way of facts and useful information.
The storm passed over us about 9:15AM heading east. It contained lots of lightning and some high winds but mostly just torrential rain. We packed up and hit the road about 9:45 and spent about 2.5 hours catching up with and driving through the storm. It was moving at about 45-50 mph and I was doing between 65-75 so it took some time to get clear of it. The rain and lightning were not as bad as yesterday and there was no hail.
Once we were passed Tallahassee we broke into the clear and the rest of the drive was very uneventful. Tomorrow we'll be doing the tourist thing on the west coast of Florida and then head to Fort Lauderdale.
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