It's that time of year again…. hustle, bustle, cold zone time. We went, we survived, and are back.
As I sit here typing, the pounding in my head overtakes the clacking on the keyboard. The schedule we keep when doing the rounds up north is exhausting.
We were cramped into the tiniest seat I have ever seen on a commercial plane, ever, in my life. We measured roughly 14 inches of leg room. The seats no longer recline either. And, our flight was delayed 3 hours on our trip up. 3 HOURS. Add the 3 hours seated on the tarmac to the 45 minutes ahead they boarded us, the 2.5 hours flight time, and then a few extra minutes as we taxied to the gate upon arrival and that all made for one extremely unhappy tin can full of people.
As we bolted off the plane and got our rental car, all we could each think of was "food!" Being that it was after 2am by this time, prospects were slim. We managed to find a WaWa which has a 24 hour sandwich shop, and within less than 10 minutes each of us were scarfing our veggie sandwiches as we agreed that the weather wasn't "that bad" it was about 40 degrees. Pouring rain, but no snow. This was do-able. By 3am we pulled into the hotel and simply crashed.
The rest of the trip was essentially driving around 2 neighboring states for visits. It was not easy. We placated ourselves with food, and lots of it. The biggest saving grace of the entire trip was food. Everywhere we went, any time of day, food. Vegan food. One of the places we stayed was purposely selected as it was across the street from a Whole Foods Market. Yes, with multiple hot & cold food bars, soups, daily vegan baking, and just about anything I could ever want… and then some. One day we were in there 3 times.
The weather didn't cooperate for part of the time, it was raining for I think 3 straight days before I saw a glimmer of sunshine, and towards the end of our trip it got cold… really cold. Think 20s to 30s. I trudged around the states wearing almost every article of clothing I brought…. 2 scarves, socks, tights, 4 shirts, jeans, and my Sea Shepherd magic beanie. I even had to break down and buy boots. I was cold, and never warmed up til the plane landed back in Florida about midnight.
I took lots of pictures, and will post some random ones. They're not here now because one of the other things that happened was our hard drive crashed. Dead as a doornail. Now I'm on a new computer with all sorts of things I have no idea how to use, including picture downloading and retrieval. I'll get to it all, I promise.
So, I'm home, the other happy vegan is home. The cats are re-adjusting to life with us, I can see the mangrove twinkling at night, Peri is sleeping on the back deck, and we are solidly back in more proper winter weather of mid to high 70s. Sounds like December to me.
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