Rainy Travel Day

Friday, December 14, 2018

Well, the forecast was wrong. Instead of starting to rain after 9:00 am, it began raining in the very early hours of the morning. So, we all got to get ready to leave in the rain. There was a little break about 6:00 and we all were busy doing the last of the packing, pulling in power cords, slides etc. The first to pull out of Lumberton were Gene and Mary Ann. They had the longest drive today since they were going all the way back to Kentucky. Next to leave were Nancy and Gary, then Philip. We pulled out about 7:30, leaving only Carol and Dave and Bruce and Cindy.

As we left Lumberton on I-95, the water was noticeably higher than yesterday along the highway. It won’t get on the interstate again based on current predictions, but some of the access roads could be underwater by Sunday. As we approached Florence, the PeeDee River was way out of its banks. There was water everywhere. It appears there was more flooding around Florence than Lumberton. It was also raining very hard as we approached Florence. Traffic really wasn’t too bad and people were mostly driving safely. We stopped at the rest area after entering South Carolina, about two hours into our drive. The rain was down to a light drizzle and we stretched our legs and ate some breakfast. We then had an uneventful, although wet, drive the remainder of the way to Johnston, SC. As we were arriving the rain dropped to a drizzle again long enough for us to get parked and set up. Thank you, God, for safe travel. As the afternoon progressed, we heard from each of our team members and then later this evening we got the final word from Gene and Mary Ann that they had arrived safely to their destination. Praise God for safe travel, on treacherous travel day, for all our team members.

It was great to see Debra when we arrived. She was busy in the kitchen getting ready for our family Christmas dinner tomorrow. Anne helped out where she could and we all had a good afternoon of visiting. Randy and Debra have the house all decked out for Christmas and we particularly like the mantle display. We think Randy did that for us. Randy was driving a bus today and didn’t get home until after dinner, but it’s always great to be with Randy and Debra. Others family members will be arriving tomorrow and we are looking forward to seeing everyone. Thanks for everyone’s prayers today.