Sunday January 3, 2010

Headed out of Brighton at 6:30AM. Neighbor Bill Zink was riding shotgun. We have had a lot of wonderful adventures in the last 20 years. Bill with just 2 days notice agreed to drive with me to Fort Walton Beach FL. This would be the start the second leg of my sailing adventure to southern Florida. On the trip south as we were driving through the state of Ohio, Bill Zink talked with Marian Hines. Marian is recovering from a surgery. She has a sister in FL and asked Bill if he would be able to drive her up to Michigan. Bill graciously agreed. It took us 16 hours to drive the 987 miles to Fort Walton Beach. We arrived at 10:30 PM. We stopped only for gas and food. We drove through the states of Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama on our way to the panhandle.
I did most of the driving and Bill played with his and my GPS. They are both Tom-Toms. I taught Bill how to program a destination and recover the destination. Bill noticed that the arrival time on his GPS was different than the arrival time on my GPS. So we used Bill’s and it was correct. Not sure if my GPS knew we had changed into the Central Time Zone as they were one hour off. Also noticed that Bill’s unit has a more current version of software. So I must hook my GPS up to the computer update the system software at the first opportunity.
Since I was not sure what condition we would find the boat in and it was 25 degrees outside, I decided that it would be smart to get a warm motel room for the night. I would then check on the condition of the boat my belongings into the boat in the morning when there would be daylight. Once we checked into the motel, we headed off to the local bar for a night cap. We were in bed and asleep at midnight.