... the new Hyundai Elantra Touring about to make its debut towing SHADES. The first leg will be a relatively short four-hour jog via Sarnia to meet up with my crew, Tony Krauss and his wife, Mary, in Whitmore Lake, Michigan. Tony has volunteered his truck for the trip to Eustis and the trailer transfer is quickly completed. A nice dinner out at a local bar is then followed by an early (2100 hrs) bedtime so that we can take off for the sunny south at about ...

... snowing. It turns out that Tony prefers to drive the truck himself, so that Mary and I get to nap while Tony navigates the blizzard. A couple of hours later, in Ohio, we drive out of the snow storm. Tony has announced that he wants to move right along in order to give Mary the maximum possible visiting time with her long-time friend, Phyllis (below) in Sarasota. And wow, does he mean it: Nick, Marc and I used to feel that making it to Chattanooga, Tennessee (just north of Georgia) was a very respectable day's drive. With Tony in charge, coffee, meal and P stops were a symphony of efficiency, and when we rolled through Chattanooga it was barely past noon. By 1600 hrs or so, we were south of Macon, Georgia, well south of Atlanta. Not too far from big road sign that informed us that "Jesus allows U-turns" which was a relief to know in case we got lost, we stopped for an early supper and bed at a local hotel. Like me, Tony likes to drive on the relatively empty pre-dawn roads, and we were off to Sarasota well before a pleasantly warm dawn.

The next morning, Tom very kindly suggested we might like to use his car/truck wash equipment to soap off SHADES, her trailer and cover before we continued another couple of hours further south for Uncle Al's obligatory Doc Ford pilgrimage which would once more end in a three-day stay at the lovely Tween Waters Inn on Captiva Island.