I spent the holidays on a journey of 5,000. First, we drove with our dog to Charlotte NC to see family. We drove so we could take our dog and she could be with the pet sitter and her cousin dogs and cat while we humans flew to our holiday destination. By the way, she was very naughty and ate out of the litter box when we were gone. 

I would say something about this grin but it would be cliché.

Then we flew with family to Seattle and drove a little further onto Kitsap Peninsula. It was beautiful and shrouded in mist, giving way to sun on occasion.

This is through-a-window photo of an Oyster farm for sale. If you’re looking to get away from it all and are up for some demanding work, this might be your opportunity. If I was young and disgruntled with the corporate world, this might be for me. It’s even clean by farming standards.

We visited a little seaside tourist town, much like Pella with a Viking theme and Norwegian heritage.

We even had iconic Chinese food Christmas Day.

We returned to Charlotte for more time together. At last weather and upcoming school forced our hand and it was time to leave. 

You might ask why we drive. I wonder this myself when I’m on the highway. My parents and my in-laws were from the Road Trip Generation of the 1950s and my family is from Michigan. My uncle even worked for the auto industry as an accountant. My husband’s family took a cross-country trip, starting in San Diego. We grew up on car trips. And our dog loves a car trip and is an excellent traveler. The anxiety about a road trip come from planning the route due to weather issues. Weather is becoming more extreme, and I know people who have given up road trips entirely after encountering fires, flood, and tornados on a single trip!

On the way back, we traveled through the area damaged by Hurricane Helene. (map here)

I-40 through the Blue Ridge Mountain region was washed away by Helene. It was being repaired and the repair collapsed, so travelers must resort to various detours. GPS suggested some detours but once we got close to the site, the North Carolina Highway department had huge signs suggesting other paths and fortunately, we went with the highway department. Trucks took a much longer detour (complete with bad weather on the day we left) and cars had a road with one lane open in each direction. (here’s a map for those interested)

All along the route, starting in Asheville, we saw trees lying flat after being pushed down the mountain. Quite a lot of the damage has clearly been cleaned up. We were guided by signs with signs telling truckers not to take the car route. Here are some photos of trucks crashed along the by-pass in the area known as The Rattler. Highway Patrol were staked out along the way to keep trucks off and for good reason. The one lane road was no passing all the way but somewhat peaceful despite twists and flurries. DOT workers even directed traffic at one turn along the way, which was good because that area had no cell service and the GPS went down. Below is a photo of the town of Hot Springs, population 520 About 40% of the surrounding area had no cell serviceeven before the hurricane. The hurricane knocked out most cell service in the area. You can see where the people in this region would not get information about a pending flood. 

I don’t want a government dictatorship but on this part of the trip, the government and government workers were extremely helpful and reliable. GPS uses AI for the directions and our car-only shortcut wasn’t among the routes mapped out by AI. When I read this article about UPS shutting down some rural drop off areas, I got to thinking about how rural areas are underserved populations. They don’t have enough profit in them, and they truly need equality and inclusion, yet vote against it. 

Cell service relies on private carriers. When my kids lived in Detroit, US Cellular service was terrible and even charged me for being in Canada when I wasn’t. In Kitsap County Washington, also fairly rural, my Verizon carrier was so slow I thought my phone was broken. Yet here we are in the US voting for the politicians who want to privatize services and cut government. I can’t see this working out well for the rural areas. Think about applying this patchwork of services to the entire country. As a nation, we’ve already tossed out Net Neutralityso our carriers can do whatever they want to us. Who knows what lies ahead for rural areas. They might become less and less desirable places to live, as before the rural electrification act.

Below, traveling on the detour, Hot Springs in the snow.

For now, I’m home safely before the impending snowstorm, having a cup of coffee, watching the world go by, and wishing those on the road safe travels.