Ride to Florida - June 22-26, 2017

These are the road, sign, and a few scenery pictures from our ride from Amsterdam, New York, to Jupiter, Florida. Pictures are mostly from my Fujifilm Finepix HS50.

Thursday, June 22 - Amsterdam, New York, to Ashburn, Virginia

After the last half-day of school and an annoyingly slow stop at the bank on the way out, we got on the road before 2:00 PM. Our route was down Route 30 to I-88 to start, but we were detoured by construction through Delanson on New York 395 first. There was a lot of construction on I-88 but the traffic was light enough that we were barely delayed. Continuing into Pennsylvania on I-81, we hit a lot more construction. We bypassed a long delay on I-81 in Scranton by taking I-476 for a bit. There were some minor delays southbound, mostly on long uphill stretches and through construction zones, but nothing like the multi-mile delay we saw happening northbound. In Harrisburg, we made a dinner stop at Chipotle, then switched to I-83, then Pennsylvania 581, and US 15, which took us right into Leesburg with no trouble. From there, there was more traffic but nothing too bad to get us into Ashburn for the night, arriving before 9:30. [9 Pictures from the roads]

Friday, June 23 - Ashburn, Virginia, to Statesville, North Carolina

After the first half of the day visiting in Ashburn, we got on our way after 2:30. It was a Friday afternoon with DC area traffic, but we found a way that, while not fast, wasn't especially congested. We took SR 659 to its end at Virginia 234. We took that west to US 15, but continued straight on SR 601 through Antioch to The Plains. There, we picked up Virginia 245 and drove its full length to get to US 17 in Old Tavern. This route took us through some nice small towns. US 17 took us to Warrenton, where we switched to US 211 and drove its entire length over two ridges, and joined I-81 for the next few hours. We made a food stop in Harrisonburg and a gas stop around Roanoke, but that was it. It was I-81 to I-77 to Statesville, where we arrived around 11:30 PM. [41 Pictures from the roads]

Saturday, June 24 - Statesville, North Carolina, to Marietta, Georgia

We got a fairly early start out from the Quality Inn and Suites in Statesville, on the road around 9:30. We started on I-40 West, then got onto US 321 South at Hickory. That was a nice alternative. Not too busy but a quick way down to I-85. Even though I-85 was busy, with long stretches of reduce speed limits, left lane traffic was moving quickly. We made a lunch and gas stop in Anderson, South Carolina. It was on into Georgia, arriving at our hotel in Marietta right around 3. [35 Pictures from the roads]. I was then dropped off at SunTrust Park for a Braves game [Separate Picture Set] and picked up afterward. We finally had an earlier night in a hotel, back in for the night by 8:30.

Sunday, June 25 - Marietta Georgia, to McDonough, Georgia

The plan was to leave Marietta in the morning and arrive in the evening in Jupiter, but about an hour into our drive [4 Pictures], the XC 90 snapped a belt along I-75 and we were stranded in McDonough, Georgia. We pulled over at a BP gas station and convenience store, called AAA, and started the process [3 Pictures]. Being a Sunday morning, there was little hope of a quick repair. The next few hours involved a tow truck, an Uber, a rental car, and the Cotton Pickin Chicken restaurant, but eventually we were able to get ourselves into a Sleep Inn in McDonough for the night. The afternoon and evening included laundry and some shopping at a nearby outlet mall.

Monday, June 26 - McDonough Georgia, to Jupiter, Florida

The Christian Brothers auto shop in McDonough got right to work for us on the car in the morning [Picture], and we were able to get on our way by early afternoon. Other than a low coolant indicator light (which was a sensor problem, not a coolant problem) it was a pretty uneventful but long ride. We had a disappointing Zaxby's for lunch before getting going, then got some Publix subs (where we also picked up our SunPass sticker) for dinner. We got into Jupiter before 11:00 PM, about 28 hours later than planned. [23 Pictures from the roads]


terescoj+pics@teresco.org - Sat Jul 15 14:15:03 EDT 2017