Triskaidekaphobia?

Friday, January 13, 2012

ROANOKE, VA – The stars and stripes on the flagpole outside the hotel this morning cracked in a stiff wind as we trolleyed out our luggage and prepared to depart. It was bitterly cold, but we were actually relieved when we first looked out to see that the freezing rain and snow people were predicting for today had not transpired. The weather experts did warn us about high winds today, however, and it wasn’t exactly comfortable as we hitched the car back up to the motorhome.
We are getting gradually better at hooking up the flexible arms, electrical cord, backup coils and breakaway cord between the car and the RV. The other part of the process involves placing the box-shaped brake buddy on the floor in front of the driver’s seat and clamping the pedal-pushing arm to the car’s brake pedal. Once it is switched on, it performs three brake-pressing actions to determine that the installation is correct, and flashes an OK sign on the display panel. Then, after checking that the RV turn and brake signals are coming through to the car’s rear lights, we’re good to go.
Of course, this time, we had to thaw out our frozen hands and faces after performing these tasks. But we didn’t have to worry about black ice or drifts of snow as we headed out, and that worked for us. What we – or I should say Val, because he drove – did have to contend with throughout our drive today was that severe wind! It pushed against our tall RV and our not-so-sleek Honda FIT from the right side the whole way, and every time a tractor-trailer whizzed past on our left, a counter-balancing swoosh of wind came at us from the other side. So Val was correcting the steering all the way from Pennsylvania, through Maryland, through West Virginia and into Virginia and our destination today, Roanoke.
The dips in the highway increased somewhat when we got to the Blue Ridge Mountains, providing short spells of relief from the wind. The rises made up for it by exposing us to other gusts, which were never predictable. But the scenery of rolling hills, small farms and grazing cattle was very pleasant, and once or twice we saw some sunshine as well.
You can almost see us shivering in today’s photo, taken by a kind traveler when we stopped to fuel up.
Still, all told, Friday the thirteenth was an OK day for us! We chuckled though when Kendra, at the hotel reception desk this evening, handed us the key to our room – number 113! We are still looking forward to getting to the warm places. Tomorrow, perhaps? Warm-ER would even work…