It took a couple of hours to get off the boat on Monday morning, mainly because I was on the bottom passenger deck and our deck came last. But I waited in my room for most of the time, so it wasn’t too awful. I guess the biggest turnoff of the cruise was all the wasted food. I saw so many finished plates with large amounts of food on them. I think people should eat what they take, unless it really tastes bad, and the food was fairly good.
I was able to check the weather before I got off the ship and since it had snowed around 5 inches in Virginia the night before—and it was going to be very cold there all day--I figured I would drive to Charlotte and spend the night, then head back to the hollow so I could plow the road before it melted and froze on Tuesday night.
I stopped for a long bike ride outside of Columbia and it was pretty cold but I wanted to keep up my good exercise routine. When I got to Charlotte I practiced and then took a nap before I headed into town. It was very cold so I decided to eat near the truck, at the Rock Bottom Brewery. It was inexpensive and decent and warm, which was all I wanted. After dinner I felt more like challenging the elements so I put on my face mask and toboggan and walked up to the ice skating ring, which had a number of people but certainly wasn’t crowded. On the way back my only goal was to get back into my warm truck and soon enough I had the engine running and the heat on. Back in the room I sorted out all of the stuff from the cruise and then practiced for another 20 minutes since I may be performing at India Garden on Saturday and I wanted to be ready.
The drive up from Charlotte seemed endless, but eventually I got to my office, did a couple of things, and then drove to the hollow. Fortunately, the snow was only about four inches, and I easily drove up to the house. Everything was fine in the house but the solar was down to 49% and I had to immediately put the generator on. Once that was going I got the tractor out and I scraped past the hay barn and down the steep hill and then back with no trouble. I just hope I don’t get more than 5 inches or I am going to have to hire Mike to clear any heavy snowfall. The work Ronnie did on the road really helped and I think I am a little better at operating the tractor. Working during the day and after a storm also makes things a lot easier. After that work, I practiced a full 45 minutes and did 20 minutes of hard biking and some weights. I had to start emptying the truck to get ready for the new camper top tomorrow and that went well.
Now it is time to head in for supplies and the watch the first half of the Philly game.