We continued to move quickly through South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida to reach our delivery date, Wednesday September 21st, at the Port of Jacksonville. Although the ship would not be leaving until October 4th, we were able to drop her off early so that we could spend a little time in Guatemala being tourists before our language course started.
From South Carolina we headed down to Savannah, Georgia a city that, for me, has always inspired romantic images of the old south. The city definitely lives up to the hype. Beautiful old, stone building with extensive vines stretched across them. Completing the scene are large, mature trees everywhere you look with Spanish moss hanging from every branch. Savannah is a beautiful city. A city that we will have to come back to and explore further (except it will have to be in the cooler months). If we have learned anything is that our run down the coast has been too quick.
While in the area we picked up some new tires from the Tire Rack (tirerack.com) distribution center and had them installed. We got BF Goodrich’s KO2 tires. They are all-terrain tires that make Lola look tough. A splurge, absolutely, justified by not having 4-wheel-drive. Hopefully they will last and keep us going in the right direction. After having the brakes and alignment checked we hit the road headed to Jacksonville to meet our escort.
Saying that we met an met an “escort,” yes it sounds very inappropriate. Katani would escort us through the Jacksonville port to drop Lola off. This process was pretty smooth, but kind of scary. No time to say good bye. Katani took the keys and whisked Lola away. Lola will be loaded on to the NOCC Oceanic leaving JAX on October 4th to arrive in Zarate, Buenos Aries, Argentina on the 24th. You can join me as I intently follow her trip south on the website MarineTraffic.com.
After the drop off, we headed to Fort Lauderdale to board our flight to Guatemala. During the 4 weeks that Lola is being shipped to Buenos Aires, will be living cheaply and attending a Spanish language course. As we approached the airport in southern Florida, it started to hit us that we are leaving everything we know and feel comfortable with for unknown, beautiful lands. Needless to say, boarding the plane and experiencing the takeoff was pretty emotional for us both. We will miss you U.S.A. We will miss you tons.
We were in Georgia and Florida from September 20th through 22nd 2016.
Amazing how beautiful and different every part of one country can be.
We have truly been amazed. Must spend more time in the Rockies! And down south. The culture there seems so much richer than our northern counterparts. The warm weather in the winter doesn’t seem like a bad idea either!