Chasing Spring North

Just in case inspiration strikes, I like to have a notebook and a writing implement close to hand. Which is how we have a fairly complete documentation of road-kill from a recent road trip. Why document road-kill? Well, that's another category of answer...

DAY 1, Florida
Depart 9:30 am with the air-conditioning blasting. Saw swallow-tail kite and 1st road kill: a lustrous turtle-shell vacated on I75 north.

11:18 am: a black-tailed mystery in the median, identified by scent at mm 319. Skunk. Also something flat with a leg near Jasper.

Georgia state line at 12:56 pm. Pink and white floral cushions at Exit 18. Black and red cushion ten miles later. Jeff: "Poor things."

3:00 pm, on secondary highway in North Georgia, it feels like The Walking Dead country. Odd, intense little churches between pecan groves. Lush hayfields.

Roadside tragedy: on the shoulder, a dead armadillo and the remains of two or three vultures.  Wonder if a bored driver went all "The Great Santini" on them. 

South Carolina at 6:49 pm. Many billboards.

North Carolina at 8:09 pm. 

Overnight at Hendersonville, NC, 9:30-ish. Chilly outside the car. No sign, really, of the Civil War horrors from the highway. Passed an exit called "Bat Cave" too quickly to react with anything but astonishment. Who knew?

DAY 2
Start at 7:16 am. Top up gas, coolant, oil. Listen to NPR while noticing that North Carolina has (had?) a lot of possums.

Virginia. 9:05 am. Passed Hungry Mother State Park. Resolve to look up details, but not while the vehicle is in motion. Urp. 

1:00-ish near Fairfield, VA, stop for traffic congestion, notice rear tire has decided bubble-wobble. Exit and manage to find tire to match eccentric rims. Back on road at 3:23 pm.

Maryland at 5:47 pm. Spring is just starting up here: dogwood in bloom.

Pennsylvania at 6 pm. A pair of groundhogs dead on the road: Fat, nearsighted fools in love. Bright yellow forsythia blooming.
7:24 pm: Spotted live groundhog on shoulder of highway. It looks remarkably similar to a tree stump. But with a nose.
10:00 pm, arrive D & B's house. Ahhh. 

DAY 3
10 am hit the road after yum diner breakfast. Many dead deer in northern Pennsylvania. They made it through the winter only to die crossing the road. Ironic. Tiny green leaves on the trees. 

11:10 am, New York state.
1:00 pm, spotted our first Tim Horton's. The diner, not the exercise guru. More irony.
1:50 pm, our first dead porky-pine just north of Syracuse. Spring is barely here: the grass is green but the trees are bare. 
5-ish: arrive at sister's. Safe, alive, whole. Thanks, world.