But first there was the matter of getting through the lake effect snow between Buffalo and Erie. Not as bad as the 8+ feet of snow that would hit Oswego on the SE corner of Lake Ontario a few days later, but it was enough to slow New York Thruway traffic down to 30 mph. We tucked ourselves behind the fastest-moving transport truck ...

... and reached our hotel in Erie without incident - albeit, a little behind schedule. The blizzard had fortunately not closed Doc's but Marc was very disappointed when our burger feast was interrupted by the announcement that the scheduled line dancing lessons had been cancelled due to the storm.

The only Starbucks (at the service centre in Beckley, WVA, above) on our way down to Florida was not to be missed. As the day wore on, we crossed Virginia and left the snow - a moment that called for celebration, if only mentally. The beer would come later. We reached the outskirts of Charlotte just in time for rush hour, a relatively brisk one, compared to Toronto's Highway 401. But now the radio was confirming what we had heard on the Weather Channel the night before: a severe ice storm was expected to hit the area early the following morning. Interestingly enough, there were many trucks out pre-spraying I-77, something we had not realized could be done to useful effect. We thus decided that we would proceed for another hour or two, SE on I-26 to Columbia, South Carolina, which would be just that little bit closer to the ocean and to sea level that we might miss the worst of the ice storm.

After a hotel stop in Columbia that included dinner at a very nice Italian Restaurant next door, we were underway before dawn, having wolfed down our complimentary breakfast. Lucky us! While Richard and Michele, who were leaving their Charlotte home with the Free Range Chick'n that morning, were hours getting out of the iced-up Charlotte, all Marc and I got was some drizzle, which was just nicely enough rain to rinse off the worst of the road salt from car, boat and trailer.

Mike Murto got the free draft beer up and running, while we did the same for SHADES. Nothing seemed to have changed from last year, and Marc and I knew that soon Scott Tillema, Dave Moring and Kevin Rankin would arrive to help us "set sail with Captain Morgan" and ship's physician, Dr. Pepper (see prepared picnic table).