Winter Driving

It always worries me this time of year when I plan any distance traveling, so it was with some trepidation that we started a journey to South Carolina this past week. Our grandson was graduating from basic training at Fort Jackson. We wanted to attend this ceremony, then bring him back with us for a week's visit before his next assignment. If we were going to have ice anywhere the weather seemed perfect for that. It rained on us the full 470 miles down there, then again on the return trip. Graduation day was overcast but no rain, and the temperatures were in the mid seventies so that went well. We'd driven down on Monday, attended the ceremony on Tuesday, and our plans were to drive back on Wednesday. Checking the weather forecast for here in Kentucky they were saying there was a possible ice storm coming in on Wednesday, so instead of our planned departure we went to bed early on Tuesday, got up at two in the morning, and left our hotel at 3 heading home. Fortunately the temperatures did not drop as far as forecast and we arrived home to a 38 degree day. Now as to the rain. It was the kind of rain that wears out the windshield wiper controls. Turn it on, turn it up, turn it down, turn it off, back on, high speed, intermittent, faster, slower, the whole round trip. I think I used up most of the reservoir of windshield cleaner. We started out in a white car and came home in a two tone car that was white on top and black on the bottom. It's obvious that tires wear out with the amount of rubber deposited daily on the highways and Interstate system. Of course one of the big drawbacks is, it's not safe to drive in the rain with the cruise control engaged. I love cruise control and will run with it engaged as much as possible, but this trip required the foot on the accelerator the whole way.During a two day period, Fort Jackson was graduating a thousand new soldiers from basic training, and that's just one of many such forts in the U.S. It's amazing the number of enlistments they receive in this all volunteer military. I had the pleasure of speaking with several of the young men and women that were graduating that day, and what a wonderful group of people they were. At least outside the political arena, our country is in good hands.