Last stop in Florida before the icebox

We are at a Wal-Mart in Jacksonville, Florida (map).

We could easily have pressed on yesterday most of the way through Georgia, which would have evened out the daily mileage somewhat. But after studying the weather reports yesterday morning, we decided to stay in Florida last night, which seems to have been the nadir of the current deep-freeze across the US, and trade longer days for less time in the frozen north.

That gave us the opportunity to have dinner at the University Club here in Jacksonville, on the top of the Riverplace tower, with a stunning view of the river. We picked this Wal-Mart because it was a single bus ride away from downtown. Shortly after parking, security came over to check on us, and to let us know that the store closed at 11, and that he thought this was a "rough area." Hmm... the bus shelter had not a single grafitto, and the neighborhood is relatively clean. We wonder, sometimes, what some of these folks think of as "rough," and whether they've ever been to, say, Detroit, or New York, or LA.

In any case, we had a pleasant enough stay. Temperatures dropped below freezing last night, and our air compressor has been running quite a bit to keep up with the cold-induced leakage, but at least it appears that the coolant leakage has been rectified with the replacement of the suspect hose. Wal-Mart had the mailer I need to send in the oil sample that I drew yesterday in for analysis, and now I just need a post office to get it sent out.

Tonight we should be somewhere around Savannah or so, and tomorrow, unto the breach -- we're already pulling out the heavy coats, hats, and gloves. I also expect to have to run the Webasto full-time starting tonight, as opposed to the ~2 hours or so in the morning that is our usual cold-weather ritual.