Comfort zone

We are at a Wal-Mart in Savannah, Georgia, about halfway to Tybee Island on US-80 (map). It's a small store, but there is a nice out-of-the-way parking lot, and even a couple of restaurants here.

This is the closest spot to our friends out on Wilmington Island; they picked us up here yesterday afternoon and whisked us off to their place for a wonderful home-cooked meal, too much wine, and lots of catching up -- it's been nearly five years since we stopped here last. They also have what must be the world's largest hot tub in their otherwise tiny yard, and the weather was just perfect for a soak.

In fact, the weather is so pleasant right here that we are going to see if the city-operated campground on Tybee Island can accommodate us for a couple of nights. We're already most of the way there, and have never seen the place, which our friends recommend. Since we seem to have hit the ideal-weather zone, and don't need to be anywhere in Florida until the second half of December, this is as good a place as any to slow down and enjoy.

The only fly in the ointment might be Hurricane Ida, which is forecast to regain some strength as it spins out into the Gulf of Mexico today. The track models have it threatening southeastern Louisiana and coastal Mississippi on Tuesday, but with luck, it will have degraded into an extratropical cyclone by then. Nevertheless, we are watching it carefully, as our current location puts us an easy day from any possible landfall for the storm.

Photo by Penningtron, used under a Creative Commons license.