My husband and I were discussing yesterday all the places we’ve been (ie. States and Countries). My question is, does it count if you’ve only driven through the state? Does it even count if you didn’t even get out of the airport?

I’ve been to several airports…we switched plans in Washington DC on our way to Vegas and on the way back, we made a switch in Denver. But I never saw anything beyond the airport.

Over various trips, I’ve stayed overnight in Arkansas, New Jersey, Kentucky, and South Carolina on the way to other states.

So not counting overnights in a hotel, I can say I’ve been to:

* Alabama
* Florida
* Louisiana
* Arizona
* Maryland
* Washington DC (when I was a baby; not the layover enroute to Vegas)
* Massachusetts
* New Mexico
* Texas
* Nevada
* Georgia
* Tennessee
* Indiana
* Mississippi

Drive throughs would include Kentucky, North and South Carolina, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia, and Oklahoma. That’s about all I can think of now. I’ve also been to Puerto Rico (I have family there) and I lived in Panama when I was a child (my dad was in the military). Maybe at some point I’ll draw up a map of the places I’ve “visited.”

We had a great weekend in the woods. Camping for 2 nights under the stars next to a really cold creek, or as we call it in the south, a crick. Our friends, Donald and Kimberly, got engaged Friday night and we almost got stuck in mud on Saturday night. We took our dog camping for the first time and she loved it. She ate so much stew, and climbed many rocks and went exploring all over. She had a blast and slept the whole way home. She will definitely be camping with us again.

We turned the radio on Saturday night, only to hear that Hurricane Jeanne was making landfall about the same place that Frances came ashore. So, of course, Saturday night and Sunday was spent talking to family, making sure they were ok.

My parents are fine as are my in-laws. They don’t have power and who knows when it will come back. My parents lost running water for a while yesterday, but fortunately it came back, so they were able to take showers. As far as they could tell, they had no damage. My aunt’s house in Port St Lucie has extensive damage and the ceiling in the garage has collapsed. She said she fears the ceiling in the sun room as well as the entrance way will also collapse from the water that is leaking through the roof. The rest of the house so far is okay. They are still able to live in it, so that’s a plus. They have no power, water or phone, so my parents are planning to try to get over there to see what can be done. But they weren’t sure they would make it, since they have to cross 2 bridges and didn’t know if people would be allowed to enter the area.

I really hope this is the last hurricane for this season and well into the next few years. There’s only so much you can take, before it becomes unbearable. For some it is already unbearable, for others, they are on the last shred of sanity. Florida just can’t handle anymore.

This weekend some friends came over to watch a boxing match on Pay-per-View. I was not expecting De La Hoya to go down like he did. We were all a little stunned, but at least they were both gracious. Instead of talking trash about each other. We had a great time, cooking out hot wings and catching up. We decided to rent a movie so we headed over to Blockbuster. There were no copies of Ladykillers on DVD, so we actually rented the VHS. Good movie. Hilarious, I loved the portrait in the living room.

Then we all went a little kooked and yes, we rented Season One of The Knight Rider! We had a blast watching the first episode ever. Laughing at the hair styles and the music from 1982. But I have to admit, I had forgotten how cool K.I.T.T. really is. Of course, now I want to keep watching it. But I cringe at David Hasselhoff in those tight jeans. and how he pranced around all suave and macho.

We also rented Hidalgo for the hell of it. The Disney movie is based on a true story, but the true story is apparently all a lie. The History Channel did a show on how the guy made it all up and how unrealistic it was. I didn’t see it, but a friend did and he said the show totally picked apart the story and proved that it didn’t happen and that parts were just not possible. But I’ll watch it anyway since it stars Viggo Mortenson. And now I’m curious about the whole thing, since he told me about the History Channel show. I haven’t watched the movie yet, but look forward to seeing what it’s all about.

And next weekend, we are supposed to go camping.

The storm is over. Our power went out about 8 am yesterday and came back on sometime overnight last night. We think we also lost cable, but that could be because our power inverter wasn’t strong enough to pull the cable signal. We had a few limbs broken from our trees, but other than that we didn’t suffer any damage. We were very lucky. Several parts of town suffered trees down, power lines down, flooding, etc. We are still in flood watch because the Alabama River runs through downtown. But we are all fine. Not so for others, if you’ve watched the news. Even folks in Georgia have suffered this storm and have had severe flooding in some parts. Most of the area here in Montgomery has power back. We went out for a little while yesterday after the storm had passed and power was back on in parts of my side of town. So I knew it was only a matter of time before we got power back at the house.

I just hope Becky is doing okay in Pensacola and has only suffered minimal damage at her place. A friend of ours has a cousin in Pensacola who’s house was in pretty bad shape.

Our top sustained winds were probably around 60 mph, with wind gusts reported at 95 mph. Gosh the wind was wild! When Opal went through, it hit at night so we couldn’t really see anything. But this thing hit us during daylight hours, so we could see the rain blowing down the street. It was something. Then when the wind was dying down to about 25-30 mph, it felt so nice. The wind gusts by then were in the 40s and you could hear that wind gust coming from several miles away, blowing like trains through the trees. And seeing the trees blowing like that amazing. I have to admit, it was pretty cool to see. If only it wouldn’t do so much damage.

Now the folks in Florida once again, wait to see what will happen with Jeanne. They are predicting it might come inland as a hurricane somewhere near Jacksonville, FL. Sheesh, what a season we’ve had. There isn’t anyone now, in Florida, who hasn’t been through a hurricane this season. I just pray that Jeanne doesn’t turn like they are saying.