We left you last enjoying spring in the blue mountains of western North Carolina as Katie and I headed north toward home. We made it as far as Lexington Kentucky for our second night on the road, but kept hearing about a big storm headed our way.

Checking into the hotel I booted up the computer and tried to figure out what to do. I watched the storm front inch closer and closer to I-75, our route home. They were saying there could be feet of snow in the west and that the front itself might spawn thunderstorms and even tornadoes. I tried to remember that weather people like to project the most dire possibilities

But I was still worried.

I woke up Saturday morning with a list of options playing in my mind. I could check with the front desk and see if I could stay another night and wait out the storm. But the local weather said Saturday was pretty good and things didn’t get dicey until late Saturday, early Sunday. Sunday, they said would be torrential rain and Monday they might even get snow. Didn’t sound like sticking around Lexington would be a good idea.

I could book a room about halfway home and get settled before the storm hit. I checked hotel availability 3 and 4 hours north, but my preferred hotel was sold out. Maybe other travelers were hunkering down too. There were rooms available about an hour north, but what was the point of moving only an hour down the road?

As the morning sky began to pink I decided to pack up and make a run for it.

The first three hours were great. Little traffic, no rain. Katie and I bebopped along to the radio and tried to keep our rest stops short, always keeping an eye on the sky to the west. The rain started in hour four.

I pulled off the road into a rest stop to contemplate what to do. Should I look for a hotel? And as I considered what would be best the rain let up and then stopped. Katie and I decided to keep going. And as it turned out that was the only drama we had. The rest of the ride it rained lightly, nothing out of the ordinary, and we arrived home in the late afternoon.

That worked out perfectly because our local weather was issuing a severe winter storm warning for 8 p.m. that night and we woke this morning to an ice slicked driveway and sleet. Now it’s raining and freezing on the trees.

The early flowers seem miserable in the ice and snow.

Katie says we should have stayed in the South. She’s a smart one, that girl.