Picked up my wife at work at 11:00am. My friend in Jacksonville was heading up to Sc. for a Clemson game and was returning Sunday to seal up his home. Anymore then a 12 foot surge and he has water in his living room. I text him and told him we are on our way.
We stopped very little. It was clear sailing through Virginia and into Nc. Through Charlotte and out the other side no problem. Then, it started, north bound was bumper to bumper. Heading across the boarder I text my friend. Do I hold up in the hotel or go? He text me back and told me to give him a second. This second was longest part of the trip.lol
There was NO traffic heading south and clear skies.
The text came....... Go for it dude!!!! I filled up in Columbia Sc. No lines, no national guard.
On the way down we have people posting on social media that " they closed the state of Florida " lol
Please, do yourself a favor, turn of the news channel of your choice, and what my buddy called, " The Jerry Springer of weather", the weather channel.
Heading down i26, it was clear sailing. North, all bumper to bumper. I never seen so many cars.
Ever get the feeling your going the wrong way? That was the day. Lol
Crossed into Ga. and texted my friend, is there gas in Ga?
Again, I get the wait a second. He text me back the three exits in Ga that had plenty of gas. At this time I knew we are gonna make it. We hit the second exit he told me, remember, thousands of cars in the north bound side.
I pulled into a shell, there was two other cars getting gas and a lot of campers parked.
I filled and left.
I drove the rest of the way into Boardwalk. We arrived around 3:30am or so with 3/4 of a tank. We were able to check in and got into our room!!
We did stop at the Florida Welcome Center. There were 5 cars in the entire lot, 2 were state troopers. Went to the restroom, came out and my wife said, let's get out of here, this is creepy.
All in all, it was one of the best drives I can remember.
Went to Epcot Saturday and Saturday night. Got up Sunday to some rain. We met up with some friends from home who were here at boardwalk who were stranded by the airlines.
Said a little prayer for the people in South Florida and went to the Belview in boardwalk. Just some rain on and off all day. Went down to the convention center around five for a buffet. Hung out there till about midnight, trying to run the bar out of captain and coke, they won. Lol
About 2am, the hurricane kicked up. Wind,rain till about 4-5am and the worse was over.
If you went to bed at midnight and woke up at 6am, you would have never known what was going on. We heard nothing inside the resort. We are in a one bedroom.
That was it!!! We went through Wilma in 2005 and now Irma in 2017!
Local area took the dirty part of the storm. Estimate of 100 mph winds.
So I guess you may have found a new way to avoid traffic when driving to WDW, go during severe hurricanes!