Being things are back to normal around here, I'm going to do this in sections.
No, I'm not nuts.lol. When Irma looked like it was heading to Fl. I called a friend of mine who is a federal agent stationed in Jacksonville. He told me to make a reservation in Rockhill Sc. for Friday night thru Wednesday. Which I did at a Hampton inn. $130 per night at that time.
Back then the storm was to hit Orlando Sunday night into Monday. I figured if I can get in here by Saturday morning, we would be fine. We went through Wilma in 2005 so I had a good idea what goes on here during a hurricane. I didn't want to hold up in Sc. Because at the time the storm was heading up the east coast and figured I wouldn't get in here till Thursday. Which, would be fine, but I didn't want to die over it.
I figured I would use my hotel reservation as my safety net as a place to ride it out if I couldn't make wdw.
Plan, wake up 2:30am, go to work, come home 10:30 am, pick wife up at work at 11:00am and hit the road. Gas was the issue, not traffic or weather this trip. I bought three, 5 gallon gas cans. Drive to Columbia, fill up van and cans if there was no gas in Georgia and Florida, I had enough to make it in. The storm seem to be cooperating with the plan. Keeping in contact with my friend in Jacksonville who was keeping me posted on traffic, gas supplies etc....
He get advisories at work on all of this so I was in good hands.
His reports the day before we were to leave, told me south bound wide open, north bound, bumper to bumper from North Carolina all the way in!!! Gas was ok, but fill up as far out as you can, the closer the storm gets, the faster things fall apart.
Just before I went to bed Thursday, he text me, make sure your off I26 before 0800 Saturday, they are shutting down south bound and making everything north. Again, at that time, it was heading to South Carolina.
The only thing that worried me was if I hit trouble in the northeast, traffic, flat tire etc...
We had a 10 hour window of wiggle room so I felt pretty good about making it. Again I always had a safety net in Sc.
D-Day came, plan was put into action. My friend text me, I was good to go and text him when I hit sc and will get an update on gas and traffic and decide if we should go for it.
Update to follow