12-26-17  back to Ga. to meet our granddaughter!

Since we were all coming back to St. Louis for Christmas, so we thought, I also made a few Dr. appointments for myself.  Had labs drawn last Thurs., so today was the day to go back for the results.  Then we planned to jump in the car and drive back to Georgia.  Since my appointment was at 9:15, I had high hopes that we'd be on our way by 10.  No such luck.  The appointment ran late so we didn't get on the road until after 11.  But my appointment went really well for a change!  For the first time since I've been going for regular check ups (since about 50 years old), my A1C was in the normal range.  Until now it had always been in the pre-diabetes range, so I was quite happy with these results!  I guess all those salads are paying off!  Even lost a couple pounds which isn't bad considering all the food I ate at the Christmas parties and the 11 nights cruise!  Now if it would just get warm again so I can go out and continue trying to be good. 
This is why I don't care much for snow, either----it looks pretty initially, but it doesn't take long for it to look like this.

 This was the start of a particularly bad cold spell, too.  Highs in the single digits in St. Louis for the next week and only in the 20 in the Atlanta area!

 a really dreary day!

 no wonder the barns get so weathered.

 Missing the greenery of Florida and the Caribbean!

 a rather pretty barn

 back to the usual mid west barns

 so cold Rend Lake is freezing.

 I don't know why these bill boards are up, but I get a kick out of them

 On into Tennessee and icicles on the bluffs

 finally some blue skies

 so many barns we've seen trip after trip

 then there are some I don't remember seeing before!

 Some we've seen get more and more dilapidated. 

 another "new" one

 when the trees are with leaves, some of them are totally hidden.

 another familiar one.

 wonder why this one has a red stripe?

 Wondering if someone lives in here?!

More icicles on the bluffs in Tennessee

 warm afternoon light with pretty clouds.

 We hit Nashville right before sunset.  Usually we detour around the city, but this time we decided to listen to the car Navigator and go straight through. 

 There were no slow downs and it was nice having a different view for a change.

 Love the symbol for this radio station---the "batman" building with the traditional 3 stars of the Tennessee flag.

 looking East as we left the city

 Sunset lasted a good while and was really pretty tonight.

 Got back to the Suwanee area by about 9:30, so we called to see if the kids were still up.  They were, so we went to meet Layla!  Such a cutie and such a good little girl. 

Nice ending to a long day!