Homeward Bound!

Yesterday was the first of two long drives home. Our disembarking process was actually far better than expected. Though my organization could use a bit of work!

The drive was going great until Atlanta. Wow. Terrible stretch for miles, bumper to bumper...eventually we took a side road to by pass it all. Still don't know the reason for the backup.

Ended our drive in Murfreesboro, TN. We discovered we had stopped here before on our way down last week and experience the busiest Chic-fil-A in the world! You would have thought it just opened.

We grabbed a later dinner at Nobody's Grill, and got out of there just in time before karaoke started. Though we did see/hear a little girl singing twinkle twinkle little star, mind you this was at 10pm.

Today is our final stretch. Murfreesboro to home. 13.5 hours with a couple tolls. Pretty much spending most our day in Illinois as our other option had a few areas of road contstruction.

Thank God for audio

Books!!!

But first: Waffle House for good driving fuel!

Dexters Apartment

Of course we couldn't pass the opportunity to visit the location of Dexter's apartment. Though now, due to its fame a fence has been put up and foliage blocks our view, but if you look closely you can see it: last apartment on the right.

Last pics just a view of the harbor the complex is right next to.

Also we barely managed to escape a parking ticket to get these pics. Had the parking officer started at the front of the lot we would have gotten one!

Pictures

Here are some pics from yesterday:

Junkaroo dancers.

Views from our room.

Bahamas!

No internet on the cruise, but it was a much smaller ship than we have sailed in the past. Very cute and fewer people which was nice and no high pressure sales pitches for art, jewelry, etc. Chris survived without getting motion sickness, and we cleared Bahamas customs in no time yesterday am. Had an entire day of beach time before checking into our room at 3, then a walk around the local shops and a fantastic beach BBQ for dinner withh music and junkaroo dancers. Imagine the Mardi Gras Indians in their festive warrior costumes. There was a local fish fry also, with some tasty fried snapper. Chris wanted to be sure I mentioned that I apparently have no coordination for hammocks. It seemed so relaxing in theory..

Today, waking up to a gorgeous sunrise and a day of more of the same.. Relaxing. Beach bonfire tonight, then back on the ship by noon tomorrow. Unfortunately we are told we cannot live at this beautiful resort. Also of note, Bahamas garners 50 of their economy from tourism..30 percent from offshore banking. So..

Our room at the Starlite, and morning rain

The staircase from Scarface

We watched a valet actually dent this van in front of us

South Beach. Literally!

Impressive skyline

Panther crossing?

Had a great drive through the Everglades on Monday, and made it off the island in the nick of time ahead of the St. Patrick's day parade. Unnerving signs began to appear as we entered the Everglades that warned of "panther crossing" and "lights flashing when wildlife on road" and "no hiking after dark". Even the speed limits (60 during the day, 45 at night) reflected ample opportunity to run over some of Florida's most exotic wildlife. We stopped at two Everglades visitors centers and saw tons of Osprey, herons, butterflies and egrets. We also saw jumping fish, that literally propel themselves out of the water to catch bugs. Did we see alligators? Not only did we see a plethora of alligators in their natural habitat, Chris almost ran over one that was sunning himself on the shoulder of the road. We almost had a very unique souvenir, indeed. While it added about an hour to our drive, it was well worth it.

South Beach

There are many words one can use to describe South Beach during spring break, I select: tacky.  People included in that description. However, despite being South Beach we enjoyed our day.

The weather cooperated with us again and we had a lovely day at the beach and even dipped in the ocean!  Tackiness aside there is a certain charm to SB, maybe due to some famous filming locations from movies like Scarface and The Birdcage.

Our hotel was nice and we scored a corner room with a view of the ocean so we got to see the sunrise!

Busy as it was, there was ample room for us to find a corner of our own and people watch. Oh the sights we saw too!

Off to the ship today, about an hour drive to the port. Will try and snag a photo of another famous location.

Spring break island

We learned relatively quickly that staying on an island with only one road in and out was a poor choice during spring break. We sat in traffic for over an hour to get into Ft Myers beach, which was a distance of roughly 4 miles. The spring break revelers were an interesting mixture of the newly retired and the college crowd. I suspect this is a very typical Florida spring break experience. Fortunately, our little hotel (The Hideaway) was down far enough from the festivities, that it was blissfully quiet. The beach was quite windy so we only stayed a short time, then packed it up and drove down to a nice little restaurant owned by the same couple who owns our motel. We did receive an invitation, or a warning as we viewed it, about Monday on the island. Yes, they do celebrate St Patrick's day here. In fact, they even close that one road in and out of town for a parade. Needless to say, we will be skipping the festivities that begin at 7(!) am and getting the heck off this island while we still can. Off to Miami via the Everglades this morning.

Ft Myers Beach and Spring Training

We had a wonderful "short" drive on Sunday, only three hours! Passed through some rapidly growing cities like Sarasota and Punta Gorda. Went over a beautiful bridge and paid more tolls. Temperature gradually climbed until we settled on 86 as we approached Hammond Stadium. The game was packed- so many twins fans for a spring training game. It did help they played Miami, so there was a mix of locals. Gorgeous stadium, with seating in the grass as well on right and left fields. Got a splendid sunburn and the twins won.

Word of the day: sand

It's everywhere! The sand is so fine it's everywhere. In the bed, our hair, everywhere.  But that means we are at the beach so it's a decent trade off.

The beach!

After driving a total of about 26 hours driving in 3 days, we made it to the beach!

We even grabbed salads at the local Publix and had dinner on the beach.

Many of the gulls were very interested in sharing our salad.

We then took in the sunset from our deck.

Today we are off to see the Twins and thankfully only a two hour drive!!

Florida!

Kentucky and Georgia

Had a beautiful drive today through rolling hills as the temperature steadily climbed. Made a quick stop headed out of KY at the Jim Beam distillery, and wandered the grounds that the same family has been crafting bourbon for over 100 years. We drove through a picturesque hilly country in Tennessee and through both Nashville and Chattanooga. Arrived in Atlanta in time to witness their epic rush hour traffic. Had a wonderful visit with Ray and then another spectacular BBQ dinner (including what might have been the worlds largest baked potato). We couldn't have better southern hospitality from Carolyn. Headed to bed early and will be hitting the road around 730am for our next 8 hour drive to Treasure Island Florida.