Another update on our trip to Florida

Well here is my last update until I get home which will be tonight sometime.  Were in Kentucky right now at a Krystals having lunch and using the WI FI internet they have free here.  Very nice!  Anyhow here is an update below...Its a long one so if you don't want to read a lot I would skip it lol.  Have a great day everyone!   This is a continuation from last update so it starts out last Monday.

12:00pm - Have Internet access sitting outside of main office.  Going to copy/paste this to my journal. (this should be in the last update)

12:30pm - Decided to head down 192 East and see what we find.  Stopped at Krystals for lunch.  Their little chicken sandwitches are really good.  It seems like none of the banks down here have an ATM but every convenience store does.  Go figure.

2:10pm - 192 was kind of boring so we turned down a smaller state road 532 which heads over towards Coacoa beach.  Got some pictures of herons and saw some cows.

2:55 - Perfect timing.  As we hit hwy 520 they were paving it right in the intersection so we got a chance to watch the highway crew work.  Interestingly only the black workers were actually doing any actual labor.  The three wight guys were what appeared to be a foreman, a guy holding the stop sign and the driver of the asphalt truck.

3:16 - Went over a really tall bridge on the way into Coacoa Beach. Then we started down Highway A1A which is the whole reason we came over here.

Then we stopped to get Nick some swim gear and towels. Followed by a stop at "Druggy Beach" - Well, that's not the official name, but after we had been there and left it fits.  Nick got his first dip in the ocean... his feet only.  The waves washing over his feet kind of freaked him out and he wouldn't go near it again.

We continued south on A1A trying to find bridges like the ones in the keys (long, ocean on both sides, etc.) but we only found one kind of like that.

5:34 - Decided to head "right" (west) and see how wide the land we were on really was.  On the map it looks like it's as wide as the road.  It's actually wider.  The turn took us into Long Point Park.  We saw mangos, more herons and a couple of pelicans.

6:13 - Stopped for gas at 1,726 miles.
19.6 MPG, $20.14 (city milage is not so hot)

6:29 - Saw our first (only?) coconut in a plam tree.  We were in Griffin, FL.  A1A was interesting but not really a great sight-seeing road I guess. Plus it was time to head home so we got back to 1 and took that to 60 west. 

8:45 - Stopped at TGI Fridays for dinner, took the turnpike back to the Orlando area.

11:00? - Finally made it "home"

Tuesday, March 27

8:00am - We have a "free" breakfast at a local resort in exchange for a "90 minute tour".  We know this will be a "you want to buy a time-share because" thing but at least we know what we're getting ourselves into. We're only doing it for a pair of Disney tickets for $40 (about $100 off and we need to save that $.)

9:00 - Breakfast at Westgate Resorts.  Not impressive as breakfasts go but free.

3:00 - Picked up the last two tickets.  We could have saved $70 on another pair by taking a tour we had signed up for at the resort we are currently staying at.  After this morning's "tour" (which must be foreign for "long sales meeting") we decided it would be worth the extra $ to not do another one.

5:00pm - Cory took the boys to "Fun Spot" near Orlando.  It has go carts, bumper cars and a bunch of other stuff.  We let them stay there on their own.  We went and did other things with Nick.

11:00 - Picked up the boys at "Fun Spot"

Wednesday, March 28

9:00am - Went to breakfast.  Much better than yesterdays.

10:00am - Had to run to Wal Mart to get different shoes for Cory before hitting Disney.  Even good shoes can cause blisters and the ones we picked up at Dollar General had a ridge all the way round that left red marks with even minimal walking.

12:00pm - We lost a couple of hours because we; forgot the Disney tickets at home, took a wrong exit coming back from WalMart, and hit bad traffic due to road construction as we entered Disney.  We decided to park at the Magic Kingdom instead of Epcot even though we were going to Epcot.  That way we could ride the monorail to and from Epcot.

Mini-recap.. needs filling out:
Rented locker, spaceship earth ride, Living Seas search for Nemo ride, dolphin, fish, plush nemo, soda place, lunch, rented stroller, spaceship earth (nick fell asleep), met boys, "Land" ride, "Energy" ride with Ellen D. (nick scared by dinos), store (ran into boys), Chinese acrobats (name?), dinner in China, ride in Mexico closed, hand-carved wooden figures (expensive), shopping, shopping (cory took nick), Cory returned stroller, fireworks

10:30pm - home, Publix for groceries (just closed), Walgreens (no syrup), 7-11 (none there either), WalMart, home, salads, grey's anatomy


Thursday, March 29

1:30 am - bed, cory finishes putting some stuff in log before we forget

2:00 am - Cory to bed

10:32 am - french toast breakfast

11:22 - On 4-West heading to Largo (near tampa)

12:37pm - stopped for gas near tampa at 2,063.5
23.3 MPG, $39.04

1:03 - sign says "Long bridge ahead, check gas"

1:15 - Bridge was 5.4 miles long

1:30 - At Largo city hall - Carrie went to mall and K-Mart

2:30 - Cory is done at Largo city hall

2:55 - Stopping at library

4:09 - Back at long bridge leaving Largo

4:43 - Stop and go traffic (bleh!)

5:14 - traffic jam lets up - half hour to go 5 miles


Friday, March 30

? - omlets for breakfast, dropped boys off at fun spot around noon, then went to downtown disney where nick slid and slid.  Some chicken nuggets, pretzel dogs

4:48 pm - Rush hour traffic jam on 192 near our resort.  Stop-and-stop traffic.

5:15 - took 1/2 hour to go a few hundred yards

8:00 - picked up the boys at Fun Spot

8:20 - Got last tank of gas before heading home at 2,319 miles
21.9 MPG, $31.08

10:16 - Picked up charcoal so we can cook some of the meat we have instead of throwing it away.  The light-in-the-bag charcoal is junk.  When half of the bag was ready to cook the other half hadn't even lit yet. By the time it was all ready there was only enough cooking time left for 6 hamburgers.


Saturday, March 31

9:09 am - Leaving the resort gates heading home

10:21 - Slow traffic immediately on hitting I-75, caused by a copy having someone pulled over way to the side of the road where it shouldn't affect traffic at all.

11:20-11:30 - Accident in south bound lane smashed guard rail and sent debris into north bound lane.  Fortunately we hit it just after the accident and not after traffic backed up.

12:07 pm - stopped on Hwy 90 for lunch. Ate at krystal, raw chicken, got stamps, mailed post cards. Stefan can't tell diet coke from regular.

1:45 - Back on highway

2:21 - Hit Georgia

2:47-2:57 - Traffic jam caused by people reading traffic notice sign

3:10 - finished another traffic jam - old people who can't understand that the RIGHT lane is the slow lane

3:38 - Another traffic jam - Cop had someone pulled over which apparently causes cars to slow down to around 25 MPH

3:39 - Another one due to lane ending - Truck with wsnielsonskylight.com (#16?) had to pull part way into right lane to stop a bunch of vans from flying down right lane (which was ending) to try to leap-frog ahead of everyone else.

3:55 - More traffic jams on I-75 - heading out over to 41 to try to bypass them.

4:14 - Gas at 2,645 miles
23.8 MPG, $35.48

Pump is old model with a single hose (only one regular pump) and it resets when the next person uses it so you have remember to tell the clerk how much you put in.  Bathrooms were NASTY

4:30 - Stopped down the road at a different gas station to use bathroom. Still not great but not terrible as far as gas station bathrooms go.  Annoyingly we passed some really nice looking stations with gas as much as $0.10/gal less just 5-10 miles down the road.

4:42 - Back on road after bathroom break

6:14 - Stopped on side road near state park to put sun-guard on window. Sun was waking nick up.  Also rain-Xed the windshield before we hit the rain that is supposed to be coming.  We're taking 75 into KY to try to avoid the worst of the rains instead of the route we came down on.

7:00 - after several more traffic jams heading into Atlanta we decided to try to take 81 accross to 41 and get onto bypass but navigation error got us lost in the countryside and Atlanta suburbs until 8:30 when we hit I-85 N into Atlanta.  (Locals don't know where they are either or which maps show the area.)

9:00 - Stopped at McD and Checkers to get dinner.  Carrie is racist.


Sunday, April 1

12:45 am - Stopped off exit 81 near Knoxville to get gas and a hotel room.  Out of 4 hotels only one had a single smoking room.  The others were full.

12:58 - filled tank at 3,021 miles
27.7 MPG (best so far this trip), $34.00

2:30 - After several exists and full hotels plus a call to Choice, we finally found one with a room that had two beds.  Internet didn't work.

10:15am - Everybody up.  Updating log so we can free up memory on the phones for today's trip.  Foothills (?) look pretty cool with tops hidden in the clouds.  Could see Super 8's wireless but too weak of a signal to connect.

11:00am - stopped in front of super-8.  Can get online here. Can't get it, it's not working so were on our way to try to find a Sonic or a Krystals to have Breakfast/lunch. On North 75 now. 

Noon - We just found a Krystals so we stopped to eat. The boys got Burgar King and Cory and I got Krystals.  Were using the internet here.  Were in Williamsburg, KY right now heading home on 75 North.  Nick is being the best little boy ever. I am just shocked at how well he has been on this trip.  I am very proud of him!  I will update either when I get home...or if it's to late I will update tomorrow with some pics too! 

1:00 pm- Heading back on I-75 North now.