Governor Desantis! I thought I recognized your foul stench when I crossed the state line...
Greetings from the Sunshine State!
We're here for the week - checking in on my aged aunt and the family compound here at Greenacre City. We'll be making our way up to Disney on Tuesday afternoon to spend some time with Javi at the Happiest Place on Earth.
Running up and down ol' Interstate 95 once again. Friday we had possibly the best drive I've ever had from Boston through New York City. It was Veteran's Day - absolutely no traffic on the GWB. Sailed across, and even met a co-worker at Molly Pitcher, as they had the same vacation time and were headed the same way, for Washington DC.
We did just fine to our Capitol City, then all hell broke loose. We didn't even clear the beltway and we were in bumper-to-bumper traffic. I knew we'd see the remnants of Nicole, and we were in some intermittent rain starting around Baltimore, but the 100 miles to Richmond were utterly disgusting.
It felt like there was an accident every five miles or so, plus a big multi-car pileup involving two tractor-trailers on the northbound side that backed southbound for easily 30 miles.
We lost three hours getting past the old capitol of the Confederacy, but after that the road did open up. We reached our motel more than two hours after we planned, but we did arrive safely.
Yesterday was a much nicer run. We were off early. I was expecting to see Pedro and South of the Border in all it's neon glory, but it seemed old and tired this time. We didn't even see a road sign until we were about 25 miles out. Seemed to be a shell of its former self.
Of course, we had all the delightful billboards in South Carolina to look forward to. I DID repent my sins, I didn't scream; we called Akim, and on several occasions we did EXIT NOW.
Florida was wide open - but heading down to West Palm, I-95 felt like the autobahn. I had the cruise control set at 75, but nearly everybody was passing me like I was standing still. The car we rented actually had Florida plates, so I stopped playing nice and moved up to relativistic speeds for the rest of the run, too.
So here we are. After a brutal trolley season, I lounged around by the pool all day today, baked myself to a crisp, and was pleased to learn that I still remember how to swim.