Florida Back Roads Adventures

For some reason we are unable to sleep late.  Up by 5:00 a.m., breakfast at 6:00 a.m. and on the road by 7:15.  Since I had forgotten to get my Florida map from the motorhome, we decided to take rural roads to where we knew a Welcome to Florida Visitor's Center was located for a map.  Unfortunately, we didn't take into account that it would not be open until 9:00 a.m. and it was only 8:00 a.m.   We did get some pictures and then turned south.  We were forced to go with technology and use my Google Maps to guide us.

This is rural Alabama.

This is the Old Georgia/Florida Parkway.  Travelers would drive this road before the interstates were constructed.  It is a very nice divided four-lane highway through the rural side of western Florida.  We discovered it when we were driving to Inverness to visit our friends Jim and Karen Peyton.  The Peyton's were traveling themselves so we did stop by but loved this road so much that we decided to take it as far south as we could to Auburndale.  It  did take a lot longer but was so much more relaxing.  There are a few towns but it was worth it.  

I saw this street sign and loved the idea of taking this street to follow my dream.

There was a lot of road construction but we finally made it to the Best Western in Auburndale at 6:00 p.m.  We checked in and then went back out to find some place to eat.  We ate at a Hungry Howie's.  We had never eaten at one and are happy to report that it is good.  We had pizza and had more than enough to bring back to the room for later.

We are tired but settled back in the room.  This is our fourth day on the road in our car and staying in motels.  There are both positive and negative things about traveling in a car.  On the negative side is having so many bags to carry into the room....a suitcase for clothes, a hanging clothes bag, a bag for medicines (meds, hearing aid stuff, blood pressure monitor, etc), a bag for technology (I-pad, laptop, chargers, etc.) a bag for miscellaneous needs (books, puzzle books, etc.)  All of that has to be brought into the room and back to the car the next day.  In the motorhome it would all be in its own drawer, etc.  On the positive side:  no meal preparation, beds to make, driving a car at 28 MPG (compared to 7 MPG), and the flexibility to stop anywhere at anytime.  I guess sit will take time to get used to this new way to travel and I think we will for the most part, enjoy it.