{"id":10750,"date":"2015-01-26T11:33:28","date_gmt":"2015-01-26T17:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/?p=10750"},"modified":"2015-01-26T11:33:28","modified_gmt":"2015-01-26T17:33:28","slug":"florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/uncategorized\/florida\/","title":{"rendered":"FLORIDA!"},"content":{"rendered":"

i realize as i type that many of my posts now have a !!! at the end.\u00a0 it’s funny, because when amy and i text each other, we almost always end our sentences with !!!, but have talked about how we do this with many or most texts, but don’t usually feel the !!! that should accompany it.<\/p>\n

anyway…FLORIDA!!!\u00a0 despite the lingering feelings of dislike for that very very long drive to florida, i’d jump in the car right now and head back, if kevin said “grace, let’s go!”<\/p>\n

but i’d change out of my jammies first.<\/p>\n

we left at 7:13 in the morning on december 29th, soooo early for me.\u00a0 i bought my camcorder with me, but the only thing i ended up actually filming was our departure.\u00a0 so at least i don’t have to worry about editing any videos.<\/p>\n

it appeared to be a 17 1\/2 hour drive to our destination in fort myers, so we figured it might take 20 hours.\u00a0 i decided to book a hotel for the night on the road, in macon, GA.\u00a0 on google maps it said it’d take 10 1\/2 hours to get there, so we figured, eleven and a half hours, that wouldn’t be so bad.<\/p>\n

it was great, driving into warmer and warmer weather….until we hit chattanooga.<\/p>\n

i’ve never had a bucket list, although one of my goals for the year is to get one, but now i do have one thing on the list.\u00a0 NEVER DRIVE THROUGH CHATTANOOGA AGAIN.<\/p>\n

i was at the wheel as we drove down down down the mountains to get into chattanooga.\u00a0 kevin had me shift down to a lower gear so as to not have to ride the brakes the entire way.\u00a0 it was also kind of raining.\u00a0 plus lots of trucks.\u00a0 most of my worst driving on highways conditions.\u00a0 at least it wasn’t dark – that would have sent me over the edge.\u00a0 hopefully not literally.<\/p>\n

we finally got into chattanooga and TOTAL GRIDLOCK.\u00a0 ugh.\u00a0 we stopped, we crept along, and it was taking forever, so we got off the highway and drove through town as it got darker.\u00a0 it was nice to be off the highway for a while, anyway.<\/p>\n

we got back on, and it was a couple more hours to atlanta, and by that time it was completely dark and thank god kevin was driving because the traffic became so, so horrible, with so many semis zinging all around us.\u00a0 i was pretty sure that the end of our lives was imminent, as a double-long semi swayed and swerved into our lane and i said MAYBEWE SHOULD GET OUTTA THIS LANE and kevin whipped out of the lane and it was a tense situation and not pretty.<\/p>\n

but somehow we made it through,\u00a0 and after 13 hours in the car we finally got to our hotel.<\/p>\n

we were very, very happy to be there.<\/p>\n

here’s kevin, enjoying an icy cold near beer after dragging many heavy things including our camping fridge up to our room on the 2nd floor of the hotel.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

in the morning i had to take a picture of this waterfall thing in the lobby because it was so cool.\u00a0 i want one.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

meanwhile…we were already missing our darling kitties, and amy sent me this funny photo of les paul.\u00a0 yawning, he looked like he was ready to bite somebody.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

this day of driving was supposed to be seven hours, so we figured that we’d certainly get to our campsite before dark.\u00a0 we were staying at the Koreshan State Historic Site in Estero, FL, right next to ft. myers, and more about that place later.<\/p>\n

traffic wasn’t so bad, but it seemed that once we hit florida, it was nothing but huge campers all driving down to the promised land.<\/p>\n

and then…traffic started to crawl.<\/p>\n

and then…stopped.\u00a0 again.\u00a0 at least now the grass was green and it was in the 70s, but still…stopped on the highway.\u00a0 we saw a sign that said we could call 511 for a traffic report, which i obsessively started doing every 20 minutes or so.\u00a0 as we drove, the number of incidents on our highway increased.\u00a0 i think there had been an accident an hour or so previously, which caused the massive amounts of cars to stop, which caused the ripple effect.<\/p>\n

as we inched along we despaired at getting to our camp before dark.\u00a0 i called the forest ranger there,\u00a0 who said “don’t rush,” like that was an option, and that we’d be fine if we got there by 6:00; even though the official sunset was 5:45, we’d have plenty of light for setting up if we got there by six.<\/p>\n

we finally pulled in at 6:15.\u00a0 pitch dark.\u00a0 at least we didn’t have to maneuver one of those huge RVs into our spot, and we did an OK job of setting everything up, and luckily also the popup camper doesn’t have that many steps for the setup.\u00a0 but the minute we got out of the van, many bugs started attacking my arms.\u00a0 hmm, when mom and i went to ft. myers last years, we didn’t encounter any flying bugs…but we weren’t deep in the vegetation like we were now.<\/p>\n

here’s kevin, happy to be in our camper which continued to be fairly cluttered the whole time we were there.\u00a0 we had too much stuff for the space, as usual.\u00a0 but it was fine, we made it alive, and it was warm and fabulous.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

yes, i was feeling about like that, completely crazy after all the driving.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

before we’d gone on our trip, i’d gone to the doctor and had a checkup with blood work.\u00a0 as we drove down to florida, the doctor’s office called to say that my LDL cholesterol – the bad one – was pretty high.\u00a0 so i texted this photo to amy, showing her all the very healthy foods i’d brought with me to help lower that cholesterol!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

i took this from bed on wednesday morning.\u00a0 just a little bit messy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

the view out the back window – can you spot the grapefruit all over the trees?\u00a0 nice.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

there was some vegetation separating us from the camper next door, including palm trees and scrub pine bushes.\u00a0 we didn’t see much of these neighbors – people in the park seemed to be either inside their air-conditioned motor homes, or gone.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

and the view of the other side.\u00a0 a woman and her dog were in this camper; she did sit outside quite a bit, and we saw her walking on the trail.\u00a0 she wasn’t that old, and all by herself – i wonder what her story was?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

our little home for seven of the nine nights in florida.\u00a0 we only saw one other popup on all the highways driving to florida, and the park was filled with RVs plus a small number of tents.\u00a0 nobody else opted for the in-between choice.\u00a0 one popup did pull in later in the week, but that’s all.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

even though i’d brought many summer clothes and all kinds of toiletries and stuff, i didn’t have a hand mirror.\u00a0 i thought i was very clever, creating this little makeup stand.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

we didn’t do a whole lot that day; we took a hike along the trail and quickly realized that there wasn’t much hiking there in the park.\u00a0 but this was a very pretty path, with lots of huge bamboo trees.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

jim sent us a picture of sunset on the lake.\u00a0 yes it was pretty here in spfld, but OH SO COLD.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

that is all for now.\u00a0 it’s starting to snow.<\/p>\n

LET’S GO BACK!!!<\/p>\n

ok then,<\/p>\n

gh<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

i realize as i type that many of my posts now have a !!! at the end.\u00a0 it’s funny, because when amy and i text each other, we almost always end our sentences with !!!, but have talked about how we do this with many or most texts, but don’t usually feel the !!! that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[105],"class_list":["post-10750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ft-myers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6JLYy-florida","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}