April 30 – From Georgia to Florida

Today I awoke in the Hotel a little after 7 and quickly got ready, after which I awoke Isaac (who was, as always, reluctant to wake up). After we were both ready we began to pack everything into it’s appropriate bag. We finished this speedily and after a quick check to make sure we had everything we took all of our bags, packed them into the car and left to visit the family one last time before leaving. We got to Lewis’ place at about 8:30 where he asked us to see if we could hook up a DVD/VCR player to his TV. We took on the task and after a half an hour of more of working around with it we got it working and left to get doughnuts (It is Saturday after all). Before getting doughnuts we dropped by Lewis’ work (a bar which let us in because it was before opening). It was a nice place with what I can only describe as a potted garden in the back room and collections of various pictures, statues, and other such things all around. We then went on to Dunkin Doughnuts for our special Saturday Morning Breakfast. We all got what we wanted and then talked about everything while we ate them.

Once we were done the five of us went outside to get pictures with everyone. After a few different poses including different people, Lewis said goodbye and left for work. The remaining four of us went back to Lewis’ apartment, where my car was parked, and after a sorrowful goodbye and a much too kind parting gift from Orman and Frances (thank you again), Isaac and I got back on the road.

Today I drove the whole trip, from Atlanta to Daytona Beach. We passed by a swamp which we attempted to check out but after seeing the cost and noticing that the boat tours were closed we decided to continue on. Other than this the drive only consisted of the long road turning plenty and always surrounded by trees, and the occasional stop for gas or Ice. Oh almost forgot, at our stop for ice at a Wal-Mart I realized that the tube used to drain our ice chest wasn’t doing its job so we took everything out, poured out the dirty water (along with all the bad food inside due to my forgetfulness in replacing the ice), and fixed the problem. It was an easy enough fix but took awhile to figure out how to move everything to fix it.

At a  little after 7 we arrived in Daytona Beach. We made a short stop to see the beach itself before driving to our hosts house which turned out to be a short two blocks from the house. We decided to give “Couchsurfing” (If you don’t know what it is go to couchsurfing.org and look around on there) its first try, and so at the beginning of the week I contacted David, our host, about staying at his house. He was reluctant at first about letting two not reviewed couchsurfers stay at his place but after a short time decided that he was willing to give us a place to stay. His house is beautiful and he is letting us use the guest bed and one of the couches in his front room. So far Couchsurfing is working out very well and I can only thank David for letting us stay here.

After we got situated at the house, Isaac and I walked down to the beach for an evening stroll. I wanted to walk out on the boardwalk but it so happened to be closed for renovation so we just followed to beach north for a while. Since we both hadn’t ate since our morning doughnuts we decided to drop in somewhere and get some dinner and after some looking we decided on Quiznos. The food we got was good and after finishing it we decided to walk the ways back to the house.

Part of the way down we both got distracted by a street performer who was juggling all kinds of crazy things: Flaming batons (or something that was on fire), Machetes, and other sure to be sharp and dangerous things. The show was definitely exciting but almost as entertaining were some of the kids reactions to the things he was juggling. After he had finished we walked back to the house. We both noticed the beautiful, cloudless night sky and decided to stay on the porch for a while, reading and admiring the stars. Eventually we both made it all the way in and here we lay, me writing this and Isaac having fallen asleep while reading what couldn’t have been an extremely interesting book.

 

Interesting Observations:

Hopefully I can remember them all, it’s been a long day. The first needs no explanation though:

I’m not sure if bees have knees but apparently trees do:

To preface this I must first state that outside of Utah there is a lot more use of flashing yellow or red lights to work as respective yield or stop signs. We I’ve come to realize just how severe my inability to tell the difference between yellow and red traffic lights is because of this. Every time we’d pass by one I’d have to ask Isaac what color it was.