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December 5th 2011
Published: December 5th 2011
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Don't tease the gators?Don't tease the gators?Don't tease the gators?

We saw this outside our apartment's back porch.
I thought it would be best to start my blog at the beginning of our journey. Even though this was several days ago now, we got up early, finished packing, and were on the road by 7:00. Traffic was not that bad going from Columbus to Cincinnati. From Cincinnati we crossed into Kentucky and ran into our first rain/sleet. Thankfully this was scattered and didn't cause us any problems. Traveling in Kentucky was uneventful and we crossed into Tennessee at this point things started to turn mountinous. Traffic got a little crazier with speeds reaching up into the upper 70s. Eventually we made our way into Georigia. This was about the nine hour point of driving, and we decided to push through Atlanta that night rather than try to fight the morning traffic. Let me tell you, for someone like me who isn't used to driving in big cities Atlanta even at a nonpeak time is a hair raising experience.

We ended up at a little hotel for the night. Nothing terrible, but nothing remarkable either. The next morning we again woke up early, we crossed into Florida and decided to meet friends in Ocala. We walked around a mall
White sand beachWhite sand beachWhite sand beach

One view of Clearwater Beach.
for a couple hours while we waited for them to finish work for the day. We got a hotel around 3:00 and met them for dinner around 6:00. Sonny's BBQ was very good, if you're in the Ocala area I would recommend it to you. The pork and brisket were particularly excellent. We ended up talking for a couple hours and didn't get back to the hotel until 9:30.

On the third day we made it to Tampa, and made it to the apartment complex. We knew that we wouldn't be able to move for a couple more days, but one of the staff was nice enough to show us through their "model apartment". It seemed very livable. Although there was a very interesting sign... After showing us around she said that it would be fine for us to leave my car. So with a few hours to burn we decided to go to Clearwater Beach. It was very pretty. After lunch and a walk on the beach, we decided to drive to Orlando, because Stephanie's Mom and Dad, who had been helping with the driving, had a flight the next day. So we drove the hour to get
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So glad there's no snow.
there and found a very nice Fairfield Inn and Suites. After we had settled in we decided to have dinner at the Ale House. Everyone seemed to enjoy their food. I know I really liked the Fajita that I ordered. When we finished with dinner we decided to take a walk, and ended up at Downtown Disney. We ended up buying a couple of the Disney pins, and kind of wandered for an hour or two. Before we left Stephanie and I ordered a couple of smoothies from Earl of Sandwich. I have to say the Banana Strawberry and Chocolate Banana were really great. So we walked back to the hotel and got a good night's sleep.

Our adventures continue, but I'll tell you about them later!


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This kind of made me laugh.


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