The sunshiny state

I am writing this from unknown territory.  I have, dear companions and reluctant readers (plus a stalker or two), made it to Florida!  I am sitting in Kat’s van, with no one really talking much.  The music of Anthony Snape plays from the stereo; Kat is reading some beyond-thick book in the front seat, and Lauren is writing on her own laptop on the seat beside me.  I don’t think we’re this quiet very often, so this moment should probably be savored.  Especially by Kat’s mom, who has been driving for the past day-and-a-half.

I know you’re dying for a recap of what’s happened so far, so here goes.  I got my hair cut and highlighted (red) on the morning of the sixth at The Loft, a lovely salon in downtown Hannibal near Java Jive (where I spend quite a bit of my time, despite the main product they sell).  Then we left from there and headed to St. Louis to pick up Kat’s cousin Marin before going to the wonders of Barnes & Noble.  I was originally going to buy Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates, which I have been meaning to buy ever since I saw the movie (a Titanic “reunion” with Kate Winslet, Leonardo diCaprio, and Kathy Bates), as well as Candide by Voltaire, but I changed my mind.  I ended up buying a planner for college this Fall, as well as a Russian language map—exciting, right?  Well, at least the language map is.

We then went to Belleville, Illinois to spend the night at Kat’s grandmother’s place.  After a hot and largely sleepless night, we left at around 7:30 the next morning at ate at Cracker Barrel about an hour away.  (French toast and hash browns—yum.)  Then we drove, and drove, and drove.  We reached the hotel in Ringold, Georgia around whatever time we got there and almost immediately jumped into the indoor pool.  The hot tub was lovely!  We all played around in the pool, and it was quite fun picking everyone up and throwing them, as well as being thrown myself.  Teehee.

The next morning we left at 7:30 again.  I wasn’t feeling too hot, so I skipped out on breakfast and stared uselessly at my laptop wishing the hotel’s Wi-Fi would work again.  Around eleven, however, I finally got hungry so we stopped at McDonald’s in some random city in Georgia.  While they all got the horrors of iced coffee, I treated myself to the pleasures of chicken nuggets and French fries.

Then we drove some more!  About twenty or so miles from the Georgia/Florida border we stopped at Old South Barbecue, which a pretty small place off the highway.  They told us it was closed, but when they realized that we (well, not so much me) only stop there once a year on the way to and from Florida, they let us in to eat.  Oooh, it was so good!  But there were elk and deer heads on the wall, so that was kind of creepy.

Now, basically, here we are.  We crossed the border not too long ago, and we just took an exit leading to Jacksonville (where we’re staying for the night) and Tallahassee, which is where my sister was born.  We’ll reach the condo at New Smyrna Beach tomorrow afternoon, but for now I’m just looking forward to Wi-Fi at the hotel tonight.

Aaaand that’s about it.  Hopefully this will get posted tonight.  If not . . . try to survive.

Friday, July 8, 2011 – 4:16 p.m.

 Continued - 6:07 p.m.
We made it to Jacksonville, Florida alive!  HUZZAH!