A Long, Seemingly Never Ending Drive Through Florida

Driving Florida

Slow Beauty of A Florida's Long Cut

 Well, it's 7:33 and we are in Florida, finally, and its either overcast or foggy at the moment, no sunrise apparent at the moment.  I assume it's supposed to be sunny and warm later, what else in Florida, right.

Yesterday was an utter bore, one very long day in the car.  We forget how long is the State of Florida.  Once you hit the Florida line you think you are finally there, but it depends on where 'there' is.  And in the case of Sanibel Island, it's another six plus hours of four lane highways.  And, of course, we took a couple of wrong turns, plus what I assume would be called a long cut, so we must have added close to an hour to our trip, just what we wanted. We also picked the only back road that was down to one lane, and we waited to get by for at least fifteen minutes.  Anyways, we left about 7:00 from Columbia, South Carolina, had some traffic on #95 but it was not bad, the same for most of our way through Florida.

With My Sister, Linda, Sanibel Island

We have been to the Ft Myers area many times before as well as Sanibel, but the last time we were down must have been twenty years ago because I recognized street names, but not the area as it has built up so much.  Traffic was horrendous in the other direction, not bad in ours, as people seemed to be fleeing Sanibel and the beaches, heading home.  We finally pulled into my sister Linda and brother in law Rich's condo at 6:30, happy to finally arrive.  I am not sure why the trip seemed so long this time, perhaps because we are getting older, maybe less patient, or I just forgot.

Rich and His Amazing Shell Collection

The condo is on the third floor, two bedrooms, with a great porch that has an expansive view of the beach and ocean.  They have rented in this condominium many times but this is their favorite apartment, with morning sun, nicely furnished.  We sat out on the porch before dinner, enjoying the setting sun, with drinks of course, before dinner, a great way to end the day.  For dinner, Linda made a great pasta, with shrimp, tomatoes and feta cheese.  With bread and a salad, we were all happy to be in Florida.  All were tired so we went to bed around 10:30, looking forward to what today will bring, the sun, we hope, and warm ocean waters.

Banded Tulip Shells

Whelks, True Tulips, Banded Tulips

It's now 8:00, still very foggy, with moisture on all the windows, so it will be awhile before the sun burns off the gray, brings the blue skies.