Both my husband K and I were up before 6:30, even though we hadn't set an alarm. Perhaps, we were still on Iceland time.
We went to the front office of the hotel for breakfast, and were disappointed that they did not have the waffles that had been promised in the ad. There was just cold cereal, juice, old bananas, and coffee. So, that didn't take long.
I'd learned the trick for getting our hotel room door open, when the handle seemed to be stuck. I was not going to miss dealing with that. We were on the road at 7:50, with the odometer reading 65,654)
It was just 9:14 (65,733), when we reached the Georgia border. We pulled into the the Georgia Welcome Center at 9:20 (65,735). There were lovely flowers outside. Inside, besides the usual brochures, they had all kinds of things for you to pose in or with, such as a streetcar or a bench with Forrest Gump. A truly fun welcome center!
When we got going again at 9:33, the sky was quite pretty. But, soon, we ran into heavy rain, which turned out to be an off and on phenomena. When we stopped at 10:38 ( 65,808) at a Shell station at Exit 38, it was not raining. Diesel was $3.149 per gallon and car took 12.868 gallons. Since we'd traveled 518.6 miles since the last fill up, the car got a terrific 40.315 miles per gallon.
I was driving, when we left there at 10:54. By 11:25, we had dark clouds and solid traffic. Within minutes, it was raining again. And in 3 minutes, we crossed the Florida border (65,847). By 11:34, the rain had stopped again.
By 12:30, K was getting hungry. So, we got off I-95 at the exit for the St. Augustine outlet centers and drove west to Sonny's BBQ (65,912). I was not happy with the 12 minute we waited to even be acknowledged in the foyer or the fact that most people weren't wearing masks. I'd convinced K to bail and he'd gone to use the rest room before we left, when a waitress finally came and took me to a table. K finally found me. I ordered a Coke Zero, a Sweet Carolina, which was pulled pork with cole slaw on top and Carolina sauce, and fries as part of "Make it a Deal" for $12.59. K went for iced tea, a beef brisket sandwich, and a baked sweet potato as a "Big Deal", also for $12.59. I do not understand that pricing. Anyway, both were delicious, although mine dripped a lot.
When the waitress came to check on us, K remarked on how many waitresses were working. She said that that was why today was her last day at this restaurant. She couldn't get enough hours here because they had so many waitresses. She was transferring to a different location.
It was 1:39, before I pulled out of the parking lot again. The rain seemed to be over as I drove along. There was still a lot of traffic.
At 2:34 (65,967), we saw yet another BUC-EE's and thought it would be a good for a pit stop. This one was at exit 265 in Daytona. Just like the one we'd visited on the first day of the trip, the parking lot was huge and there were numerous gas pumps. There were also plenty of signs saying no trucks. I've never seen a place that big that didn't want trucks. We looked around at the food and K was rather happy to see that the bakery had kolaches. They were only $1.37 each and we got pecan pie, apple, strawberry cream cheese, and cherry. I was taken by the fudge and got a mixed four piece box of chocolate and dark chocolate caramel for $13.96. The woman cutting the fudge was a former teacher, who had left out of fear of Covid. Finally, we picked up a bag of Cinnamon Sweet Beaver Nuggets ($1.39) that a friend had recommended. It was 2:58, when I got back behind the wheel. I had to maneuver us around an accident that had obviously occurred when one vehicle decided to cut the other off to get in the parking lot.
The drive now was a familiar one and uneventful. We crossed the Seminole County line at 3:29. Unfortunately, the odometer now read an unexciting 66,001. If only it had been one mile sooner!
We knew we needed milk and bread. So, we stopped at Winn Dixie at 3:56 (66,022). Of course, we wound up getting more than that during the 18 minute stop.
At 4:20, I pulled into our driveway. The odometer read 66,023. We'd put 1994 miles on the car on this trip that went through 5 states and the District of Columbia and back. I have no idea how many miles we covered in Iceland in the bus, but we certainly walked a lot of miles. After an 18-month break since our last trip in December, 2019, this was a great way to get back to traveling.
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