To Englewood, FL - 41-03

January 3, 2004 (Sat) Englewood, FL - We awoke early to the crowing of a rooster in a nearby farm. At first it was fun and gave the morning some atmosphere. But after an hour or so it began to get tiring. At 7:00, we finally had to get up. At 9:25, after breakfast and chores, we were on the road again. At 9:45 we were lost! When we came up on a "T" intersection and the road in both directions was dirt, we knew we weren't at the I-75 ramp. Mark fired up the computer, used the GPS to find out where we were and dictated the route for Joy to write down. And ended up even more lost. Again the GPS and computer showed us where we were and how to get back to the highway. This time Joy suppressed her aversion to the computer with it's inhuman voice and threat of it taking over her job as navigator to hold it on her lap while it directed us through the Florida boondocks. At one point it calmly told us that we'd made a wrong turn - before we'd gone more than 100 yards! Amazing!

We called Carol, our son-in-law's mother, when we'd finally gotten back on I-75 and made arrangements to see her on the way through Palm Harbor (north of Tampa, FL). Northbound traffic was backed up over 14 miles near where the Florida turnpike comes into I-75. We hadn't noticed why, so couldn't offer any response to the CD queries. No one else could either so we never found out what was going on.

Otherwise it was an uneventful trip. We got to Bom's (Joy's Mother) at about 3:30 and banished Q to the bank parking lot. We will be here until the 12th.

A sign on the back of a large fifth wheel - "Grandpa and Grandma's Play House"
Advice on a Budget rent a moving truck - "Don't pack the dog and cat in the same box."
A vanity license plate - "CASKET"
Another one - "BOXMAKR" (Sounds like a trend)

Q056731 (310mi) SunTrust Bank parking lot (parked)