This is a public service announcement. With Guitar.

[cyrano]

Day 5 recap:
The plan as of now is to pack as much as possible tonight, go to bed quite early, get up quite early, get some actual breakfast before hitting the road, and possibly get as far as Gainesville. If we’re very lucky WR will get to have dinner with her father before he goes out of town again.

Day 6:
We are not very lucky. We are in Madison, sort of half way between where we’d initially planned to stop and where we’d hoped to stop.
Last night I went to the hotel gym and put a productive mile and a half on the treadmill in an effort to make me sleepier. It renewed my desire to get one of my own if I ever have the space--I could read or watch tv and still be doing something exercise like. But I don’t think it made me sleepier. I’m pretty sure we were up until at least midnight, the both of us, trying to sleep. And I was up at two, five-thirty and possibly a few other times as well. I blame the baro changes brought on by the lightning storm.
So the next morning we were both tired and stupid. It turns out that showing up on time for breakfast isn’t that much more rewarding. There was goo to make waffles with and orange juice that we missed out on the first day. We got all our stuff together, the bellboy and I went down with the kitty cage, and then I sat by the car and waited while people made unpleasant faces at me because the front of the hotel can park three cars if one hangs out over the sidewalk, and the one in front of me wasn’t moving and I certainly wasn’t until I at least got a WR. The bags would also have been nice.
About ten minutes later, I called up to the room and bestirred the hotel staff as the busboy had apparently forgotten that we had two loads of luggage. So between sleeping in and waiting to check out, we didn’t get on the road as soon as we’d planned but were still out by ten.
Following ambiguous and circuitous directions, we finally discovered the onramp to I-10 and were happily on our way. The states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama flew under our wheels and by lunch time we’d landed in Florida. Alas, this was about as much energy as we could muster. Both of us sleepy and tired, we decided not to try and take Gainesville tonight, and instead we’d struggle on to Tallahassee and collapse there. Punchy and high on caffeine, we navigated the snarl of road and traffic around the La Quinta, where they said “This weekend is graduation. No room! No room!” We wailed, and then went to fuel up and look elsewhere, and then discovered that WR’s wallet had gone on walkabout. This provoked much consternation and a general failure to concentrate on either of our parts. We went back to the hotel where we discovered the missing wallet, though, and crossed under the highway to try the other side ‘just in case’.
But it was to no avail. The front door clearly stated ‘No Pets’ and so we didn’t even go inside. We just headed on down the road, like Jack Kerouac but with pansy-ass drugs and no hippies playing guitar. (Instead we got Joe Strummer.) Just as it looked like we were going to have to go as far as Lake City, overshooting our connection with I-75, we stumbled upon the township of Midian where (we discovered later) the Jervis family was having a reunion. Luckily for us, the Jervis family is fairly small and only filled up the Holiday Inn. Down the road, at Day’s Inn, we got our cheapest room yet and it came with a refrigerator and a microwave, amenities all the others have thus far been lacking. No internet, but somehow I survived without the company of all you wonderful folks.
Across the highway was a farm which had llamas and emus--alternative farming is alive and well in northern Florida. There was a Denny’s on the other side of the parking lot from the hotel, and so we stopped in for dinner. Alas, WR’s French Toast had been invaded by something quite vile. (Mouldy bread? A large pocket of unadulterated cinnamon powder? We don’t know. WR: It was FOUL. Took two attacks with the toothbrush and half a tin of Altoids to get the taste out of my mouth and settle my stomach.) It was the final straw on an already overworked camel, even though they gave her a free milkshake (which I was forced to drink). We drove the six miles into the actual township of Madison and wandered around the streets until the attendant at the most popular gas station in town gave us directions to the Winn Dixie, where we got microwave soup and frozen mac’n’cheese.
Then it was back to our room for a dose of reality television (WR: I made him watch “While You Were Out” on TLC, aren’t I cruel?) and some decompression and then bed.

Day 7 (Part the First):
We have arrived here in Florida in WindRose’s very own house. Last time I was in the state it was in Clearwater, which is up the road a piece. ‘A piece’ is one of the charming southern linguistisms that have worked their way into my speech patterns since I left San Francisco, as is ‘my own self’.
We were completely decadent and didn’t even set the alarm last night, and just woke up when we felt like it. We loaded up, said adios to the llamas and emu, and hit the road. A telling point is that the sprinkles of rain outside of Tampa are actually noteworthy--the drive was pretty much without event.
We crossed Manatee River, turned off on the state road, and drove through scenic downtown Bradenton. WR showed me where all the Denny’s Restaurants were that she misspent her youth in, and then we turned off into her lovely residential neighborhood. The yard is large and verdant, and I spent some quality time admiring it while waiting for her brother and nephew showed up with house keys. Then I got to go inside (blessed blessed air conditioning) and admire the huge closets and spacious rooms before unloading the car.
Saved a Coke from the little plastic cooler and plugged in the laptop to hunt for unprotected wireless networks. Alas, the neighborhood is apparently heavily Luddite. But the Coke is icy cold.

Day 7(Part the Second):
We went out and I received a brief tour of the parts of WR’s childhood that did not involve Denny’s, and then went shopping for groceries to keep her fed and happy until the movers arrive with The Rest of The Stuff on Monday afternoon. (And holy crap! They had Ginger Beer! Stuarts!) Back to the house, where there was unloading and redecorating and a call to Golden Wok for dinner, which was way better and less expensive than the Golden Wok back home.
Tony was wonderfully helpful and gave me two locations that would get me wireless access, so I hung out in a StarBucks for hours and got a T-Mobile account. I was in a hurry to get out and get online because I was worried all the shuttle places would be closed and I’d be forced to hitchhike to the airport tomorrow morning and hope a burly driver took a fancy to me.
Stupid stupid me. The trouble was not finding one in time. It was finding one that came to Bradenton. I panicked and stressed and did not in fact lose my shit and break down in the middle of Starbucks. And about half an hour into looking at how much a taxi would cost, I got a phone call from a guy whose website I’d been on earlier, and he said that for only an obscene price, he could be here at 5:30 to pick me up. (That’s 2:30 for you folks at home, earlier even than I usually get up for work.)
Anyway. I have to go back to the house so I can enjoy the newness of the house before I have to go.