Miles traveled as of Day Eleven: 5496
At about 2:45am, I was parking Joaquin outside of Deb's house in Florida. My journey had come to an end. I was kind of sad that this would be the last day of driving and that I wouldn't be able to just keep going. It's true that I was starting to run out of land, but I'm sure I could have doubled back on myself and headed up the eastern coast, right?
On the other hand, it was going to be really nice to not have to get up and go.
My final day of driving began, once again, a little bit later than I intended. I knew I wanted to get an early start so that I could watch the Germany-Spain game and still meet up with Erin for dinner in Gainesville. I also had to factor in the time change. Once again, it's really odd to be driving and one minute it's 12:30 and the next minute it's 1:30pm. Weird.
Before I left the Red Roof Inn in Panama City, I had a short conversation with the woman at the front desk. I asked her about the oil spill and if it had affected them in Panama City at all. According to her, they haven't seen any of the oil since it is farther west. They have had a few oil recovery workers stay at the Red Roof Inn, but that was the extent of it. As I drove along the gulf coast, I really didn't notice anything and there seemed to be a good number of tourists out and about (and in the water).
The final day of driving was pretty freaking hot. Temperatures were well into the 90s and I thought of my nephew Chris as I passed the Tyndall Air Force Base. It's beautiful to be right here on the water, but hot as sin. Hopefully basic training will be in a more temperate location.
As I powered on through to Gainesville, I listened to the soccer game, figuring that I would find a place to stop, eat, and watch the second half of the game. To my amazement, I found no such place on the way, so I had to content myself with simply listening to the game and watching highlights later. It turns out that it was a bit of an ugly game, so I didn't miss that much.
I finally got to Gainesville around 6:30pm and got to see Erin's place. Erin was one of my advisees at Stanford - she was actually Advisee of the Year for four straight years. (Some of you may wonder what that means - I did an annual dinner for my current and former advisees complete with awards. She won all four years while she was in college.) She's about to leave for Duke to do a Physician's Assistant (PA) program, so it was good to catch her before she left. We went to a place called The Top for dinner (which in San Francisco would be a gay bar next to a place called The Bottom) and the whole place was reminiscent of the type of restaurant I'd eat at in SF. The food was eclectic, the atmosphere a bit hipster, and the service was variable, though we got a great server (named Josh - obviously he was great). I was going to order "That Spicy Peanut Dish" but the blackened catfish with collard greens and jalapeno grits looked too good to pass up. It was very tasty.
After bidding Erin adieu, I started the five hour drive through the center of Florida. Around Orlando, I stopped to get gas and the whole area terrified me because it felt ultra-touristy. Shortly thereafter, I made my GPS explode because I insisted on driving down the coastal freeway (I-95) rather than the turnpike.
And then before I knew it, I was in Fort Lauderdale and my driving journey had ended.
I still have more thoughts to share from the trip and I'm going to send links to maps that show my exact route, so stay tuned for those updates (trying to do one or two a day until I make it through all of it).
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