Arrival in Florida

We have been in Florida now for a while and have settled into a bit of a routine. We are staying at a Hilton Garden Inn which is a five minute walk from Megan’s apartment. She has lovely digs:  two bedrooms, two baths, great kitchen, washer/dryer in the apartment - all well laid out and stylish with more TVs than I’ve ever seen in an apartment. She has added some personal touches to make it feel more like home and she seems more than ready for the next big push. Last week they inserted a port in her chest where they will feed all the meds and other things that are best not discussed. She was in horrible pain for a few days but it is better now and she is happy that they have given her the all-clear for the next phase. 

Our digs are a bit more modest but just fine for what we need. We have a junior double suite that has a little fridge, microwave, TV, couch and desk with a small round ‘dining’ table. There is a separate room with two double beds and another TV. Like I said, basic for a month of lodging but enough space so that we don’t go stir crazy. The best part of this hotel is the staff. They are universally friendly and helpful, and I feel like we could ask them for anything and it would be done. They are genuinely concerned about Megan’s well being and ask about her almost every day. This hotel, unlike lots of others in the area, has a bar and restaurant, both of which open at 5 pm, which is swell since there really isn’t anything within walking distance and nothing worth driving to at night.  We know about the staff members’ kids and their lives outside of the job, and it does feel a bit like staying with an extended family without the crazy uncle or aunt!

Our drive down was without incident and our car, DVDV, performed beautifully. We drove almost the entire length of I-81 with the Blue Ridge Mountains our constant sentinels watching over our passage. Dropping down into North Carolina on I-77 presented some of the most spectacular views I’ve ever seen, but I couldn’t look that long since the driving required lots of attention. At one point we passed acres and acres of pumpkins that were ready to be collected. I don’t recall ever seeing a really large pumpkin farm and it was exciting to behold. The driving was easy and not too much traffic, except for the last ninety minutes or so where we hit construction and rush hour. This proved to be the case for each of our overnights, easy for the first five hours and then a pain in the butt for the last hour or two. 

It was cool and crisp when we arrived at our hotel in Rock Hill SC. There were about six hotels within spitting distance of ours; clearly Rock Hill is between places of interest.  We took a long walk around the shopping mall/car dealership/hotel circle, just to stretch and look for a spot for dinner. There were all the usual suspects about fifteen minutes from the hotel: Applebees, two steakhouses, a Japanese/Chinese restaurant and some fast food joints. We ended up walking over to a Holiday Inn where we had a quiet drink and a very acceptable dinner, which was more like lunch food but well made and fresh. 

Next morning we were up and out after a nice long walk/run and a good breakfast at the hotel. Zipped though South Carolina and Georgia and enjoyed the ride since there is a lovely variety of sights, birds, and glimpses of marsh, ocean and bays. We hit lots of traffic approaching Jacksonville and even more on the ring road but eventually we zipped into St. Augustine just as the 15% chance of rain became 100%. What a difference in temperature!  We were cold in SC and it was 86 with 100% humidity in Florida; I loved it.  We changed into our Florida clothes and, the rain having stopped, took a lovely long walk along the water while keeping an eye out for good restaurants. St. Augustine is truly a lovely city, the oldest in the USA, and well kept and well presented. 

Dinner turned out to be fantastic.  A little modest fish joint, wooden tables, quite small but staffed with some of the most genuine and competent young servers and cooks. We shared a starter of deviled eggs topped with fried oysters and nested on a bed of bacon and tomato jam that was house made. Cindy had two fresh snapper tacos and I had fresh broiled snapper on top of risotto made with baby kale, corn and garlic. The fish was topped with fresh greens and cabbage and it was certainly the best food I have had in a while. The restaurant is called Catch 27, for those of you heading to St. Augustine who may want to take note.

We had thought that by pushing ourselves for two days the last leg would be a walk in the park of only three hours, but it was not to be.  We departed the hotel and almost immediately it was stop-and-go since there were about 250 bikers parked on the main drag, which had been reserved for them. I guess there was a big event that weekend but it was slow going, and just when we thought we had made it out, we discovered that we had left our big Rand McNally road atlas at the hotel so we had to double back to pick it up and go through the biker gauntlet once more.  Once on the open road the section to Daytona Beach was a breeze until we got to the cut-off for I-4 which crosses the state from the ocean to the gulf. The interchange was a mess and difficult to maneuver, a harbinger of things to come. About 30 miles outside of Orlando things began to collapse due to construction and volume; my goodness there were a lot of cars. We crawled through Orlando as I cursed Walt Disney for having started this all. It took an hour to go about twenty miles and the traffic never really thinned out until twenty miles beyond the Disney World exits. Our little three hour trip turned out to be four and a half but we were happy to be pulling into our Hilton a day early so as to be here for Megan.

This week will be filled with activities at Moffitt so I’ll be focused elsewhere. More when the big stuff is out of the way for Megan.  Ciao, Cindy and Wm