Road Trippin' With My Friends.

What's in a road trip? It's something I've wanted to do since my sophomore year in high school. Something about cramming in a car with twizzlers, a tank of gas, and $20 in your pocket appeals to me. The reality of it is much different, however. I can tell you all some key lessons I've learned along with a few great stories I can share. Plus, I promised to update if I could and I found a very weak wireless signal on the porch. So.... here it goes, the best I can.

Michigan, 12:00AM Sunday morning. Our ride still hadn't shown up. The other couple were fighting over stupid things (an ex visited one of the two at work). Right away the trip was almost called off. I'm in Florida though, so obviously it didn't stop us from going. We actually got picked up around 12:30 and we were on our way out of the state, finally, shortly after 1:00AM.

I decided to sleep right away, crammed in the back with two other people while occasionally someone would roll a window down to have a cigarette. By the way, I have never been so happy in my life that I don't smoke after seeing the things these people have to worry about (cancer, where's my lighter? does that store sell Marlboro's? Don't go in the water with the cigarettes, etc.). No, thank you. So... I missed all of Michigan and a lot of Indiana, too.

Kentucky wasn't special. We didn't even stop at a KFC until we hit Georgia. Tennessee wasn't thrilling either. The worst state was Georgia because it took all day to get through it and it had nothing to offer. I even made a comparison to Ohio at one point.

Florida as a state is nothing special. My heart is in the rolling, mountainous hills and valleys of California. The landscape here doesn't even compare. It's much like Michigan with an extra palm tree here or there. No redwoods, strawberry feilds, or winding highways here. But I'm happy.

So you're probably wondering about those lessons, right? Lesson one: Know the people you're going with. I happen to be stuck in a car with two drama queens and two people that talk and stress out about directions way too much. 20+ hours with a few people that are annoying yields a short temper.

This brings me to lesson two: You better be able to sleep in a car. Sleeping is your only escape from the enclosed environment of people complaining, knowing the right way to go, and fighting. If I didn't sleep I would have been clinically insane halfway through Michigan.

Now that I've been here for a day, things are pretty good. Yesterday was the first time we went anywhere. We went into Clearwater to the beach and I spent the whole day there. Jordan and his friend, Joe, however spent theirs at the Tiki bar, giving the rest of us a mess to take care of later. He danced with an aged, overweight lady named Shelly while Joe hit on her friend (who was married and had four children). This is the point in which we found the two. We had a good laugh over it.

It's morning on our second day here. Jordan bought everything for breakfast last night (eggs, sausage, orange juice, cheese, mushrooms, peppers, muffins, you name it he bought it) along with 10-15 Chef Boyardee meals.

(Sigh) It's day two and Wisconsin or Michigan sounds pretty good. I should get paid for the amount of babysitting I'm doing here. There are three good things though; beaches, sunshine, and palm trees. I love beaches... and saltwater.

To try to sum up everything, it's warm and I always forget how much I love sunshine and being outside in the fresh air during the snowy winters at home. Next time I post, I'll try to include a few pictures of the place I'm staying, it's a really nice house (the neighborhood doesn't really fit, a bit trashy). Until next time... I'll be enjoying the sunshine, enjoy your day, too.