” a movie, book, or illustrated lecture about the places visited and experiences encountered by a traveler”
The actual traveling part
We have been to Florida many times since we moved to Texas. We have visited most of the coasts (Gold, Space, Treasure, First, Emerald, even the Forgotten Coast) and of course we have gone to central Florida to visit Mickey. We flew occasionally but mostly we drove. The trip can take anywhere from 8 hours to get to Pensacola to 18 hours to get to Miami. Key West would be another 3 hours from Miami. For this trip we were going to Vero Beach about half way down the east coast of Florida, which is about 16 hours away.
Having a plan is required for a trip like this. Our plan was to pack up Wednesday and leave around 6 Thursday morning and drive to Midway a town just outside Tallahassee. We prefer to travel farther the first day of a 2 day trip, then we can have an easy second day. Thursday morning we were eastbound and down, all was going according to plan as we left Texas.
There are 2 spots along this trip where the chances of headbutting your steering wheel or suffering a temporary bout of Tourette syndrome goes through the roof, Baton Rouge and Mobile. These are the cities that time (or at least the Corps of Engineers) forgot.
First up, Baton Rouge. 99.3% of the people on I-10 west of Baton Rouge traveling east just want to make it out the other side. This number drops to 99.1% on football weekends as the local clans gather. We will just say neither the 99.1% nor the fans of the opposing team will make it out unscathed.
On this particular Thursday as we approach the Mississippi river bridge we come to a full stop. Unfortunately this is not unusual. Just about everyone wants to stay on I-10 heading east, as you go over the bridge only half the lanes are for 10 East and only 1 lane gets you where you want to be. The other two lanes are populated with those who feel waiting their turn is for suckers and those who have no idea of what the 50 year old traffic pattern has in store for them. On this day one driver of each of these two tribes met on the down side of the bridge. It was just a fender bender but it was enough to turn a bad situation into a Baton Rouge situation. 45 minutes later we made it several miles to the construction zone which has been under construction since the Louisiana Purchase. Finally back to the brake/accelerator tap dance
, finally back to normal.
, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6