Onward to Gulfport Florida

On Friday morning we eat a leasurely breakfast and go check out the farmers market in Forsyth Park before getting back on the road for our final day of driving. It's a great market with really good bread and some beautiful multicolored carrots.

As we head out of Savannah with me at the wheel, for some reason the GPS routes us so that I have to make a left hand turn across four lanes of traffic on a busy street. Traffic is backed up and the car in the first lane stops to wave me through. I look and no cars are coming the other way. The car in the second lane stops too, so I start to inch my way across. I stop, look the other way again and suddenly a red car appears in front of me. A horrible scraping sound ensues and my heart rate doubles in a flash. Then it's over. I'm gasping for breath, but we are uninjured. The driver of the other car is stopped farther down the road and his front end appears to have collapsed. We get out to look at the front of my car. The front bumper is scraped up badly and the license plate has fallen off, but the car is otherwise unscathed. I'm kind of shook up, but even so it could have been SO much worse. A couple more inches would have caused a lot more damage. My poor car. Oh well, insurance will handle it and it's still drivable. I let Lee take the wheel for awhile however, and for the rest of the day I don't like the thought of having to make a left hand turn.

It's a long drive to Gulfport, down through Georgia and catty-corner across Northern Florida. The temperature is great, 50's and 60's, and the sky is blue, blue, blue. Interior Florida is so flat and boring to drive through, however. I think it's worse than Kansas, because there aren't even distant vistas to contemplate, just flat scrub, mile after mile after mile.

Eventually though we head into Tampa and cross Tampa Bay on a very very long bridge. Although I have been to Tampa for a conference years ago, this part of Florida is completely unfamiliar to me. I'm very curious what this will be like.

We stop to get some wine and a few groceries. Then it's on to Gulfport, a little town on Tampa Bay, south of St. Petersburg. We are staying in Seascapes Cottage, a three bedroom one bathroom house with a fenced in back yard. It's late and we're tired so we walk down to Pat's Cantina in the dark for a casual dinner. Not too much later we are in bed in our home for the next two weeks.