Road Trip: South - Capitals Tour
Day 1: Wednesday, May 17, 2017 - New Port Richie, FL
Weather: 93 (in Florida)
Steps: 9,518 (Steve); 6,249 (Linda)
Drove: 292 miles
On our last two trips down south - in 2011 and again in 2015 - which also happened to be our last real vacations - we took the auto train to Sanford and returned via i95 (in 2012) or a little further inland (in 2015). This year we flew! Haven't been on a plane for personal travel since going to Italy thirteen years ago.
After an early rise - 4:00 AM ET - we loaded up the car, set-up a buffet for the cat and then headed out on our vacation at about 4:55 AM ET.
We drove to the airport in Philadelphia from home. For some reason, we were given FSA PreCheck boarding passes.
Perhaps it was because it was so early, but we made it from the Wawa on Route 13 just south of Wilmington to inside the
aiport - which included a mistake trying to get to the airport parking lot, taking a shuttle to the airport, checking in our
bags and going through security - in just under one hour. Yes, less than an hour. I am sure the
time of day - we picked up our breakfast at Wawa at 5:25 AM ET - probably had something to do with it. We saw this work
of art and mural on the wall while walking through the airport.
Our flight was on Frontier Airlines. The tickets were merely $45 each, plus $35 for a checked bag. We each checked one bag - we also each had a carry-on - because, well, we were travellng for twelve days. The flight was pleasant, though not at capacity.
We landed in Tampa before noon. Two hours before noon. Though we were scheduled to arrive at 10:42, our flight was an astonishing 50 minutes early - it was a scheduled three hour flight, but wound up being a little more than two. We had to wait at the airport for a terminal to become available for our plane to pull up to for us to deplane. We picked up our car rental from Enterprise. At just under $250 for the entire twelve days with unlimited mileage, we felt it was better and, frankly, less expensive, to do this - fly and rent a car - than to take the auto train as we did the previous two times.
Next stop: New Port Richey to visit our aunt and uncle. Because we were ahead of schedule, I called my aunt from the
road outside their house to see if it was too early to stop by. She asked "Did you get your bags and car."
I said "We sure did. Is it too early to stop by?" She said "No, not at all."
I said "Good. Because we'll be there in three, two, one." as I pulled into the driveway.
My cousin and his wife were able to join us as well. We had lunch with them and stayed for about five hours.
On our way from NPR to Tallahassee, we got a little hungry so we stopped at a greek restaurant called Little Greek.
Linda had a spinach pie with greek salad and I had a gyro with a greek salad on the side. Sorry, no pictures.
While we were eating, someone in the parking lot needed a jump - he had cables - so I went out and
gave him a hand. He got on his way and after we finished eating, we got on our way too.
Our approximately 215 mile drive was generally uneventful, though the car got covered with bugs about an hour outside of our first capitol of this trip. Also, the very brief shower on the way to Tallahassee did not do a very good job of cleaning the bugs off the car, was brief nonetheless. Our overnight destination was the Baymont Inn and Suites. It was a very long day, we arrived about 11:00 PM ET and we were happy to finally be able to go to sleep.
Also, while we drove about 292 total miles this day, that includes from our house to the airport parking lot in Philadelphia, and from the Tampa airport to NPR and then to Tallahassee. We spent about four and a half hours at airports and in the air also.