To make the drive the rest of the way to Florida, we decided to try some really long days driving 600+ miles if we could. That meant getting up and on the road before sunrise. Kind of nice, it gave us some amazing sunrises across the middle states.
From Hayes, our next destination was Metropolis, Illinois. Driving I-70 we made great time and passed through St Louis, Missouri with its beautiful arch and on into Illinois on I-64 and I-57S.
By leaving early each morning we could do about 10 hours in the car and find a hotel by about 5PM. Foster was an amazing traveler, how lucky we were. Since Friday was Paul's birthday we wanted to be able to enjoy a nice dinner out and for whatever reason, we chose to stop in Metropolis, Illinois, Home of SUPERMAN! What a fun surprise! Dinner that night was at the popular Fat Edd's Roadhouse, loud and busy!
After dinner we scouted out the giant Superman statue in the center of town for a photo op for the birthday boy.
Up early the next morning we made it almost to the northern border of Florida with an overnight in Valdosta, GA. The next morning we were hoping we'd get to Oldsmar in time for breakfast at The Tin Can with Emily, Steve, Zach and Amanda but the drive was a bit longer after our stop at the busiest Starbucks on I-95. Finally got to Emily's new home in Safety Harbor right about noon.
They had just signed all the papers that Friday and the house was theirs, so the next few weeks would give them time to do any of the updating they wanted to do and begin moving from the Oldsmar house, only a 20 min drive. We sat on the back porch and enjoyed seeing the house, inside and out. So cute!!!
Proud new homeowners, Em and Steve
Zachary and his girlfriend, Amanda, had been in Florida all week for a visit and had flights back to Seattle in the early evening. It was a warm, beautiful Florida day so we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon at the beautiful Ozona Blue Restaurant in Palm Harbor. Very fun and a favorite of ours.
The restaurant has a pool for swimming and lounging as well as wonderful food and a fun atmosphere.
Time for lots of family photos before saying good bye.
We were pretty lucky to catch Zach and Amanda there in Florida, we don't get to see him often but this year was an exception. When we'd met up with him in September in Washington, Amanda wasn't able to join us for lunch so it was a treat to meet her.
We spent the next 2 nights at Emily's new house on a blow up mattress. We unpacked the boxes we'd carted across country and repacked just suitcases to take Tuesday to Miami for a wonderful birthday cruise for Paul, 11 nights in the southern Caribbean on the Norwegian Cruise Line's Sun. We left Foster to spend the next 3 weeks with Emily, Steve and his cousin Izzy dog. How lucky for us, he loves staying with Emily and she takes such great care of him! Our plan was to drive up to St. Augustine after the cruise and pick up our East Coast MH that we had left 8 months ago.
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