Driving Through The Southern United States...The Drive Back Home!

Above is a Google Earth Image of the main points covered on the fourth leg of this trip.

And here is a regular "old fashioned" map (probably more helpful to realize how far we've been driving so far!):


An Italian Across America has arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Wednesday August 20th, and has therefore finished the this wonderful journey that took the two “explorer” around this amazingly beautiful country.
Here are some facts and numbers about this latest leg of the trip:

This is the distance covered from California to Florida:
4,023 Miles or 6,437 Kilometers.

Days On The Road: 24

States visited: 11
California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.

Gasoline tanks used to cover this distance:
10 for a total of $520

And here are some facts and numbers about this whole adventure.

This is the distance covered from Florida to Florida: 16,054 Miles or 25,687 Kilometers.

Days On The Road: 83

States visited: 36+3
Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, California, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, plus District Of Columbia, Quebec and Ontario in Canada.

Gasoline Tanks used to cover this distance:
40 for a total of $2,300

Welcome To Fort Lauderdale...!

Good evening my friends!

Some of you might recognise the familiar skyline of the picture up above...I do, since that is the skyline of the city I've been calling "home" for the past three years.

Hap and I mutually agreed that since we were so close to Fort Lauderdale, it didn't make any sense to stop in other places for another few days when we both knew we were only going to hit clouds and rain.

We're certainly think about resuming the last part of the journey with a side trip to start at a later date, but I absolutely want to get back on the west coast once the weather will get better, and "close the circle", to be able to put the word "END" to this travel journal and this wonderful experience.

The drive from Gainesville to Fort Lauderdale has been safe and uneventful.

I've been paying a lot of attention to the weather warnings and reports on the web, to be informed of TS Fay path.

We came all the way down I-75 through Alligator Alley and only had a light rain for about 30 minutes on our 6 hours plus trip.

The rest has been a mix of clouds and sunshine

The next picture was taken on I-75 (Alligator Alley) eastbound with the camera facing North.

I know it is just my sick mind, more like my imagination than anything else, but don't the clouds looke like part of a bigger ring? LOL

Traffic in Fort Lauderdale was still a little heavy to to the end of rush hour, but not a problem at all. It all went pretty smooth I would say.

It's good to be back home, now I need to write a final post with some other stats about the mileage, gas tanks, etc., and then just wait for the famous side trip.

Stay tuned, it is not over yet! ;-)

It's been a wonderful journey, with a wonderful travel companion, I couldn't have asked for a better person to live this experience with: THANK YOU HAP from the bottom of my heart!

And now once again, time to go to bed, another day is over, another one has just begun...

Good night my friends,

Nico

Waiting For Fay...

Good evening everybody!

So, here we are, my first time in Tallahassee, our State Capital.

It's been a very nice day right from the start, and trust me, I'm not surprised about it as the weather forecast hardly gets anything right these days! LOL

Our first stop of the day being in Tallahassee has been the Florida State Capitol

Now, how many of you know that Florida has two Capitol Buildings?

Well, now you know, Florida has an old, restored, pretty Old Capitol; and then it has a modern, ugly, new Capitol.

Here's a picture of the historic sign with some facts about the Capitol and Florida history in general:

And here is the Old State Capitol in all its glory, with in the background, the new ugly one!

Another nice postcard picture taken from one side:

And the Old Capitol rotunda:

The new capitol is so ugly and so tall that it didn't fit in a picture!

As you enter the main building (that by the way people compare to a huge phallic symbol), you'll notice the seal of the State of Florida right in the middle, with the Florida Motto, "In God We Trust":

The one good thing that this modern Capitol building has, is that it boasts a 22nd floor panoramic view of Tallahassee on all the four sides.

In the picture down below for example, you can enjoy the view from the windows facing East at the Apalachee Parkway.

It was very interesting because downstairs there's a picture on display showing visitors what the are looked like when they built the first State Capitol.

It is possible for visitors to go on a self guided tour of both buildings, and see where the legislative body of the State of Florida create the law.

This is for instance where the Senate meets:

We also tried to take a picture of the other side at the house of representatives, but the lights were off (saving money on electricity?).

Left the Capitol"s" after roughly two hours, we headed to the Tallahassee Museum:

One thing about the Tallahassee Museum is that it's a privately funded, non-profit corporation, which means basically, no Federal money.

The stated purpose of the Tallahassee Museum is "to educate the residents of Florida and visitors to the Big Bend area about the region's natural and cultural history, from the nineteenth century until the present", and they do that in a wonderful way.

Admission is only $9, or $8.50 for Students and Seniors, and it's absolutely worth every penny.

It's not a museum as we all picture one, and it is not a zoo, again, as we might picture one.

It's a mix of a lot of things, and you'll end up spending at least a good two to three hours inside the Museum premises.

You can get a map at the entrance once you get your tickets, and then you're off for your self guided tour.

As soon as you start, the animal in the picture down below on the right hand side is the first one you'll encounter, be careful, they'll smile and wave at you, but these creatures are wild and can bite if provoked:

Here's another one:


One the nicest encounters at the park, has been the one withe "Bald Eagle". It just stayed there, minding its own business, being the regal bird it is...

And the one in the next picture is one of my favorite animals:



First time I've seen a Bobcat:

And absolutely first time I saw a Florida Panther!

The nicest feature of the Tallahassee Museum in my opinion, was the wooden skywalk that enhances the level of a close encounter with one of these Florida native animal species. It almost felt like flying through the exhibitions:

For instance, take a look at the next picture, I was so close to this sleepy black bear.

The Museum totally reflects what Florida used to be like before "We" came and here's proof of it:

Once we left the park around 4.30PM, we drove down to Gainesville where we're currently spending the night. This is so far the best deal we've found on this trip, a suite at Best Western (I would say one of the top BW in the country looking at this place), for only $58 plus taxes. You see, sometimes it pays to drive through Florida off season! LOL

The restaurant we had dinner at this evening is worth to be mentioned.

It was so good that if I were to live in Gainesville and I had someone to impress with something sophisticated but plain good at the same time, well, I would take them to this restaurant.

The name is "Dragonfly", in downtown Gainesville.

Service was top notch, both the manager and the owner came and stopped to talk with us. Our waiter was also very knowledgeable and helpful, he certainly knew how to deal with customers, how to make them feel at ease, and enjoy this wonderful dining experience.

The food was delicious, prepared in a timely manner, and just about enough to feel "right" about dinner. This has been one the most pleasant dining experiences of the whole trip.

Tomorrow we will decide what to do next, we've had thoughts about driving back to Fort Lauderdale because of the weather, but we want to reflect about the pros and cons before acting.

Now I need my beauty sleep.

Good night folks,

Nico

Long Drive Home...

Good Evening Floridians, Good Evening rest of this wonderful world!

Well, it's been another of those rainy days.

The bad thing is that we got deceived by the nice puffy clouds and sunshine we had when we left the hotel this morning in Mobile, AL.

This is a a view of downtown Mobile from I-10, I was positively surprised by this city, I didn't even imagined it has a skyline up until last night,

The brewery we visited had excellent beers and nice comfort food. Being it a Saturday night, they even had a live band playing, the whole experience was very enjoyable.

Left Mobile, AL, our first stop of the day has been Orange Beach, on the Alabama Gulf Coast where today they had several Speed Boat races.

As you probably noticed, I like to take pictures of "good looking" buildings, and this one on the shore at Orange Beach was particularly interesting:

From the coastal road in Orange Beach, AL, visitors can easily reach the westernmost point of Florida, Perdido Key, where Condo buildings close to the white sandy beaches of Alabama leave space to Condo buildings close to the white sandy beaches of Florida.

Did you really expect anything else?!?! LOL

The first significant city on our route has been Pensacola Beach, which was supposed to be the start of our Scenic Drive through the coast, up to Panama City Beach some 90 minutes East of where we were.

I started feeling like home when I recognized some of the gracious vehicles circulating on our public road system.

The owner of this pick-up truck ultimately decided to abandon his vehicle on the side of the road, after losing his hopes on gas going down at the pump.

Coincidentally, the truck was parked right across the street from the Visitor Center, maybe he was hoping some generous tourists will take it away as a sign of good will! LOL

Did I mention "Visitor Center"? Yes I did!

I'm sorry to say that since we haven't crossed the border on a major interstate, we haven't got the pleasure of snapping the last picture of a State Border road sign. That was a real bummer, soon forgot after we got close enough to the Florida State Park system in Pensacola to take some pictures of the sand and the water.

After all, who cares about the Florida sign?!?! LOL

Here's what you can find in the armpit of Florida, ehm, I'm sorry, in the Florida Panhandle!

And here are some lucky tourists doing what I'll be doing starting from next week when we get back home in Fort Lauderdale:

Our plan was to keep driving East till Panama City Beach, which is certainly a very long drive, but nonetheless, really worth the 30 mph speed limit.

After about one mile after I took the last picture up above, we ran across a road sign telling us the road was closed up ahead!

Closed?!?!? How could that be? My GPS tells me there's a bridge going to Navarre and Fort Walton! Well, guess what happened? Yes, you're right, I had to make a U-Turn, and drive back another 10 miles (yes, with a 30 mph speed limit!) back to Pensacola and I-10.

At that point we decided to change our plans, as we decided to change our final destination from Panama City Beach, FL to Tallahassee, FL, the State Capital!

The drive on I-10 is not as exciting as the drive out on the coast, but still, it has some advantages, like for instance, being able to travel at a steady 70 mph.

One of the things that amaze the most about the United States are its bridges.

I've been here for a little less than three years now (I start counting from my first trip to the East Coast in 2005), and still, I remain in disbelief at the length of some of the American Bridges.

This is one of those bridges, probably not the longest I've been on today once we crossed from Alabama to Florida, but maybe, because of the slight curve to the left (going East), the prettiest.

Here it is in all its glory:

Funny enough, in 15,500 miles we've spent on the road so far, I've only seen three VW Beetle Convertible, identical to the one I have; one in Los Angeles, one last night parked at the same hotel where we were staying (No I didn't get the chance to park beside it! LOL), and one this afternoon on I-10 E.

Here's the picture I took:

I-10 as I said was probably not as exciting as the coastal highway, but once in a while, you get to wake up, laughing at some of the signs, be it a billboard, bumper stickers, or in this case, a road sign indicating the exit for Bagdad, FL, not to be confused with the other "Baghdad".

Tallahassee is roughly another three hours away by car, four on your watch, if you want to consider that you have to set the time one hour forward once you cross the time line between Central and Eastern standard time.

So, here we are, back to the Eastern time zone, and back in Florida.

Tomorrow we're going to spend some time visiting Tallahassee, the State Capitol (old and new), and some other weird things we had planned in the past just in case.

We're also changing our plans of being in Tampa tomorrow night, as we don't know where Tropical Storm / Hurricane Fay is going to be, nor what kind of damage it will leave after it will be through.

We will spend the evening and the night in Gainesville, FL instead, where we hope to do some sightseeing the day after, and then if it's safe, drive down to Tampa and all of the other destinations on the West Coast.

Good night hurricane hunters!

Nico

Sweet Home Alabama!

Good evening everybody!

All right, we had another rainy day!

The weatherman assured me that Tropical Storm (soon to be Hurricane) Fay is not the cause of the storms around Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, but guess what, it doesn't really matter at this point, it's raining!

We left the hotel this morning at around 11AM, asked the lady at the reception desk if we could leave our luggage, and then left once again for a sightseeing tour of the French Quarter, this time, with plenty of daylight.

Did I really say daylight? LOL

At one point I looked above at the sky, and it looked like it was almost ready to fall down over us.

We went back to take a walk on Bourbon Street as you can see from the pictures, or at least that was our idea.

We saw many of the place we had seen the day before, only a lot quieter.

The streets seemed to be very clean, not even a cigarette butt on the road, but still, there was a not very pleasant smell, somewhere in between sewage, natural gas, and well, let's not get into details this time!

After walking part of it, we then decided to take a right to get into Royal Street (Calle Real as you can see from the picture), leading to Jackson Square, where Saint Louis Cathedral stands.

Saint Louis Cathedral is also known as the Basilica of St. Louis, King of France, and has the distinction of being the oldest continuously operating cathedral in the United States.

First established in 1718, it is one of the few Catholic churches in the United States that fronts a major public square to signify the Catholic roots of New Orleans.

I'm sorry I didn't have the time to take a picture of the outside, as it started raining as soon as we got in front of the Cathedral, and that didn't give me a chance to do so.

For those of you who think I got in the church to seek shelter from the incessant rain, you're right!

No, I really was interested in this NOLA landmark, as it really is one of the most recognizable buildings in the city.

We spent quite some time inside the Cathedral, "praying" for the rain to stop (got that?), and admiring the beautiful paintings and frescos.

Here's the one on the ceiling in the main nave.

Eventually we decided that it wasn't going to stop raining just because we wanted to, so we got two big white bags from the Cathedral gift shop, and armed with scissors, we cut holes for the head and the arms and ventured outside the church.

Our next stop for the day was only 500 feet on the opposite side of Jackson Square.

Yes, a stop in New Orleans wouldn't have been a real one without going to "Cafe Du Monde".

Cafe Du Monde is best known for its cafe au lait, and its French-style doughnuts as they call them (Beignets).

As I later learned, in pure New Orleans style, the coffee (cafe au lait) we had, was blended with chicory.

Did I taste the difference?
Not really, as my taste buds were probably spoiled by the three beignets I had (yes, that's correct, three beignets is one serving, I'll start being food conscious when this trip is over, and the gym is going to be my best friend!).

Look at those beignets, can you see the amount of powdered sugar on top of them?
They were good, I give you my word for that.

One other positive thing about Cafe Du Monde is also that the place is not expensive at all! It is actually quite the opposite, we really found it pretty inexpensive, especially compared to the ridiculously high prices of New Orleans dining scene.

Last night I didn't mention the lines outside some of the places to get in and have dinner, but this morning since I had the camera with me, I managed to take a picture of "Cafe Maspero".

See the people outside? They're all lined up to get in and have food! Not for me thank you!

The only thing in this world that is worth waiting in line for is my Mom's kitchen, and nothing more...

Back to the car, we left New Orleans and Louisiana for a quite short drive (only 185 miles), at least compared to waht we did yesterday!

Our final destination, where we currently are, is Mobile, AL.

It wasn't quite worth it to stop anyplace because of the rain, but we did manage to get off the highway in Mississippi, to drive on US90 through Gulfport and Biloxi.

We saw the casino (enough already!), and then we went back on I-10E for the final stretch to Alabama.

Here's the last State sign we're going to encounter before coming back home next week in our home state of Florida.

I mentioned the rain, but I didn't actually know how bad it's been for Mobile today.

They had 6 inches of rain in one day, a record (as the weatherman said) for this area.

This evening, after the fancy Brazilian Steakhouse of last night, we're going to "Hurricane Brewing Co." a local brewerie that is supposed to have excellent beers, and hopefully good food.

All I need is an old, plain, good American Burger, I'll be happy with that.

Have a nice evening y'all,
Nico

Welcome To “Big Easy”!

Good Evening Jazz and Blues lovers!

A total of 348 miles on the road today, and it felt like eternity…!

We left Houston this morning around 11.30AM, thanking Mike again for his wonderful hospitality and his warm welcome, we really appreciated it.

It was another of those rainy days (oh well, I guess I again complained too much about the sun and the heat yesterday!), and when the it rains, we all know people start going crazy on the highways.

Houston, TX to New Orleans, LA is about 350 miles, roughly 5 and a half hours drive respecting the speed limit.

We arrived in New Orleans around 6PM, a slight delay due in part because of the incessant rain, but mostly because of a few accident along the way (not on our side, but I don’t know why people always have to stop to look at what happened!), and because we hit rush hour in Baton Rouge, LA some 80 miles away from NOLA.

It’s been a pretty boring drive for the most part. It started getting more interesting once we passed the border with Louisiana (for which I obviously have the always present souvenir picture).

As soon as we crossed the border and we passed the lake, once we got closer to New Orleans, we started driving through huge swamps, and I-10 all of a sudden looked more like the long bridges leading tourists to the Florida keys, than the interstate I got used to for so many miles while driving through Texas.

And here is the Welcome to Louisiana sign:

I also had to take a picture of the last exit sign on I-10E as we approached the border with Louisiana; it was exit 880, confirming what I came to learn in these few days I’ve been driving through the Lone Star State, Texas is huge indeed!

Here is the "NOLA" skyline from outside of the city:

And here is the famous SuperDome:

And a view from the Interstate:

The hotel we got this evening is unbelievable, $76 including taxes and 24 hours parking, for a real Suite on the 11th floor on Canal Street, one block away from the French Quarter. The apartment is big enough to move in, I still can’t believe we got such a great deal.

This is a view from the living room:

As for the French Quarter, that’s where we had dinner this evening, a Brazilian steak house (yes, another one! LOL) located at 725 Iberville Street. The meat was very good, Hap probably had a whole lamb, he said he really liked it! I preferred the Top Sirloin and the Filet Mignon.

After dinner, we decided to take a walk on Bourbon Street, and let me tell you, it was absolutely wild!

I’ve never seen so many people partying like, drinking alcohol everywhere, smoking cigars, flashing other people, throwing beads, etc.. I mean, I certainly saw Mardi Gras on TV, but didn’t realize the city comes pretty close to it every weekend.

We really had a great time and always felt safe thanks to the ever present New Orleans Police Department. We’re now back at the hotel, and I’m planning some sightseeing for tomorrow.

We will probably visit the city in the morning, and then drive through Mississippi, and stopping in Mobile, Alabama for the night. It’s only a 150 miles drive, it shouldn’t take more that 2 and a half hours.

Good night Po-boys!

Nico