July 24
Throughout our trip, all three of us had been looking forward to this day the most, because we were reuniting with our friends Amanda and Ian! For those unfamiliar with these wonderful people, between 2000 and 2003 Amanda and Ian were the directors of Cooperstown Ecumenical Youth Group. Even though they are nine years older than us, we definitely consider them to be some of our closest friends, and when planning this trip, seeing them was the first thing on our list!
For breakfast, we stopped at La Boulangerie on Magazine Street, a delicious French-style bakery with the tastiest croissants any of us had eaten in awhile (since maybe… France?) Once we had eaten our pastries and gotten in the car, we started to realize how tired we were (we had woken up especially early this morning to get an early start on the road – no Caitrin time today!) Driver K, large coffee in hand, gave B & C permission to break one of our road trip rules, so they could both take naps at the same time in the car. It was an offer they couldn’t refuse, and both B & C were asleep within 15 miles – before we even left Louisiana!
Both B & C slept for two hours, while K drove. K was very careful not to play music too loud or sing along too much, to let her car-mates sleep as long as possible. We passed through Mississippi, Alabama, and eventually entered Florida – B & C sleeping the whole time! K decided not to pull over at the welcome signs for Mississippi, Alabama, or Florida, so we’re missing pictures for all of those states. B & C finally woke up in Florida – not too disappointed for missing all of Mississippi and Alabama, since K told them that there was nothing interesting to see.
While driving through Florida, we were slightly disappointed that there was no sunshine in the Sunshine State! It started to pour as we got closer and closer to Tampa (rain from Tropical Depression Bonnie, we think). With Amanda and Ian so close, we drove on through the storm. At one point we even passed a motorcyclist battling his way through the rain! We were thankful our vehicle had a roof.
We had saved Amanda and Ian’s address into the GPS, so when it announced, “turn left and arrive at Amanda and Ian’s” we all squealed in delight. We pulled into the driveway behind their cars and looked at each other a little uncertain of what to do next. All of a sudden the garage door opened and out flew the fluffy welcoming committee. No not Ian! It was Jasper, Amanda and Ian’s black and white husky that they got while in Cooperstown, and Tula, the brown and white, 18-month-old version of Jasper. Ian was there too, just not as fluffy, and Amanda was following closely behind them. Hugs and pets, kisses and licks flew all around the reuniting friends (we’ll let you sort out who did what). After sufficiently affirming that we all were in fact together we went on a quick tour of their lovely house that they had only moved into a few weeks before – that’s how good our timing is! We were psyched to see that there was a pool, which is almost a necessity to survive the Floridian sun.
Everyone was hungry, so we went just down the road to a quirky little BB-Q place. We placed our orders for ribs and pulled pork sandwiches (or pig’s butt as the very mature C informed us) and began our marathon of catching up on each other’s lives. When the food arrived we thought we had somehow transported ourselves back to Texas – the sandwiches were ENORMOUS! All of it was scrumptious but we were struggling to finish. Luckily, staying with Amanda and Ian meant we had a fridge at our disposal so we boxed up the leftovers and headed back to the house.
We spent the few remaining hours relaxing and swimming by the pool until our long day finally caught up to us and we went to bed.
Yellow car count:
C – 291
B – 296
K – 356
Highs and Lows:
Group high – Amanda and Ian!!
Group low – Missing 3 State signs
C high – A&I
C low – Not having more time for New Orleans
B high – A & I
B low – Missing FL sign
K high – A & I
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