Down in Florida we got on the 10 freeway – the same one that ends at the beach in Santa Monica and the one that took us through most of the Southern end of the country back to LA! This is when we began marveling at the impressiveness of the interstate highway system, something that we had really only taken for granted before.

We also enjoyed passing cars with Northern state license plates and looking in them to confirm that they were snowbirds heading south for winter.

I got irrationally excited as we crossed the Suwanee River. The sign for the river even had the musical notes on it! I had to youtube the song and play it. “Way down upon the Suwanee River, far far away. That’s where my heart is turning ever, that’s where the old folks stay…” I can’t put my finger on why I associate this song so strongly with my childhood. Did I learn to play this on my old keyboard?? Anyway, it stirred up some nostalgia, and that triggered us to start recounting what we’d done on the whole trip so far, both to pass the time as we drove but also to enjoy and enhance our memories of all the amazing things we’d already done on the journey.

We stopped in Tallahassee for lunch at Kool Beanz Cafe, and then drove around town quickly, seeing the state capitol and Florida State’s campus. Again, beautiful and tons of live oak and Spanish moss. I took great pleasure in doing so with the top down and blasting a couple great convertible songs: Dolly Parton’s “More Where That Came From” and Simon and Garfunkel’s “Cecilia.”

Also, Florida was a big state for us, because it marked the start of us heading back west!