Florida here we come!

According to Google Maps, it would take us approximately 16 hours to drive from St Louis to Orlando. Cheryl & I decided to share the driving, with Cheryl opting to go first. Our route took us west through Missouri & Illinois to Mount Vernon & then south (past Metropolis) to Nashville, Tennessee. This took about 5 hours & the sight of the Nashville skyline combined with our new navigator ‘Tom’ (our GPS) showing multiple roads converging on the highway was enough for Cheryl to decide that she was now out of her ‘comfort zone’. This wasn’t actually a bad thing as we needed petrol & it seemed like a good time to stop for lunch. One quick Big Mac & fuel stop & we were back on the road with me at the wheel.

We continued heading south-ish through Tennessee & Kentucky (through Chattanooga & the Smoky Mountains) towards Atlanta, Georgia. This is where we hit our first traffic hold-up, arriving in the city just in time to hit the Friday afternoon rush-hour. It took about an hour to make it through the city but we decided to continue driving as we really wanted to make it to Florida. Some of Cheryl’s work colleagues suggested purchasing a book which lists all the available facilities (hotels, restaurants, petrol stations, etc) at each highway exit so we decided to stop in Cordele (about 100 miles north of the Georgia/Florida border) as it seemed that there were lots of things to do. Also, as it was getting late & we hadn’t eaten, we didn’t really want to be wandering around a strange area late at night. We ate at a local Italian American restaurant & stayed at a Best Western hotel (which was excellent value at less than $60 per night). The staff were really friendly & mentioned that there was a really good complimentary breakfast served from 6:00am, so now we knew what time we would have to get up to continue our road trip – very early!