Last Day

Our last official day in Florida.

• Got to have breakfast with Pete and Erin, then packed up and headed out for Pensacola. We spent the day with a friend that Vicki had gone to school with from 2nd grade through high school. They had a beautiful home with a really cool screen enclosed pool. Ironically, they had just returned from California where they were visiting colleges in preparation for their daughters impending graduation in a couple of years. Vicki had a nice visit reminiscing about how much they hated growing up in the Imperial Valley.

• We are now in Mobile, Alabama, where we will fly out from tomorrow morning. After spending a few hours in Alabama, I have decided that Florida is not really part of the south. Florida is a wannabe southern state. If you cross California with the South, you get Florida.

• We are definitely feeling culture shock. It started at dinner where we were offered smoking or non-smoking. After we were seated (three tables away from the smoking section) we ordered our meal. Once we started talking, our waitress did not smile at us the rest of the evening. I think it was because she recognized us as foreigners by our accents. Vicki said it was because she overheard me talking in my southern drawl.

• We stopped for gas at the scarienst gas station I have ever been in. The cashier in the mini-mart was in some kind of bullet proof cage. I had to pay for my diet coke through a little slot. There were a couple of good-ol-boys trying to win a gold watch at one of those claw-grabber vending games. There was a scary lady wearing a bra on the outside of her shirt while pumping gas, and another lady sitting in her camping chair talking to a wall. We did make it back to our hotel without incident.

• We are currently holed up in our hotel room, which is a faux non-smoking room.

• Susie sent the following text this morning: "Only in the south will you see a bait shop and scrapbooking store in the same establishment..."

• I forgot to mention that we had a classic moment last night at the pool. One of the attendants came by and asked us to exit the pool because someone had an "accident". Yes, someone left a floater in the pool. No Carl Spackler to clean it up though.

We'll be home tomorrow night. See everyone later.