Finally home

After another long drive we finally made it home safe. However the amount of snow in the driveway made it impossible for us to drive into the garage so the first thing we had to do was to dig out a hole in the 3 dm deep snow barrier towards the street. After about 20 minutes we finally had made the hole big enought for our car to squize in and up we drove into the garage. I'll have to widen the hole tomorrow to make it simpler to drive in and out of the driveway.

Anyway this concludes our trip down to Florida, here are some facts:
Total driving distance: 5327 km
Total driving time: 57 hours and 27 min
Average speed: 93 km/h
Average fuel consumption: 7.7 liters/100 km

For you that followed our trip to Washington and New York this summer you may recall that we during that trip drove for 55 hours so in time these trips are pretty similar, the difference this time was in distance, our trip this summer was 4892 km, about 430 km less. The average speed was slightly higher this time and the fuel consumption was exacly the same.

The good thing if we decide to take another long trip with the car is that Isabelle will have a driving permit in February and can help out in driving.

Tomorrow will be a relaxing day we only need to get some groceries and some stuff for New Years Eve which we will celebrate at Mats and Veronica. Until the next time, take it easy.

Welcome back to Missouri

Nashville, TN

Leaving Kimball, TN

1078 km to go

Something for New Year?

$589 worth of fireworks. A dream for anyone that loves to put their
money on fire.

Staying outside Chattanooga for the night

We left Ft Lauderdale this morning just after 8am and we have been
driving all day and have just stopped outside Chattanooga for the
night. We drove for 11h and 52 minutes today and the distance we
covered was 1249 km.

When we left Ft Lauderdale this morning it was +25 and now it's -1,
but we have not seen any snow yet.

We have another 1000 km to go tomorrow and we should be home at around
8 pm.

DRIVE-THROUGH LIQUOR STORE

Something for Systembolaget to think about and maybe copy.

Left Florida

We are now driving up through Georgia, and we are hoping to enter
Tennessee before we find a hotel for the night. We have been driving
701 km so far today and if we can go another 600-700 km it would be
great, that way we will have less to drive tomorrow.

This trip last sunrise from Florida

Final day

Today we relaxed at the beach the entire day, first at the Beachcomb
hotel and then at Ocean Point Resort where we are staying our last
night before going home. Eveyone has gotten some nice brown colors, I
on the other hand are more red than brown right now, hopefully I'll
change to brown in a couple of days.

We will try to get passed Atlanta tomorrow and the further we can
drive tomorrow the shorter we have to drive on Tuesday. According to
Google Maps we have 22 hours in front of us. And hopefully the snow
storm over the Midwest is moving away.

As a conclusion I'll say that Ft Lauderdale/Miami was great with the
beach and ocean. Orlando was ok but I don't think that I'll want to go
back there. So if we go down here next year again we'll go straight
down to this area and spend as much time down here as we can.

A day on the beach...

...and some shopping.

We spent the morning and the beginning of the afternoon on the beach
getting some sun and enjoying the water. The sun is pretty strong and
I can feel that I got burnt today. In the afternoon we went to the
Dolphin Mall which was packed with people. It took us a good 20
minutes to find a parking space. I think that everyone in Miami was
there today. The mall is huge and they had pretty much all the stores
there. After spending some hours and some dollars we drove back and
had a late dinner at TGI Fridays. We also found another hotel just up
the street for tomorrow since we need to check out from this hotel.
The weather forecast for tomoorow is 25 degrees and sunshine so we
will spend the day at the beach and then go to the new hotel in the
afternoon. On Monday we drive back home to the snow and cold weather
again, Kansas City has around 30 cm of snow and it is very cold. On
New Years Eve we will have -15 degrees according to the forecast.

Miami Beach Apartments

Miami, FL

Aligators show

Airboat tour in the Everglades

We took an airboat tour out into the Everglades this afternoon. Not
that exiting but it was fun to see how the Everglades looks like.

Everglades

Aligators in the Everglades. We rented some bikes in the park and went
down the trail for about an hour. Lots of aligators and bird to see.

25 degrees in the air and 24 degrees in the water

There is a very strong wind from the east which creates huge waves 2-3
meter high and you have to be careful when you are in the water
because the waves also create a strong drift current which you can
feel when the wave is retracting out to sea again. But it's fun to
dive under waves and feel their awesome power.

Tomorrow we'll drive down to the Everglades National Park and rent
some bikes and look at the wildlife (aligators, birds, turtles etc.)

Christmas Dinner at the Ocean

Christmas dinner on the porch at the Sea Watch.

Merry Christmas from Florida

There is no white snow but the white beach will have to substitute the
snow this year. Have wonderful day.