St. Augustine to Fort Lauderdale -- Apr. 17th

Woke up around 730 am to say goodbye to Kirstin before she left for school. Then I went back to bed for a couple hours. Took a shower, packed my stuff, and headed to the Ford dealership where Bill works to get myself an oil change and some new wiper blades. I chatted with the receptionist and the head mechanic while I waited and had a good time. The mechanic’s son had just been killed in a drunk driving accident, and it was obviously weighing on his mind. But we talked for awhile and I think he felt a little better afterwards. I hit the road and decided to go to Daytona beach and lay in the sun for a bit. You can drive right on the beach there, like 20 feet from the water rolling in! It was a little overcast and windy, so it wasn’t very busy, but it was an experience anyway. The driving on the beach is cool, but it makes everyone a little more private as far as on the beach. You just park your car and lay out next to it, so it’s not as interactive as I would’ve liked it to be. I kept on down the road, and went to the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral. Unfortunately though, the Space Center was closed and I didn’t get to see the space shuttle launch site like I wanted to. Oh well. After that it was time to get on down to Fort Lauderdale and meet up with my friend Joy, who is letting me crash. I got in town and Joy, her boyfriend Dana, and myself went out to eat first thing. We went to a local wing place and they had really good grilled wings, could’ve had a little better size and better sauce selection, but that’s just the picky wing eater in me talking. It was good, and the jagerbombs and beers went down nicely. We then came back to Joy’s house, she was having friends over and we had a good night of drinking and debauchery. Her friend Kristin was crazy fun and taught me how to “tripod.” She reminded me of Anna Farris. It was really only the first, maybe second time on the trip I’ve tied on a good buzz, so it was relaxing.