Five hotel reservations in four Florida beach towns... A spring break saga Part 2

By the Ides of March, I had reservations at five hotels in Florida and was checking flight prices to a couple of cities in Florida a few times a day all in a fact finding mission for an upcoming spring break trip to Florida. To drive or to fly (and to where) became the biggest questions because once I had those decisions made, I could cancel two or three of the hotel reservations. Fight prices continued to rise daily and sometimes within the day to the destinations I was considering in Florida. By the end of March, I made the decision to scrap plans of flying and to plan to drive to Florida.

Once that decision was made, I canceled three of the hotel reservations that I'd made. Those reservations were hotels in cities that were too far south for me to contemplate driving. Once driving to the beach became the reality, it made sense to consider beaches that are closer to home. 

The closest ocean beaches to Ohio are the following: Ocean City, MA, Myrtle Beach, SC and Virginia Beach, VA. I have been (once!) to all three of those towns/ beaches and they are all perfectly fine beaches. I would not have minded driving to any of them. All three of those locations are about 600 miles from our house. In contrast, the northern most beaches in Florida are close to 800 miles from our house. Spending less time driving and spending less money on gas sounded appealing and I would have gladly forgone going to Florida (though I am a big fan of the state...). Alyssa and I were after the beach, sunshine, and warmth. The more of the latter the better after a winter/ early spring in Ohio. 

I started looking into forecasts and extended forecasts and it looked like Florida was going to be the only safe bet for having warm to hot sunshiny weather. So, I didn't book any hotels for beach cities north of Florida. I was down to two hotel reservations- one in Panama City Beach and one in Jacksonville, Florida. The white sand of the Gulf side sounded really appealing but the extended weather forecast showed that Jacksonville was going to have (slightly) warmer weather for the dates we would be there. PCB would be a shorter drive by about forty five minutes and that sounded super appealing. On the other hand, the hotel that I reserved in Jacksonville was about a hundred dollars less total for our stay. That's not a whole lot but it was something additional to like about staying in Jacksonville. We decided to go to Jacksonville Beach mostly based on the one degree or two degree warmth differential in the forecast between it and PCB. 

Jacksonville Beach is in the northeast portion of the state. Panama City Beach is in the Panhandle. 

We left for Florida early on a cold day in late March. We had a great trip down- had one maybe thirty second slow down, that was it. We definitely had beginner's luck. Our way home was filled with numerous and long delays but that is a story for a different day. 

My phone's GPS said it would take about 12 1/2 hours to arrive in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. That estimate is not based on taking any stops which is, of course, impossible to achieve. Stopping for gas was necessary to refuel the car and we needed to stop to use the restroom and eat. We only stopped twice the entire way down which I thought was pretty good on our part!

The possible routes- around Knoxville, TN, the directions either were to head west and south and drive through Georgia or drive east and south and drive a bit in North Carolina and then South Carolina. I didn't care which states we drove through to get to Florida. My concern was getting there the fastest so I selected the east route. 

Made it to our first state away from home- KY. Of course this was only an hour from our house but it is a route that often causes delays due to interminable construction and city driving/ high traffic volume that normally defines a drive to KY via I-75. Not so today! We crossed the Ohio River and into KY with zero delays. Off to a great start!!

Made it to Tennessee- I forgot how pretty driving through the state is! The last time I drove down to TN was last June en route to Nashville.

We passed many exits for scenic spots- would have been nice to take some time to see sites but tarrying in the state was not on our agenda if we wished to reach Florida before nightfall.

Our first stop was in TN- for gas and lunch. I sure was hoping gas would be under $4 a gallon but it wasn't so there was nothing to do except pay over $4/gallon. We got our Mickey's D to go. A Happy Meal for me because I was consuming lots of snacks and did not need a big meal...

At some point in TN, I realized that we weren't going the east way to Florida but rather the west way because I started seeing signs for towns in Georgia. I know I selected the east way- the only thing I can think of is when I restarted the GPS after stopping for gas, it switched me to the other way because it was fastest? I don't know and didn't  care too much except that I didn't want to drive through Atlanta which the west route required so I was irritated by that. 

The other thing about our drive through TN was we started listening to APUSH YouTube videos. APUSH is the acronym for AP (advanced placement) United States History. Alyssa will be taking the APUSH test at the end of the school year to try to get college credit for taking the class. Some history teachers have made videos available for anyone who's studying for the test to watch. The videos contain mostly content related information about US history but also tips for the non content related aspects of the test. I loved listening to the videos that we watched/ listened to (obviously, driving, I wan't watching the videos, rather, hearing them). History was one of my majors and I enjoyed hearing recaps of events in our past. History is inherently recounted with a bias and I was thankful that I heard no overt anti American rhetoric in the videos.

Next up (or down, as it were) was driving into Georgia. It had been years and years since I had been in the state of Georgia- probably twelve years ago when we visited friends who moved to Georgia (they've since moved out of the state which is one reason we never returned). 

Georgia is known for its crops of peaches and pecans. I saw many billboards advertising places that sold both and the temptation was strong to stop and get both of those items. Instead, I opted for cheap(er!) gas and was pleased to get that. It was $3.69-3.79 depending on how you paid for it. 

What had our driving nine hours and spending around $100 in gas (in total, not just at this stop) gotten us? Warmer temps for starters...

At the time we were in sunny Cordele, Georgia, the temperature was 73 degrees. At home, it was 38 degrees. Of course we only enjoyed these temps for a couple of minutes as I gassed up and then we walked into the gas station store to use the restroom and buy snacks.

Finally Florida!! Since our destination in Florida was pretty far north, that meant that we didn't have far to drive within Florida.

Loved seeing the Jacksonville (colloquially "Jax") Beach water tower.

Made it to our hotel in 12 hours, 33 minutes and 33 seconds (rounding up, lol). Actually, that is not quite right. I didn't start the timer on my phone until about a mile into our trip when I stopped at a traffic light. So, this time plus a couple of minutes. Not bad! I mean, long, and all but I was so thankful we didn't have any slowdowns, 

The view of the ocean from our hotel room- YES!! I upgraded to an ocean front room and I'm glad that I did.The non ocean front rooms had balconies that looked out onto a parking lot. It was well worth it to pay a little bit more to have this view...

I thought of this palm tree as "our" palm tree but using that possessive pronoun is, of course, a misnomer ;).

I'll recap our trip at some point. It was not super exciting but it was very relaxing and filled with warmth, sunshine (mostly...) and sand so it was all good.