To Tallahassee via Pensacola- Sunday, July 10, 2011

We were “Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight” today, heading out on a day that was mostly driving, and the longest bit of driving we had scheduled before Disney.

We crossed three state boundaries today. First, we crossed through Mississippi, for the third time this trip. Alabama was a more interesting border this time because it was the first time for any of us to be in that state. We stopped at the welcome center, where there seemed to be a large number of people taking the “You Are Here” picture. We ate lunch in Alabama, and continued past Mobile Bay to the Florida line. We stopped in the Florida welcome center mainly to get a sip of orange juice. It had a cool life size model of a Blue Angels jet suspended in front of the building because we were near the team’s home in Pensacola.

We stopped at a beach on Santa Rosa Island, off the coast near Pensacola. The skies were blue, the sand was white and the Gulf of Mexico’s water was warm, clear and beautiful. The girls had a great time in the surf for a little while. Even though Emma loves wave pools, she didn’t go into the water very much, but Anna certainly did. Anna really didn’t like the sand that stuck to her afterwards, though. While we were at the beach, we called Grandpa and Grandma Frank and wished them a happy 45th Anniversary. They told us they will be meeting us in Staunton when we are on our homeward leg of our trip.

Within two hours of driving, the sky had gone from the bright blue that we left at the beach to a dark lightning storm and a torrential downpour like you only seem to see in Florida. Driving was difficult, and many people had pulled over to the side of the road. We got off at an exit and ate dinner while we waited for the storm to lighten up. We looked back at the pictures we had taken only hours before, and couldn’t believe the difference in the sky.

Through most of the trip, Julie and Scott played “The License Plate Game,” with the board the Scott bought in the French Quarter. The girls played DS games and Angry Birds on their iPods. We lost an hour when we crossed back into the Eastern Time Zone. Shortly before we arrived in Tallahassee, Julie spotted what we all think was a coyote trotting along the side of the road. He was almost black in color.