Our newest stop on the Magical Mystery Cute Baby Tour is Port Orange, Florida at Gramps’ house about ten miles south of Daytona Beach. He’d been making the trip every other month and it was time to show him that I-95 truly did work in both directions! So it is time to pack all of us and Grammy into the Escape for the magical journey south.
If you’ve not driven from North Carolina to Florida, it’s generally one of the more boring drives scenery-wise. The first bit of it is mainly South of the Border signs with their stereotypical smiling Mexican Pedro. Once you’re past that utterly amazing eyesore just over the South Carolina state line on I-95, the rest of it is the occasional fireworks stand. The cops were certainly out in force all along the way wolfpacking I-95! The only real excitement of the trip came just north of Jacksonville, Florida where there was an accident that shut down the southbound lanes of I-95 just north of downtown. We had a bit of excitement with the police cruisers forcing their way through the traffic on the line dividing I-95’s two lanes to give the rescue vehicle a clear path. (Last time I checked, passing on the right on the shoulder is illegal for all non-emergency vehicles but there were plenty of people doing it anyway). Once past the blockage, traffic moved pretty much at full speed (and full capacity of the highway) all the way to Daytona Beach.
Nicholas is such a wonderful traveler and he sleeps for most of the trip. When he’s awake, he’s utterly fascinated by the sights passing outside the window. He was certainly lively enough for a feeding at the Cracker Barrel in Santee/Cooper Lakes (South Carolina) and a Wendy’s in Brunswick, Georgia. We got a tip that the cheapest gas on that routing is in St. Mary’s, Georgia at Exits 1 and 3. (However, we caught Gramps on that one…the gas was actually three cents cheaper in Brunswick, Georgia but I’m not complaining…it’s still about twenty cents cheaper than North Carolina and thirty cents cheaper per gallon than Port Orange).
In spite of lots of traffic, a couple of stops, and an accident…we arrived in Port Orange safe and sound and that’s the most important thing. Of course, Gramps was there ready and waiting and we were treated to an extra surprise when Aunt Betty and Uncle Roger came round to the house to visit (they were heading to Lakeland early Thanksgiving morning to visit their sons for dinner).