We pulled out of the hotel parking lot in Tallahassee yesterday at around 2:00 pm. It felt not very much like a triumphant departure — we were (are) both too tired to celebrate, what with a six-plus-hours drive still ahead of us. But we did bump fists, so that counts, right?

(Well, technically we bumped fists twice. I’ve never mastered the art of the cool-guy fist bump. When The Missus first raised her fist, her eyebrows raised and face all expectant, I got the right idea — but with poor brain/fist coordination, all I managed was a weak, upside-down response. “Damn it,” I thought, flipped the fist around, and successfully pulled off Try #2.)

Instead of the faster –but higher-pressure — highway route, we opted for “the back way,’ at least to start out. (I’d even mapped out an entirely “back way” to South(ish) Florida… but to follow through on that alternative, we’d have to have left by noon. No way!) It drizzled a bit, but by the time we stopped for a fast-food mid-afternoon bite to eat, it was obvious we’d have to switch to the all-highways option…

This being Central Florida, the serious rain started a few minutes later. And continued, almost whiting-out the way forward, until we finally pulled off at the Stuart exit of the Florida Turnpike, seven-and-a-half hours after departure.

Whew!