A bit slow start for the day. Chis and Joy were scheduled to tour us around Auburn University's campus. Chris is a brilliant scientist from our University of Virginia days. He even knows how to use pH paper (which I am still learning). Joy and Maaret were pregnant at the same time with their first ones and we lived 100 meters/yards from each other in Charlottesville. In addition, Chris and I were both offered positions at Auburn last summer. Had I gone there, we'd have had offices two room apart. Speaking of eerie similarities. However, they were probably itching to hear from us and get going. We finally made it to our rendezvous point.- - - - - -
The town and ca
mpus were very nice and neat, close match to UVA. We had a chance to feel the southern warmth, the temperatures were close to 90F/30C. The sweat was pouring from every possible body orifice. It is funny how fast you forget what the heat feels like when you live in the north for a while. My old bones loved it though. No creaks, no aches, all loose and limp as a yoghurt in a cup. People mostly stayed out of our way and we had all the sidewalks to ourselves. The only congestion we met at the Mellow Mushroom (restaurant) where the lines were 15 minutes long. (I am not going to tell you what we ate, it will be a secret.) We had a chance to rid the boys of extra energy in a nice park with nice climbing/sliding possibilities. Liam and Wilmer even stopped to smell the flowers! Come on, how often have you done that? Try it, take a minute of your busy day and stop and smell a flower. It gives you a nice warm feeling, or a stuffy nose...
We were feeling the time crunch and Florida was calling our names. We finished the Auburn tour with an inspection of Chris' Lab in the Chemistry Department (see Wilmer demonstrating a correct lab technique with his gloved hand) and a visit to his house where Maaret and Joy ended up swapping some pregnancy horror stories. The boys played with their toys, the smaller ones mainly with trains and cars and the bigger ones with their tech gear to download the pictures of the day. Thanks to freelance photographer Chris for the pictures you see here. It was great to see our old neighbors. Goodbye, take care, go Tigers!
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Our final destination, the final frontier, Tallahassee, the capital of Florida was reached after a painfully slow driving through Georgia peanut farms. We made it just before the nightfall. Despite their growling bellies and hunger pains, Mike and Christelle were kind enough to patiently wait for our arrivel before they served their grill feast. It had been advertised containing the local delicacy, alligator tail, but I think it was dropped off the menu by our cautious chef. Man, a cold beer had never tasted so good after a long hot drive!
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