Day 12 (Tallahassee, FL)

The first morning in Florida. Giddy up! The car odometer shows 1500 miles or 2400 km so far. I feel like I have been in Paris-Dakar rally, tired, sweaty and sandy with a sore rear end.

Once we got it going, we ended up at a pool nearby. That is the only way to handle the heat of the day, other than by sitting indoors on top of an air conditioning vent. At the pool, we quietly went about our business, mumbling about how we can't find a car here with a great fuel mileage, huge amount of trunk space, and a good price, and what do you know, we hear Finnish being spoken at the pool. Our batman ears pick up the accent and we place the people to Rovaniemi, the place at the arctic circle in northern Finland where the Santa Claus himself lives (click the red text). In North American culture, Santa Claus lives in the North Pole, though North Pole is in the middle of the Arctic Ocean and there is no land!! Go figure... these Americans. Well, regardless, we spent the next few hours roasting our white bodies and talking to our tribe mates from Finland. It turned out that a family was visiting their daughter who had migrated here years ago and gotten married.

The rest of the day, naturally, we spent napping, eating, playing soccer and baseball, and by going to Walmart to pick up Mike and Christelle's fancy new exercise machine. They want to burn some extra calories (like the hot sun is not enough) and lose weight. We celebrated the occasion with some yummy and rich cheesecake.

Note from the editor: Sorry, no pictures. We got scared since we left our own camera in the hotel room in Opelika, AL, and had to use Chris to supply our pics yesterday in Auburn. So, now the camera is locked away until we feel comfortable carrying it again. Yes, we luckily got it back, thanks to the honest hotel employees.