2014 New Year Celebration in Florida

I've been toying with the idea of going to Florida to escape the bitter cold of the Midwest. On Christmas day I had decided not to go. But after looking at the weather forecast for the next few days and a little push from Melissa, I packed my clothes, made a few phone calls and jumped in my car the Sunday after Christmas and headed to Florida. My car doesn't have a GPS system but MapQuest is a great navigation tool. My drive took me through St Louis into Illinois heading south to Paducah, Kentucky. From Kentucky it was on to Tennessee through Nashville to Chattanooga. The traffic going through the Smokey Mountains was extremely slow and congested. I think all the winter snowbirds (aka "old people") were headed to Florida for their winter nesting and not one of them took their foot off their brakes while going down the mountains. I knew my trip was going to take me about 20 hours and I wasn't going to drive all 20 at one time. But I was a bit perplexed on where to stop my first night. When I got to Chattanooga, I'd already been driving about 12 hours. But it was only 6:00 p.m. and I wasn't tired so I headed to Atlanta. I debated about stopping just before I got to Atlanta but I didn't want to deal with rush hour traffic into the city on a Monday morning. So I decided to stop on the south side of Atlanta. You don't know crazy intercity driving until you drive the freeways of Atlanta in the dark. I swear there are 8 lanes of traffic and instead of overhead signs, the road itself is marked with the interstate number. There has to be a bypass through Atlanta, but if there is one, I missed it. With white knuckles I made it through Atlanta and stopped for the night.

The next morning took me through Macon, George, down to Florida. Instead of following my MapQuest instructions, I turned east to travel the coastline through Jacksonville and Daytona Beach into Vero Beach.

I can't remember the last time I went out for New Year's Eve. I had reservations at Costa D'Estes - a resort on the beach owned by Gloria Estefan. My stay included a complimentary welcome mojito - a rum and lime drink - very tasty. While enjoying my cocktail, I watched the wait staff set up an amazing ice sculpture. My intent was to travel up and down the beach and check out the parties at the other resorts. Each resort had some type of band set up both inside and on the outside patios.

I can't believe I celebrated the new year outside in 70 degree weather.

I feel just a tiny bit bad escaping to the warm climate of Florida while the temperature and snow were falling at home.

But I did notice from this picture of Jamie shoveling the snow from my driveway and sidewalk that he did get the Christmas decorations down!

Meanwhile I was strolling the beach. I need to check and see if the condos behind me are available for winter rentals.

There is some new construction going on but I could never afford something like this.

But I'm not quite the snowbird I want to be so after a week in Florida I headed back to Missouri. The trip home wasn't nearly as congested as going to Florida. I felt like an expert cruising through Atlanta (at least it was the middle of the day and not at night). There was still traffic on the other side of the highway going through the Smokey Mountains but my side was moving right along. I was headed to Metropolis, Illinois, where Harrah's has a casino. I wasn't quite sure how long it would take me but as I passed Chattanooga it was still early. My choice was to continue driving or stop for the night. If I stopped I figured I'd only be sitting in front of a television so I decided to drive on through. I don't know where my geography knowledge went but I was thinking Illinois was on the other side of Tennessee - NOT. You still need to go through Kentucky. It's now 6:00 p.m. and the sign said Paducah was only 86 miles so I continued. About an hour into Kentucky I heard a strange noise. It was sleeting. I didn't know what to do. I was on a highway with no towns, no streetlights and not much traffic. So I slowed my speed and kept trucking. Along with the sleet came the snow. Yikes! When I reached Paducah, I knew I was less than 10 miles to the Illinois border. Again, I kept going. I can't remember being happier when I passed the Kentucky/Illinois border and saw the sign - Metropolis - 6 miles.

Harrah's Metropolis was okay - not Las Vegas or even the Harrah's in Kansas City. But I was off the road and took the three days to rest before heading home. So far the temperatures in Kansas City haven't been too bad. But if things take a turn for the worse, I may be headed back to Florida.