Finally Florida

The final day of driving takes us from Gulfport, Mississippi to Gainesville, Florida...450 miles. We hope to be there by dinnertime.

When we arrived at the Days Inn in Gulfport Tuesday night, there happened to be a Krispy Kreme about 50 yards away. Even though the “Hot Doughnuts Now” sign was on, it was getting close to bedtime, so we decided to get some the next morning.

Gulfport has a Navy Seabee museum, and Cristina’s grandfather was a Navy Seabee. Seabees are the Navy’s construction battalion (C.B... Seabee…get it?). Basically, they’re in charge of building stuff during a war, whether it is barracks, or runways, or whatever is needed. Cristina’s grandfather, Alden Rogers, was stationed in various parts of the South Pacific during World War II. He died in 2002, but a few years before he died, he donated some items to the Navy Seabee museum in Gulfport. So we wanted to swing by the museum before we got back on the road.

Bella woke me up around 7, so I took my shower and got dressed while the others slept. Bella and I drove down to the Krispy Kreme, but unfortunately they were just starting to make fresh doughnuts. I didn’t want to buy cold doughnuts, so I bought a coffee and let Bella pick one doughnut (she picked one with sprinkles). We sat down so she could eat her doughnut. I asked her if I could have one little nibble and she picked off a sprinkle and gave it to me!

We filled up the gas tank before returning to the hotel. $3.83/gallon. Cheapest so far. Never thought I’d be “happy” to see gas for $3.83. Back at the hotel, the others were still sleeping, but we roused them and started packing up. We had done a good job so far of eating oatmeal, grits, and yogurt/granola each morning, so we let ourselves junk it up for our last breakfast on the road. We went down to the free hotel breakfast, which was muffins, doughnuts, bagels , and OJ. We had a little bit, but I think we were all holding out for the Krispy Kremes which were coming soon.

We got two dozen glazed and headed to the museum, which opened at 10. Because the museum is on base, we had to get passes, which took a little bit of time, but finally we arrived at the museum. However, the museum is not really a museum anymore. When Hurricane Katrina hit, the museum was damaged and the items sent to a base in California. They’re building a new museum there which will open next year. But this place still had a few display cases of Seabee memorabilia, and a gift shop. We chatted with the lady in the gift shop for a while. We talked to a soldier who was headed to the base in California. He offered to look for the items Alden donated and call us. The base where the new museum is being built is about an hour north of LA. Maybe we can make it out there before we leave Arizona for good.

Finally on the road, the drive was an easy one. We hit one short patch of very heavy rain in Alabama, but it didn’t last long enough to delay us too much. To save time, we ate turkey and cheese sandwiches in the car for lunch.

We finally got into Gainesville around 8:15.