Eight days and 1346.2 miles later, Aaron's Florida Odyssey came to an end on Monday night. It was an amazing trip! After seeing my family in Sarasota I drove to Jacksonville to see Manna and Shelia, and got the nice bonus of seeing Holly and Brian too. I was nervous about staying with Shelia since we'd only talked a few times, but the minute we met it felt as though we were best friends. While I was there I was also lucky enough to hold a teeny tiny little kitten, to acquire a disembodied guardian angel (pictures to come soon), and to watch Kung Pow, one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. Furthermore, I was fortunate enough to make almost the entire trip without any car troubles; the lack of any serious problems actually came as a huge surprise. I made the mistake of setting out from Jacksonville at rush hour and while sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic, the engine temperature suddenly shot through the roof. I rolled the windows down and put the heat on max, which cooled the engine enough to let me drive on the shoulder to an exit and head straight for the nearest gas station (ironically right down the street from Shelia's house). All the fluids were fine, so I got back onto the highway and discovered that as long as I maintained highway speeds the engine got enough wind to stay cool. Since I've been back the problem seems to have fixed itself; hopefully it'll stay that way.

The longest drive I'd ever done up to this point was under three hours, which had me a little nervous, but I found that I can drive 8+ just as easily-- in fact, I really enjoyed it. I simply cruised along with the windows down, listening to the wind, and didn't even get bored enough to listen to music. And it gave me time to think up silly little raps like this:

On the radio, Creed
is singing to me
a song apparently
about how to get free.
But I really don't see
why it's got to be
always about Je-
sus-- but that's just me.

There are other things I wanted to mention but I'm too hungry to think at the moment. Time for dinner.