On the road again....Day 1-2

So, currently, i'm sitting on a couch in a hotel in a far-away land.... well, okay, the land of the free and the home of the brave to put it concisely.  The heater is on, the slippers are warm, the sweater is cozy and the couch is in....Orlando.  Yeah, i know, we were coming for a "sun" vacation and to be sure, it was sunny today, but it's pretty hard to get a tan when you've got many layers on to keep warm.  We arrived last night to the lovely news that Florida is experiencing a cold snap and we were in for a record low both at night and during the day today.  You know you are in Florida when the cold snap announcements on the t.v. weather report are accompanied by discussions of whether this will kill the plants and whether it would wreck your solar blanket on your pool - in Canada, when it dips down below 15, the pools are already closing up.  I guess not so much in the Sunshine State eh?  Well, the good news is that at home, we've been told it is -12 with windchills of -18, whereas the low here that people are nervous about is a balmy -1.2 degrees celsius (an approximate since i'm still not used to converting F-C.  My car is much smarter than me and can convert the temperatures and speeds very easily for me.  Good old Prunelope.
Speaking of Prunelope, i will admit that she did an admirable job, trekking all the way from Hamilton to Orlando in just under 24 hours, with only a few pit stops for gasoline and a little sleep break for Carina and I in the parking lot of Wendy's in the middle of Kentucky somewhere.  She probably thought as she left the driveway, "oh, just another trip to Mom and Dad's or maybe at the farthest, out to Toronto to visit Timothy", but imagine her shock when she crossed the border and kept heading south!! Poor car!  And the drivers didn't do too badly either.  We left Hamilton at 9pm and headed for Sarnia and the U.S. border.  The weather had become extremely windy in Hamilton and somehow all the way down to Orlando, the weather remained windy... are there weather systems that cover such a huge area?  Around London, the weather turned snowy and blustery and that was no fun - we had intermittant snow squalls all the way through Michigan and even through Ohio and Kentucky.  I think the last time we saw snow was probably in Tennessee.   Carina and i took turns driving and keeping each other awake through the long stretches of the night when normal people are snugly tucked in their beds, dreaming of sugar plum fairies....We listened to cds, ate peppermints, played a few word finding games, ate peppermints, ate millet squares, ate peppermints, looked at the maps, ate peppermints, and you get the idea.  Scenery along the way that was notable included the mountains in Tennessee (we looked really hard for a "typical" pick up truck with a gun rack on it but alas were denied that sight), the rolling hills and horse farms of Kentucky, the empty buildings in Detroit, and finally the start of the hanging spanish moss as we entered Georgia and Florida.  Once the snow squalls cleared up, we had beautiful sunny dry weather all the way to Orlando which was a real bonus, hearing some of the stories that people have been relating about driving home and terrible traffic back ups and such. 

 the roads were relatively clear here - but not so much earlier on

 Yes, there we are on vacation... don't we look relaxed?

 trying to be artsy fartsy...

A random car in a random state on a random piece of road... but that's road-tripping!

Some trip anecdotes include:
- Carina trying to cheer the very grumpy border guard up, but definitely not succeeding.  We decided that he was frustrated with his job and decided to take it out on the poor unsuspecting souls who came through his booth.  He even shone his flashlight into the car, poked through the trunk and thoroughly was a disagreeable fellow.   We were admittedly a little nonplussed when he asked us where we were going and we replied Orlando and he then proceeded to ask us how we were getting there - after having shone his flashlight into the car, would he not have seen the piled up luggage, blankets and pillows that littered the space?? 
- getting out at a gas station somewhere in Michigan or maybe it was Ohio in the pitch black and howling winds to pee at a very empty rest stop and then buying a coffee that was termed "extreme" (i thought it would help!).  I believe the only extreme thing about it was the size of the cup.... Toto, i don't think we're in Ontario anymore. 
- buying very expensive bananas at the pharmacy last night for breakfast today - those better be the healthiest and most delectable bananas you ever did taste!
I don't know too much else to write right now... we followed the map directions (imagine that, only page of directions all the way from Ontario to Orlando) and arrived alive just after 8 pm.   We are staying at the Cypress Point Grand Villas in Orlando and we have a large suite - two bedrooms, a large dining and sitting area, kitchen area complete with all the appliances, a washer and dryer and an enclosed outside porch and a pool view (though i wouldn't be surprised if we found ice cubes floating in the pool soon!)  It is a good location, right close to everything and we are quite happy here!!! 
We settled into bed around 10:30 and that was good too!  So good in fact that apparently, according to Carina, i was doing plenty of talking in my sleep and scheming about making money and buying things.... i'm sorry that i talk in my sleep....