Friday, 5th October 2018
This morning we woke up to a bright sunny day and we took our leisurely time to get packed and ready for our long drive which brought us to the outskirts of Tellahassee – the capital of the state of Florida.
I really have to get used to using the imperial system of calculating the distance – no metric system here and even our GPS lady keeps on giving us the calculated distance in Miles and Feet…… I haven’t used the imperial system since my schooldays…..anyway between the two of us, we’ve managed to drive and arrive at our destination.
Mind you the driving here is terrible – the left lane meant to be the fast lane is used for slow traffic AND also by lorries overtaking other vehicles – we finally got the hang of it and we were overtaking on the right hand side – something that is not allowed in the Netherlands.
We had a couple of stops on the way to break away from the monotous drive – after all it was a trip of 272 miles which is some 438km. Our first stop was for breakfast/ lunch at the Waffle House – this is where we had our brunch yesterday and we had enjoyed our food so we didn’t want to waste any time exploring other venues – although we were spoilt for choice…..
Later on we stopped again at Walmart to get some fruit and water as well as some snacks. This is a strange country – so abundant in fruit and yet we cannot even get fresh fruit juice . And then finally our last stop was at Mc Donald’s to enjoy a cold and refreshing milkshake and use their WI-FI ( just like we did in OZ) The temperature was well over 94 degrees Fahrenheit being 34.5 degrees celsius……
By the time we reached Tellahassee, we were quite worn out – our hotel was way out of the city centre but after relaxing for a bit in our spacious room, we decided to hit the town and I looked up some restaurants. Tellahassee is not far from the Gulf of Mexico and hence seafood is abundant. I chose a good oyster shack and based on all the visitors’ reviews, they are supposed to have the best oysters……..
it was really busy with locals and young people – especially as this shack is situated in the campus area. We ordered our drinks and chose our menu: a dozen raw oysters, fried onion rings, French fries and coke slaw salad. the oysters looked really great – big and juicy – but when I dug into the first one I was somewhat annoyed – this oyster did not taste anything like any other oysters we’ve had in different parts of the world – it did not have the salty sea taste but it was rather bland …… Gerry said that these oysters must have been farmed in sweet water – but I am sure that was not possible – so anyway with Tabasco sauce, salt and pepper and lemon juice we could eat our dozen – good job I didn’t order 2 dozens……. when I asked why the oysters tasted this way, the owner was quite surprised with this question but he did say that they had a lot of rain in the Gulf of Mexico so that would have watered down the salty taste…….
well we got back to our Comfort Inn where we enjoyed a good glass of Pinot Grigio in our room and not much later we were dead tired and just made it to bed……
Tomorrow we will be driving some 188 miles or 303km
