Aya wrote:Well, my parents and I might be taking a road trip down to Daytona, Florida this sunday. Long story short, the son of the owner of the car dealership my dad works at, wrecked his car down in Florida and his dad asked for someone to go and bring it back. My dad apparently volunteered for the job. If he's sent, his boss'll pay for all expenses and give him a bonus when he returns. Not too shabby, really.
I've never been to Florida before. The only states I've gone to are West Virginia, Maryland and DC, if you want to count it. Hopefully my dad'll get some film for the camera and I'll have some pictures.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
Having lived in Florida before moving to Maryland, I'll tell you some stuff.
You're taking I-95, right? Straight Trip from the Northeast. Taken it tons of times. Generally, that means a midway stop for the night in the Carolinas. In North Carolina, Smithfield-Selma and Fayetteville are good exits. In South Carolina, Florence, Manning, Santee, St. George, Walterboro, and Hardeeville are all good places to stop... especially Florence, as it's a big city (not exactly a metropolis, but big enough). You could stay in Savannah, but by then you're real close to Daytona already. The drive from DC is maybe 15-20 hours straight, depending on traffic (possibly more, if it were like a big holiday weekend).
Florida is beautiful - although by May, it's already getting hot. Think 80s and 90s for highs, 70s for lows. The best time to go is in April (assuming no forest fires), not too hot or muggy. Daytona is a nice beach, unless you consider that everything from Key Biscayne to Fernaninda Beach is nice, not to mention the Gulf Coast. For a scenic drive, drive anywhere on 'A1A' - a road (Actually, several roads) that run along the various beachside islands. Daytona Beach is the home of the WPGA (Women's Pro Golf), the Daytona 500 (obviously), and is less than an hour's side-drive from Orlando and Cape Canaveral.
Florida's chief problem is mosquitoes: they're all over. And the females think humans are just tasty.
If you've spent your whole life in West Virginia, Maryland, and DC, you'll be amazed by how flat Florida is. Except for some hills in the panhandle and north-west of Orlando, Florida is one piece of flat land from Jacksonville to the Everglades. If you see a hill, in all probability it was put there, either for some scenery in a park or to dump trash.
I'm sorry if this was long or travel-brochure-y, but I guess I wanted to say as much as I wanted to. Also, I'm rather new here and wanted to be a bit friendly.