After a nice visit in Wisconsin, it was time to hit the road to Florida for a wedding I was going to attend. Of course, it snowed when I was up there, and it had to snow right before I left.
It was kind of dark and dismal and also only 41F when I actually hit the road.
Before I left Wisconsin, I knew I wanted some Cousin's Subs. I stopped by one a little north of Madison.
The weather was very bipolar. As I kept driving south, it would clear up and then cloud up again and rain. This happened many times along the drive.
I eventually made it close to Peru, Illinois, where we would always go bowfishing. This is by the Abraham Lincoln bridge.
You could definitely tell this part of Illinois got a bunch of rain.
It was also very windy,
On my gas stop in Illinois, I could tell they still loved their Wisconsin products, including cheese curds.
The clouds definitely looked threatening here.
Soon, I could tell I was also getting close to the Bible Belt. This is the biggest cross I've ever seen!
By the time I got close to Kentucky, the sun was going down.
I made it to Clarksville, Tennessee. I slept there in the Walmart parking lot. The next morning, the sunrise was pretty cool.
I was happy to have a working defrost, as the windows were a bit foggy.
I needed a place with a reliable internet connection, so I stopped by McDonald's. I noticed they had a ham biscuit on their menu. I had never tried this, so that's what I ordered.
It was definitely warmer than Wisconsin, but still a bit cool.
I drove through Nashville, which was kind of backed up. Eventually, I got into the mountains. Overall, the Focus did very well. It was kind of crazy seeing the runaway truck ramps. Lucky I didn't have to use it!
When I was around Georgia, this song came on the radio.
The scenery around the mountains was nice.
When I hit Atlanta, traffic was nuts. I swear traffic was moving at 80-90mph and it was only a 55mph zone! I guess that's better than stop and go.
A bit south of Atlanta, I needed gas and was also hungry. There was a gas station with a Dairy Queen.
I finally made it to Florida and it was getting hot out.
I actually tried to take a nap, but it was too hot. I walked around the rest stop a bit. I also noticed you could get toll passes out of a vending machine.
I hit the road again and drove through a lot of tall trees.
Soon, I was to Jacksonville.
I swung by Daytona Beach and missed the sunset. I then made it to a rest stop to sleep the night. In the morning, I cleaned up and bit and walked around the rest stop to wake up.
I found another McDonald's to use the wifi at.
I drove a bit further and made it the Vero Beach. Before I was going to go to the wedding, I was going to meet up with my friend Mat. He lived a couple hours away from where the wedding was at and we hadn’t seen each other in years. He came up to Wisconsin once in between to visit about 7 years ago, but prior to that, the last time I saw him is when we were 15. We were actually locker partners in high school and his moving to Florida basically allowed me to have my own locker.
He worked at Best Buy and I actually needed a laptop case, so I dropped by. We figured out some rudimentary plans and I bought my laptop case.
It was kind of crazy going literally from snow to 90 degrees, all in the month of May. I guess I have experienced the opposite around November where I went from sunshine to a blizzard. It's just amazing how much the weather can change across the country and essentially be on the extreme ends of the spectrum for that time of year.