We've made it to Florida

LONG STORY SHORT
The Sunshine State feels familiar and alien all at once.

By Kristine McGowan

Six weeks after leaving Southern California, we can finally say we’ve driven across the country. We’ve made it to the east coast. We’ve seen the Atlantic Ocean. We’re in Florida, the farthest we’ve ever traveled by car.

And… it looks a lot like home.

There are palm trees and strip malls. Cities bleed into each other in an urban sprawl akin to Los Angeles’s. And, most reminiscent of our SoCal roots, we keep running into traffic and bad drivers. If you want to send Jason into a rant, ask him what it’s like to drive in Florida sometime.

That said—Florida also seems quite determined to prove that it’s not Southern California.

Despite its nickname as the Sunshine State, we’ve gotten caught off guard by three violent thunderstorms since entering Florida about a week ago. (Weather forecasts don’t seem to mean much here where rain’s concerned.) The humidity is inescapable. And we’ve already had one campground neighbor who made us feel a little like Phil and Claire Dunphy in season 6, episode 5 of Modern Family. (iykyk.)

But hey, it’s Florida. While we’re here, we want to experience the most Floridian aspects of Florida as possible. That’s what we’ve been trying to do over the last couple weeks.
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Keep reading to see how it’s going.

Where have we been?

Savannah, Ga.

Before crossing into Florida, we made one last stop in Savannah and quickly realized it might be our favorite place in the south. We strolled through a tunnel of live oaks, took an after-dark ghost tour of the city, visited the American Prohibition Museum, and waited in line for delicious soul food at the famous Mrs. Wilkes’ House. With our bellies so full, it felt less like a road trip and more like a southern Thanksgiving.

Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Fla.

​While we hadn’t planned for it, we decided soon after entering Florida that we couldn’t miss Kennedy Space Center. So we went. Between walking under a Saturn V rocket and feeling the bone-shaking vibrations of the Apollo 8 launch, I couldn’t help wondering if we were at a NASA center or Disneyland.

Tampa, Fla.

​We came to Tampa for one reason and one reason only: baseball. On Major League Baseball’s Opening Day, we headed over to Tropicana Field to watch the Tampa Bay Rays face off with the Toronto Blue Jays. (We’re Angels fans, but hey, it was the first game we could get to.) The field wasn’t great, but the atmosphere made for a fun time.

Biscayne National Park, Fla.

Of Biscayne National Park’s 270 square miles, 95% of it is underwater, which means the only way to see this park is to get wet. So we strapped on some fins, goggles, and snorkels, and dove right in. We’d hoped to see coral reefs, but given the four-foot waves out at sea, our guides took us to a mangrove forest instead—and it did not disappoint. I only wish I could have captured photos of the fish, nurse shark, and green moray eel we met down there.

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Where are we going next?

There’s lots to do here in the Sunshine (Sometimes) State, so we plan to bounce around Florida for a while. Dry Tortugas (#66) isn’t accessible by road, hence why it appears to be floating out at sea; we’ll have to take a boat for that one.

64. Miami and Biscayne National Park, Fla.
65. Key West, Fla.
66. Dry Tortugas National Park, Fla.
67. Everglades National Park, Fla.
68. Orlando, Fla.
69. Atlanta, Ga.
70. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, N.C. & Tenn.