The drive back home

We rented a nice, big Dodge Grand Caravan for the drive home. For one week, unlimited mileage, no drop charge, including tax:  Palm Beach Airport to MSP Airport.  $240.  Adding insurance for no deductible (the Florida drivers are beyond crazy!), it came to $370 plus gas.  How's that for a deal?  This is the Enterprise "Drive Out of Florida" program – they wanted their cars back up north for the summer. [In March, this would have cost us $900 plus insurance.]

It was really different to travel at 55 knots instead of 5 knots.

We drove up to Daytona Beach, and stayed with and on our buddy boat. Got to see Diane and Frank one more time!  We will really miss them, until we return in the Fall and join them (and maybe Laurence and Joan) for a crossing to the Bahamas for the next winter.

We decided to drive up I-95 to South Carolina, then northwest over the Smokies. This avoided Orlando, Atlanta, and Nashville – 3 cities that are best not driven through. [We also blew off Chicago by going through Bloomington IL and north to Rockford.

Stopped in to visit with Jerry Hardin (Trailer Sailor – North Channel; last year's Havasu Pocket Cruisers Conference), about an hour west of Knoxville in very beautiful country – rolling hills of Eastern Tennessee.

Home in six days.