Happy New Year!!

We hope you all enjoyed the holiday season. Captain Dave and I returned home to visit family and friends for the holiday and were reminded why we headed south to begin with. The midwest has seen a brutal winter season so far. One, I admit, we will not miss. Our holiday travels, over 3000 miles in the car, have left us feeling rather qualified to share some interesting travel anecdotes with you.

1. The most popular roadside restaurant is - not a McDonald's or a Burger King - but a Waffle House. We saw these at nearly ever exit. While Dave and I admit we've never eaten at a Waffle House we can only assume that the number of outlets they have must mean they have a pretty tasty menu.

2. The most interesting business model seen was the combination of gas station and fireworks sales under the same roof. We saw much of this traveling through the southern states and could not help but wonder if any of these businesses ever had a fire and if so what was the extent of the damage.

3. Along the route we took note of license plates and identified plates from 41 of the US states and 2 of the Canadian provinces. After a review of the map, we've decided that people who live in Kansas must be the happiest because we never saw a Kansas plate along the route so they must have no need to leave their home state.

Enough kidding aside. We had a great holiday but are very happy to be back in the sun and warmth of central Florida. We plan on being here another week before continuing the trek south to the Florida Keys. Our to do list is rather lengthy with boat chores to be done, but no fear, we are still managing to get plenty of time in at the pool each day.

More to come.

The Admiral