The joys of Florida

We've had a great few days Florida - we were down in the Miami area from Saturday night until this morning, and we just arrived in Orlando (where we are staying with Mike's friend Giles).  We had a great time eating massive amounts of ice cream on Saturday night, spending the day on the beach in Miami on Sunday, and we're looking forward to exploring Orlando and Tampa tonight and tomorrow.  However, there are a couple of annoying things about Florida that deserve mention.

The first is the tolls.  Right before we left Atlanta to drive down to Miami, a friend of a friend warned us that we would encounter a lot of tolls on our drive, and that they wouldn't be cheap.  She wasn't kidding.  I haven't been keeping a close track, but we've paid at least $30 in tolls in the past 72 hours (this after not hitting a single toll since Delaware).  And we still have at least 12 more hours of driving to do in this state.  It wouldn't be as annoying if Florida accepted EZPass...but of course, they don't.  Our supply of dollar bills and quarters that we started the trip with to pay tolls and parking meters is disappearing very quickly.  Oh, and one other thing - on Florida's Turnpike (why the possessive, rather than just calling it "the Florida Turnpike"? No clue), there are exits that you can only use if you have SunPass (their version of EZPass).  Good thing we didn't need to get off at one of those, or we'd probably still be stuck on the highway.

The other slightly irritating thing about Florida is the weather.  No, I'm not talking about beautiful, sunny, 85 degree weather that we've had for 90% of our time here - I'm talking about the 10 or more sudden downpours that we've driven through since entering the state (not to mention the one last night that delayed the game for 90 minutes).  Every time you think you're past it, with only sunny blue skies ahead, you suddenly hit the hardest rain you've ever seen.  It doesn't help that the driving skills in this area aren't that impressive even in the sun.

Like I said, despite those minor annoyances, we're having a great time here.  I just think I'm ready for the part of our trip where we will be driving down toll-less highways in the middle of the desert.