Lakewood to Coral Springs - February 2012

It was February. It was cold. It was snowing in Colorado. It was time....

We were all ready for this year's great adventure: Alvaro, Kristin, Tigger, Austin, and Reina are moving from Lakewood, Colorado, to Coral Springs, Florida. Rob and Hild came along for the roadtrip. We departed on Friday the 10th of February and followed the route: Lakewood, Trinidad(!), Austin (so we could take a photo of Austin visiting his name-sake city), Baton Rouge/New Orleans, Tampa, and Coral Springs. This was pretty close to our original planned route with only some changes in which town we stayed overnight in.

We arrived in Coral Springs 6 days later on Wednesday the 15th of February. From the cold snowy weather of Colorado it was great, to say the least, to arrive in Florida with its 25-30 degree Celsius February days!! Below are some photos and notes about the 2012-Roadtrip.

On the Road - Lakewood to Trinidad

When all the stuff had been packed into the truck and the two cars we performed the official closing ceremony with the Norwegian flag. This ceremony was first initiated by Olav and Janet during their visit to Lakewood years ago.
And after saying "farewell" to their old backyard - Reina, Tigger and Austin were ready as soon as we got them into Kristin and Alvaro's car.

Rob and Hild both wanted to pose with their rental car - affecionately named "Rooney" because it is maroon coloured and cool-looking. We are still discussing if it is named after "Wayne Rooney" or "Rooney Mara"!		And we arrived for our first night in a hotel in the early afternoon. We were so pleased to find that La Quinta Inn and Suites in Trinidad, Colorado would take all seven of us (hairy and not so hairy ones!) for no extra charge because Kristin has a frequent visitor card. Thank you La Quinta!!!
On the Road - Trinidad through New Mexico to Abilene, Texas
This was written and uploaded on the road between Raton, New Mexico, and Amarillo, Texas along route 87. Hild nearly dropped her computer on the floor laughing as we spotted FROZEN tumble weed in the road! Sorry no photos as the temperature has now dropped to -12 celsius outside. That is not something we've seen before but we should have guessed by the sub-zero temperatures and freezing fog settling annoyingly on our windscreen. Tonight we'll end up in Abilene, Texas. Again we have booked rooms at La Quinta - our new favourite place to stay wherever we are!

Along the road we saw plenty of oil wells with "nodding donkeys" (pump jacks) scattered around the landscape and working hard at pumping the oil up. We also got to drive past the world's largest wind farm: Roscoe Wind Farm. They have 627 turbines producing 780 MW at full capacity - involving 400 landowners.

The landscape along our road through Texas was generally not very exciting. Still, the doggies needed some pee breaks. Here we are walking along a side road outside Snyder.
Tomorrow night (Sunday) we are staying at La Quinta in Beaumont, Texas. But before we get there, we are - of course - stopping in Austin to take a picture of Austin there! Very important task, which we'll probably combine with lunch.
On the Road - Abilene through Austin to Beaumont

Success!! We managed to complete our plan for Day 3: Go to Austin; park the cars in a small car park we spotted in downtown Austin on Google Earth; walk Austin and Tigger and Reina over to Austin City Hall and take a group photo. And it worked! We completed the plan and got back to the car with three satisfied and tired doggies in tow.

It was a great walk and we learnt that Colorado River runs right through Austin - here with a river boat painted with the Texas flag.
Tonight we are staying at La Quinta Inn in Beaumont. This is our last stop in Texas and tomorrow we'll spend most of our time in Louisiana and then we'll stop in Daphne, Alabama. First we'll stop in New Orleans and find a nice place for another longer walk for the doggies - possibly around Lake Pontchartrain.
On the Road - Beaumont through New Orleans to Daphne

On our way from Beaumont to New Orleans we had to drive for about 18 miles on an elevated road through swamps. Exciting stuff - for about 5 miles and then it was more of the same. We started instead to discuss which trucks did or did not stick to the 55 miles per hour speed limit. When we got to Baton Rouge we crossed this rather nice big bridge. Rob did a good job photographing it at while Hild was doing 60 miles per hour (100 km/h).

Part of today's plan was to drive across the middle of Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans in the south to Mandeville on the north shore. The Causeway is over 38 km long and is therefore the World longest continuous bridge over water. It was a nice clear day but we still couln't see land on the other side. We kept entertained watching the pelicans and seagulls hovering at the side of the road.


Once again - we did find a nice place to stop for a break and walk the doggies. It was all part of a greater plan that involved crossing Lake Pontchartrain to Mandeville to get to Lake Shore Park. We had read on the Internet that it is a nice place to walk your dog on a lead. What was even better - according to Reina - was that there was a beach so she could dip her paws in the water. She wanted to go for a real swim but Mum and Auntie drew a line at wet paws in car. We had a bit of a walk before we ate our sandwiches in the car. It was a windy day so not so nice for a picnic in the park.

During our walk in Lake Shore Park we saw that many of the trees were covered in some kind of gray beard-looking plant. After some quick Internet-research. We have learnt that the trees were overgrown with Spanish Moss - also called Florida Moss. It isn't a parasitic plant or a moss or a lichen. It is its own kind of flowering plant that attaches itself to particularly oaks and cypress trees. It takes water and nutrient from the air but can also damage the host tree simply by shading it from the sun.
Tonight we are staying at La Quinta Inn (again!) in Daphne, Alabama. Then we're off to Tampa, Florida, for the last night of our roadtrip.
On the Road - Daphne to Tampa
Today's task - apart from getting to Tampa - was to find a CVS (pharmacy and convenience store chain) and purchase two SunPass transponders for prepaying at all of Florida's toll roads. We did our bit of research and determined that there is a CVS in Chipley which is a convenient two hours drive from Daphne. That is good timing for a pee-break for doggies and coffee (and pee) break for humans. We were in luck and got our two transponders and activated and pre-paid them online. Ready and installed on our car windscreens (see photo on the right) we can hit the Florida toll roads at our own leisure with no coins in hand.

We also found Leon rest stop (exit 194) on Interstate 10 west of Tallahassee. Having done some reseach beforehand we were lead to believe that it was nice for pets. Indeed it had nice grassy areas, concrete paths, picnic tables, and a fenced in pond with serious nutrient balance problem (sorry forgot to take photo of mushy green water). It took us a while to comprehend the numerous signs warning us of poisonous snakes in the area... but we were OK and didn't see any of them. Looking back, we probably shouldn't have crouched down on the grass without checking carefully. In the end everybody returned safely to the car - for a quick drink of water before continuing on to Tampa.
Today was our first really rainy day. That probably explains the lack of photos. What kind of "welcome to Florida" is this, we thought?! Still, by the end of the day we had over 20 celsius (over 70 Fahrenheit) and therefore could pack away our fleeces and jackets (and Hild's long-johns). Hooray! Tonight we are staying at our final La Quinta Inn this trip. It is actually in Brandon in the eastern part of Tampa. This should give us a quick exit tomorrow morning for our final few hours of driving down the west coast of Florida - crossing over the Everglades - and finally arriving at Kristin and Alvaro's new home. We are super excited!

We celebrated Valentines day with a piece of yummy chocolate cake - after a delicious take-out dinner from Bob Evans just across the Interstate from La Quinta here in Brandon.
On the Road - Tampa to Coral Springs
The drive from Tampa to Coral Springs was uneventful and we don't have any useful photos to share except this one which shows the first road sign that indicated that we were nearly there!

First entry into their new house. Reina is not convinced that the little wooden bear holding the welcome sign is entirely harmless! But as soon as they saw the pool area it was all good. We have some video footage of Austin taking an unplanned dive into the pool and Auntie Hild dragging him out again.... we may or may not show it to the world given it's sensitive and a bit embarassing nature.

We enjoyed a bit of time around the pool. Generally we just watched reina trying to figure out how deep the pool is and dropping the tennis ball in to see how many times Hild would go and get it for her. We all decided that Reina is the ultimate "reverse-retriever"! The first movie clip above shows Hild drying off Austin after his surprise entrance to the pool and Reina exploring the pool from the first step - not quite sure where the bottom of the pool is. The second clip just shows how good Reina is at getting Hild to fetch the ball and Austin sneaking in to see if he can push anyone else into the pool.....

The truck being off-loaded.

Kristin did all the organization of the off-loading of the truck. Here you can see her as clipboard-boss. Alvaro ran around organizing lots of bits and pieces to get a fence put up, internet connected (tomorrow hooray!), telephone, TV, and lunch and so much more. Rob and Hild were on dog-minding duty, which quickly turned into sitting-lazily-by-the-pool-duty. Some of us were more helpful duing the move than others.... Tigger sleeping by the pool - Austin sleeping by the pool - Reina sleeping by the pool. There are no photos but Rob and Hild were close to sleeping by the pool as well.

		Everyone chipping in with the cleaning and unpacking. Kristin wiping down the kitchen cupboards before we fill them with stuff. Alvaro unpacking and getting the wardrobes sorted out. Rob defrosting the freezer. Hild unpacking the spices - alphabetically, of course!

Rob and Hild are assembling yet another piece of Ikea furniture. It is their favourite pastime after all. And Tigger is helping in his special way - or just looking condescendigly at these poor humans....

Rob stretching network cables through the attic. There were tonnes of other cables up there to confuse him, and it was extremely hot up there. Meanwhile, Alvaro was trying to figure out the countless number of remote controls in the house (after the rest of us had given up trying!). There are remotes for the ceiling lights, the ceiling fans, the air conditioning, the TVs, the videos, the garage door, the sound system, and probably many more that we haven't discovered yet.

And these are some of the many remotes around the house. They all left us very confused. Kristin had to get the labelling machine out to sort them all out. Phew! Now all we need is a remote to lock all the doors... one day maybe.

Alvaro also in charge of cleaning the pool. We predict that there won't be much to do as the pool area is enclosed by netting walls. Very handy to keep bugs and debris out of the pool. Doggie hair will inevitably fall into the pool. Poolside - after another trip to Ikea we had a break with coffee, tea, and cake. Yummy!

Rob and Hild took several opportunities to go for a swim in the pool. After Reina accidentally fell into the pool, she is mostly content with just watching from the side lines.

Now the backyard is more like a palm jungle - perfect for Tigger and Austin (and Alvaro) to explore. They even found baby coconuts!

Then it was time to celebrate Kristin and Alvaro's new home. Thanks to Mamma and Daddy (THANK YOU!!) we upgraded our meal from frozen pizza to delicious dishes from Outback Steakhouse. Kristin and Hild had rack of lamb with baked potato and mixed vegetables. Alvaro had "Chicken on the Barbie", and Rob had ribs. The dish in the middle of the table was a "Bloomin' Onion" which is a huge onion cooked until golden and dipped in spicy sauce. We were soooo full afterwards that we were happy that we had the cake-break earlier on in the day. There would have been no space for more in our tummies! Note that the table is one of the new pieces of furniture from Ikea.
Trip Summary (nerd-alert!)
Here is the trip map with the places where we stayed over night marked.
Here you can see the huge differences in altitude on our trip. From 2400 metres above sea level in New Mexico and minus 20 metres in New Orleans and Tallahassee!
The chart below shows what messing around with the axis-units can do to make your chart look impressive - and misleading.... It looks like we have very good fuel consumption during the first day through the Colorado mountains. Then it drops off through Texas and gradually gets better all the way to Florida. All exciting stuff to think about, but there is almost no difference in our daily fuel consumption (as measured by "Rooney") on this trip: 9.1 to 9.65 litres per 100 km. Are we smooth drivers, or what?!
With no statistical significance we can ponder the chart below which shows an inverse relationship between speed and fuel consumption. Makes sense when you consider that our average speed dropped only because we were travelling through a number of towns. But the variation in our measurements of both speed and fuel consumption are too small to conclude anything whatsoever - not that it stopped us anyway!!!

February 2012

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