Final Numbers

Miles Driven: 3200

Hours Driven: 50

States Driven Through: 9

Beaches Visited: 5

Gas Fill-ups: 14

Calls for Wade: 1263

Hours Slept by Tom and Skyler: 40

Hours Slept by Pat and Kevin: 3

Fires on Highway Seen: 2

Times Skyler Said Something Stupid: 37

Times Skyler Said Something Funny: 37

Total: ONE GREAT TRIP!

Day Nine

Day Nine started at about 8 AM when we all awoke, and we gathered ourselves to make the drive back to Purdue. The drive was not too exciting, and not much happened. Cory drove most of the way home, and Pat finished the last leg of the trip. We drove through North Carolina, Virgina, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Indiana. We stopped for gas a few times and stopped to eat once at Subway. As we got further and further north, the weather became colder and colder. All of us, except for Pat, still had shorts on. In West Virginia, it was snowing for a few hours and we decided that we should turn around head back to Florida for another week. We didn't do it. We drove through Lexington, Louisville, and Indianapolis on the way back. We arrived back at Purdue at 9 PM. Here ends day nine and the journey to Florida.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Day Eight

Day Eight started with preparations to start our journey back to West Lafayette. We packed up all of our things and loaded them into the car. After we had loaded our bags into the car, Mr. and Mrs. Hornyak gave us tons of snacks for the ride. We said our goodbyes and thank yous, and started driving north. Our plan was to drive to Daytona Beach, spend some time there, and then continue on to Charlotte. Skyler drove us from Naples to Daytona. It took a little longer than we had planned due to some heavy traffic through Orlando. All in all, it was about 5 hours.

When we arrived at Daytona Beach, it was already 3 PM. We decided to not stay as long as we had originally planned because we did not want to get to Charlotte too late. We decided to pay the few dollars and just drive up and down on the beach. This is one of the unique characteristics about Daytona. We continued to let Skyler drive on the beach. We had driven about half of the length you could drive on when Skyler decided to get us stuck in some deep sand. It was Pat's fault though. After some random guys helped us push the van out, we continued down the beach. We turned around and started our way back to where we began. We stopped to eat some of the sandwiches that we had packed and look at the ocean and enjoy Daytona. After we had finished eating, playing catch, and fixing a few minor issues, we left the beach and headed to a gas station to refuel and switch drivers.

It was a little after 5:30 PM when I started driving in Daytona. I got us back to the Interstate, but on the way we saw Daytona International Speedway, home of the Daytona 500, and Embry Riddle, one of the most prestigious aeronautical colleges in the country. When I got back to the Interstate, we travelled north to Charlotte. Not too much happened on the way except for a stop for gas and food. Other than that, Pat and I stayed awake for driving while the rest of the car slept. It took about 8 hours to get to Charlotte and we arrived at about 2 AM. We stayed in Tom's friend Courtney's room and got some sleep. Here ends day eight.

Day Seven

Day Seven started like every other day. We woke up, got showered and prepped for the day, and ate some breakfast. Tom, Skyler, and Pat went to visit Kraft, a construction company, in the morning to learn about some possible internships. Cory and I stayed at the house and waited for them to come back so we could head out for the day. By the time they got back to the house, it was almost noon and time for lunch. They ate some lunch, and we gathered our things to head to the beach. We all went to Ft. Myers. We drove about a half an hour to Ft. Myers and found a place to park. We had to walk across a large bridge to get back to the beach side of the water. When we got there, we found a spot on the beach and made ourselves at home. As always, we laid in the sun, took some walks, and played in the water. There seemed to be a lot more water activities going on in Ft. Myers. There was a bunch of people jetskiing and parasailing. We also saw a spot on the beach with a Purdue, Notre Dame, and Indiana state flag. It seemed odd that there would be a place on the beach for good ole people from Indiana. After we grew tired of the beach, we headed back to Tom's house.

We decided to use up our paintball materials and play some paintball. By this time it was late afternoon. We headed out to the woods. We had a good time shooting each other, and we all had bruises and scratches when we finished. Some of us hurt more than others (Skyler was hit in the head, not mask, head). After we had used up the rest of our supplies, we had to call it quits. We headed back to the house sweaty and covered in paint. We all showered up and watched some of the NCAA tournament. After we had been watching for a while, Tom realized that he had dropped his phone somewhere on the playing field. It was dark out already so Cory, Tom, and I took a flashlight with us and went out to search. We found it fairly quickly after we had gotten there because we called it and Tom has the world's unusual ring.

When we returned from finding his phone, Tom's Mom was having her bible study. She invited us to say some prayers with her, and we all sat down with her bible study group. She prayed over us for having each other and for a safe trip. The she prayed for each of us individually, and we listened intently. The prayer session lasted a little over an hour. After we had finished, we had some snacks from the kitchen. We went and watched some more basketball and packed up some of our stuff for the following day. Bed time. Here ends day seven.

Day Six

Day Six started fairly early. We awoke at about 8 AM. We ate, got dressed, got our things ready for the day. We drove about two hours across Florida to Miami. When we got there, we were unsure of where to settle ourselves on the beach. Tom jumped out of the van and asked a drunk old man where to go. He told us that we were at the old people's beach. He told us to go down to 10th Street. He said that was were all the spring breakers were. We drove down the coastline to 10th Street. We couldn't find a place to park at first. We drove around for a while looking for a place to park where we wouldn't get towed. We finally found a place on the street to park about two blocks away from the beach. We got out, grabbed our towels and lotion, and walked to the beach. We found a place to lay and sunbathed. We walked down the beach and viewed the sites. We learned that 12th Street is the gay section of the beach. It was filled with guys in speedos. After we had sunbathed, walked the beach, threw the ball, and took a dip in the ocean, the sun went behind the clouds. We decided it was time to leave the beach and explore Miami. We headed back to the car to drop off our things and feed the meter. We walked about 10 blocks around Miami. We looked in stores and saw some fancy cafes. After we had tired ourselves walking, we decided to go back to the car and head back. We drove through downtown Miami and saw some expensive houses on the shoreline. We then headed back to the Interstate. We drove back across the state to Naples. This part is a portion of the Everglades also know as Alligator Alley. Our original plan was to stop somewhere along this portion of highway and fish and check out some gators, but we decided that we were not up for that and just drove back to the Hornyak's.

When we got back, we had some dinner. We decided that we should go out and see a movie. When we were showered and dressed, we went to see a movie with Tom's Dad. We saw the movie 300. The movie was decent and gave us a lot to talk about on the way home. When we got back, we all relaxed and took some time for ourselves. Here ends day six.

Day Five

Day Five started with breakfast at the Hornyak's. After breakfast, we headed to Ft. Myers to watch an exhibition baseball game between the Minnesota Twins and St. Louis Cardinals. We got to the game about two hours early to make sure we would get tickets. We bought our tickets, but they were standing room only. Before the game began, we went over to the practice fields to watch the Minnesota Twins farm teams practice. We watched for quite some time, then headed into the stadium, Hammond Stadium. The four of us (Tom had not stayed with us, he went to Ft. Myers beach instead) headed over to watch the Cardinals warm up on the field and take batting practice. We watched and took some pictures. Just before the game began, we were kicked from the seats we were in to our standing room only area. The stadium was very full and must have sold way too many tickets for standing room only because there was no where to stand. Later, it was announced that it was a record attendance for Hammond Stadium. We stayed for most of the game and left when Tom came back with the van to pick us up.

We headed towards Tom's house as it was already late afternoon. On our way home, we picked up some paintball supplies from Wal-Mart. When we got back, we ate and got dressed for paintball. After we were all deacked out in old clothes and pants, we walked to a patch of woods behind Tom's house to play some paintball. We played for about two hours. After we had had enough and were too tired to shoot each other, we headed back. We all washed ourselves and got ready for the night. We went to bed fairly early because we were planning an early start on Wednesday. Here ends Day Five.

Day Four

Day Four started with breakfast at the Hornyak’s at about 10 AM. We all got dressed, showered, and ready for the day. When we headed out, we went to a different beach in Naples, Vanderbilt Beach. This beach was more crowded than yesterday’s spot. After we found a place to sit and enjoy the sun, we sat and relaxed. Lo and behold, there was a girl there who was from Purdue. We found out that her grandfather also went to Purdue and he lived in Florida and she was staying there. What a small world! After a while, we started to get a little restless, so we decided to get up and take a walk. We took a long stroll down the beach in the water. After we returned from our walk, we bathed in the sun some more and played some football. At about 4 PM, we decided to call it quits for the beach for the day. We packed up and headed back to Tom’s house. Tom’s Mom has made us “enchaladios”, as she called them. They were made from scratch by her own recipe and were delicious. We all had our fill, yet she tried to get us to eat more. After we declined, we rolled ourselves out of the dining room to get showered and prepared for the night.

The night started with a trip to the pier. The pier is where many people go to watch the sunset. We got there a little early so we watched the dolphins and pelicans from the pier (refer to pictures here). We went to the end of the pier close to the time of the sunset, and waited. We tried to get everyone to clap 4 minutes before the sun actually set because as most people know the sun actually sets 4 minutes before we see it due to refraction and gases in the air. No one joined in our early clapping, but we did get a few strange looks. We also met a man who went to Purdue and graduated in the 50’s with a degree in Agronomy (you’ll have to look it up if you want to know what it is). After the sunset, we headed back to our car. When we got back into the car, we looked for a place to park in downtown Naples on 5^th Avenue. We found a place to park, and walked down 5^th Avenue and checked out all the shops along the street. We saw a shop named “Café Lunavelis” which had special significance to us. After we walked up and down a few blocks, walked into a few stores, and took a few pictures, we headed to the car. We then headed to the Naples local mall to check it out. By the time we got there, it was near closing time, but we got to take a quick look around. It was under heavy renovation, but remained open for business. When we left the mall, we made our way back to Tom’s house. We had a bite to eat and relaxed for a few minutes. We headed to Ft. Myers to pick Cory up from the airport. We went to the concourse where he was supposed to arrive and waited for him. His plane arrived a few minutes late, but he arrived in one piece. We greeted Cory with a few jeers, and then we headed to our car. We drove back to Naples and Cory met Tom’s parents. We spent a few minutes conversing then went to bed. Here ends day four.

Day Three

At 5 AM when I decided to stop driving, Pat and I decided to take a rest at a rest stop in Florida. Skyler and Tom woke up while we were at the rest stop and demanded to know why we were not moving. We told them we were tired and needed a rest. They violently erupted and said they would have none of that. They said they were not going to miss breakfast at Tom’s house. Patrick and I moved to the back seat, and Skyler and Tom to the front. Skyler drove the last 3.5 hours to get to Naples. Pat and I slept for that time to get some much needed rest.

When we arrived at Tom’s house in Naples, we met Tom’s Mom and Dad. They were very friendly and welcoming. We brought our stuff into the house and got semi-settled while Tom’s Dad prepared breakfast. When breakfast was ready, we ate in the dining room with Mr. Hornyak. After breakfast, we chilled for a while in our room and watched TV and got our things situated. After a while we decided to go down to the beach. Tom drove us about 5 minutes to Seagate Beach. It was not crowded and we our pick of the beach. We all sat in the sun and worked on our tans. We also went into ocean and swam and played with the football. I was the only one with any major burns. My legs and feet were pretty red. We were there for a few hours and then came back to Tom’s house. We decided to rest and watch some TV. All of us passed out from being in the sun all day and from lack of sleep from the night before. When we awoke from our nap, we decided it as too late to go out and do anything so we stayed in for the night. Tom’s Mom made us spaghetti for dinner. It was delicious. We also sat and talked with Tom’s Dad about Florida and what there was to do around Naples. We went to bed after watching some TV. Here ends day three.

Day Two

After the long drive, we finally arrived in Charlotte, NC. After terrible directions from Tom's friend, Courtney, and Tom's heroic driving skills, we arrived at Belmont Abbey College. We waited for Courtney in the parking lot of the college. While we waited, we viewed the future site of their new chapel. When Courtney came down and found us, we went out to IHOP for breakfast. Everyone thought Skyler was "walking cornbread (never seen an Asian before)." We had a good breakfast and then headed back to Belmont Abbey. Courtney gave us a tour of the buildings on campus. There were not too many to see. During the grand tour, we viewed the Math and Science building. We, being engineers of Purdue, dominated the Math and Science department. After a short break to see Courtney's kitten in her room, we headed out to see the sites. We drove to downtown Charlotte to look around and see the city. We couldn't find any free parking and no one wanted to pay to park and walk around. So, in the end, we drove around and just looked at some of the buildings. I took some pictures of the sites I thought were important (they are in the Day Two photos). Instead of walking around the city, we decided to check out the mall near Charlotte, The Mills. It was one of the largest malls I have ever seen. The mall had "neighborhoods", and I actually felt as though I walked through a full neighborhood every time. We didn't find anything exciting enough to buy, but we did walk through a few different stores. Also, the mall contained a NASCAR store with a go kart track and other games such as miniature golf. We bought some tickets and went on the go karts. All five of us raced and Skyler won despite questionable methods. We drove back to Belmont Abbey and relaxed before our big trip to Florida. We took a few hours to check our email and get washed up. Patrick and I had barely slept the night before and took the time to get some sleep. We picked up and left Belmont Abbey at about 8 PM. The trip to Naples would take about 11 hours. Skyler started out the drive and went about to hours before stopping. At this point, we were in South Carolina. Tom took over the wheel, and we drove through more of South Carolina. Tom also drove about two hours and when we stopped to get gas, Patrick took over driving. We were then in Georgia. The drive through Georgia was long and foggy. Patrick wanted to stop and sleep when we made it to Jacksonville, but I wanted to push on since we were only five hours away, but it was already almost 3 AM. I convinced Pat to let me continue to drive and I got us about two more hours along. It was then about 6 AM with Daylights Saving Time. We stopped at a rest stop to take a nap and continue the final few hundred miles in the morning. Here ends day two.

Day One

At approximately 8:45 PM today, we embarked on our journey toward Florida. Our trip began with just the four of us: Tom, Pat, Skyler and I. We did not leave without a few minor setbacks. When we first attempted to leave, we forgot the maps and had to turn back to get them. We also had to stop back at Skyler’s to pick up some of the stuff he had forgotten. Pat was the first to drive as we had Cory’s van and he had previously talked to the Proctor’s. We began in Indiana and started heading south towards Indianapolis. We all were excited to begin the trip and the energy in the car was high. We had many laughs about all kinds of things, including Wade. We made our first stop for gas in Alpha, Ohio.

We all got out and stretched and made our way inside to the convenience store. The cashiers, acting as they had never seen an Asian (Skyler) before, referred to him as “cornbread” (read that with a southern accent). Also, a side note for Josh if he happens to read this, the store sold Ale-8. We all piled back into the car to begin the next leg of our journey. We traveled southeast through Ohio and came into West Virginia. This is where my late night training came into hand. Pat and I stayed awake to do the driving while Tom and Skyler both fell asleep like little babies. Tom had earlier challenged us to see how long we could stay up and not go to sleep, but now he was the first to fall asleep! Pat and I found West Virginia to be the most interesting state so far. We drove on the interstate weaving through the mountains and over the Ohio River and many other rivers multiple times. We also saw a lock and dam on one if the rivers. It was pretty cool to see, but would have been better in the daylight. We also passed a nuclear power plant. It was all lit up in the night, and the cooling tower was clearly visible. We also went through a few tunnels on the West Virginian interstate. Our second stop was in West Virginia about a little after 3 AM. Pat and I got out and stretched and used the restroom while Tom and Skyler slept. I began to drive here and continued to drive through the night. Pat stayed up to keep me company as it was rapidly becoming morning. I drove through the rest of West Virginia and Virginia. Virginia did not have anything noteworthy to add to our chronicle, and it was soon behind us. We came into North Carolina nearing daybreak, and Pat and I finally decided to take a break. We decided to look for a rest stop to take a break at and sleep a few hours. We did not come upon a rest stop so we decided to stop at a gas station. When we arrived there, Pat and I settled in to take a nap. This was about the time that Tom and Skyler awoke from their slumber. They decided to carry on with the journey to Charlotte, North Carolina. We were planning on stopping here to visit one of Tom’s friends from high school. Tom took over driving and Skyler navigated. Pat and I were embarrassed to find out that we stopped only one exit before the rest stop. Tom navigated us through Charlotte to his friend’s college. Here ends day one.

I have added links to the right side of the page to the day's pictures and the maps for the two legs of the trips.

Before Departure

It's about five hours until leaving time and I am starting a blog to post pictues and give updates on our trip. I will post a link to all the pictures as soon as we take some (look for links in my posts and on the right side of your screen). I have enabled commenting on here so anyone can leave comments. I could also enable other authors if I thought they wouldn't screw it up.