We wanted something different this year and could not find a cruise that we wanted to go on. Mary and I wanted to check out the SW coast of Florida and with the so called recession we found that rental house prices were very low. Always amazed at how easy it is to drive to Florida from here. Its a easy first day (we made it to Ocala, Florida appx. 890 miles) and then it was not far to Naples for the second day. Coming back we did make a mistake of traveling on the weekend. We hit heavy traffic up I-75 from Naples all the way past Tampa. Then major problems in Georgia near Brunswick. It was a combination of construction and spring break traffic. Coming back we made it to Fayetteville, North Carolina. We would have made it further but with all the traffic it slowed us down. We like Florida again because its close, friendly and being a pro gun state I can travel heavily armed ! I can easily see us doing this type of trip every year.
Two cameras were used on this trip. If the file name is (IMG_number) it was a Cannon Powershot SD750 Digital Elph. For its size it takes very good photos. If the file name is (DSCNnumber) it was taken with Dave's Nikon D-70 (Much better optics)
Miles driven were appx. 2,600 Vehicle used was a 1998 Dodge Durango. We had no issues.
Trip Plan
I broke the trip up into three parts. The Naples, Florida area and the Marco Island, Florida area. And a daytrip to the Western side of the Everglades.