Travels to Florida!

Well hello all! Sorry for leaving you in the dark for the past couple of weeks but it has been a wild ride getting down here and settled. Now, I finally have a chance to get you caught up on at least the travel portion of our new adventure.

On Sunday May 17th, my parents (David and Tena) arrived and helped us pack everything up into the small trailer they were pulling behind their truck. (Thank you Scott and Diane for loaning us the trailer) Some how we managed to get everything either in our car or in the trailer so nothing was left out for the elements in the back of the truck. Because our apartment was all packed up, all of us spent the night at Vic and Paula Coston's house. We are so blessed to have such generous friends in our lives!

Monday the 18th saw us off with a 7:00 am take off. The sky was clear and beautiful. We spent the whole day driving from Maryville to Nashville! It was google map estimated to be 10 hours of drive time. We did very well only making three rest stops including our lunch break. There really wasn't much interesting about that day. We learned that there are several XXX stores along I-70 in Missouri and that Illinois might be one of the most boring states to drive through. Surprising enough this day actually went by quite quickly. We marked that by the end of the day we had driven in four states and crossed four of the country's largest rivers (one of them three times). We rolled into our Ramada hotel at about 6:00 that evening. We got all of our stuff into the room, learned that this was the home of the 'famous' guitar shaped pool, and started to discuss supper options. The gentleman at the front desk was a VERY enthusiastic man who was more than happy to give us suggestions when asked. We took him up on his suggestion of Demo's and if you are ever in Nashville I very much recommend a stop at this family owned restaurant. It was some of the most delicious food I've ever eaten and a very reasonable price. Afterwards we walked around a couple of blocks in downtown Nashville then headed back to the hotel where we met up with Joe's cousins Tabitha, Steve and Samuel. After about an hour or so of chatting, they headed back home and we went to bed.


Tuesday the 19th was another 7:00am take off...or at least we tried for it to be. This was also the morning of my 22nd birthday! We got some pictures taken at the guitar shaped pool then took off for the day. This day was not so uneventful as we ended up being delayed about 30-45 minutes due to a two semi accident on the Interstate. Three lanes of traffic got backed up to one lane moving at about 2 miles an hour when it was moving. Though it made us very frustrated, this was our only major fall back of the day. Some construction also made us slow down but not much. We got to see some amazing views of the Appalachians in Tennessee and got some more family photos taken by a reservoir that was part of the TVA project in the early 1900's. We crossed the border into Florida in the early afternoon. I had never been to Florida so it was a birthday treat for me. But the "Sunshine State" greeted us with rain and I had to wear my hoodie when we got out at a rest stop. We ended the day at the Suites Inn in Gainesville, Florida. Something about us and the cities ending in 'ville that we just can't get away from. This was a brand new hotel that still had it's "grand opening" sign out front. It was very nice and comfortable. As luck (or planning) would have it, another of Joe's cousins lives in Gainesville! So, after a birthday supper at Perkins, Joe and I headed to Sarah's house and spent an hour or so talking with her and Marc before going to bed.



Finally Wednesday the 20th came. Yet again, we tried to be leaving by 7:00am. The day went smoothly. We made a few more rest stops than we normally would have but the long hours of driving were taking their toll on our bodies. As we got closer and closer to Ft. Myers, Joe and I started to get excited and even a bit antsy. We found our way to the NMSI office without much trouble, it really is a pretty straight shot. When we got both our car and my parents' truck parked, we went into the office and met our 'COAT Links' Bob and Anne Krepps. We did some quick introductions then followed the Krepps to our new home. They let us in and gave us the keys. After that it was a fast two hours of frenzied moving boxes from the trailer to the house, getting some lunch and saying good-bye to my parents. I wish I had a little more time to say good-bye to them but we had to be in the CGO parking lot by 2:00pm so we could be whisked off for Discover. I was fine until my mom started crying then, I started too.

The first three or so days of COAT is called Discover. Anybody can come to these days to get a crash course in what NMSI is. Joe's sister Alisha joined us for these three days. It just so happened that Discover this year was held at a beach house on the Gulf coast. This was my first chance to see any kind of ocean...or any body of water larger than a great lake for that matter. More details to come.

Well, I think this pretty much wraps up our travels to Ft. Myers, Florida. I hope it was enough to give you a taste of our journey without completely wearing you out. We will be sure to give you some more updates on COAT and what we are up to down here.

Thank you for your continued support and prayers. We are still adjusting to life down here. I am having an especially hard time adjusting to being so far from family and being in a city larger than 10,000 people. But God is awesome and he will guide and protect us.