The World’s Longest Freedom Review: Part 3featured
Thanks for all of the comments on CC on part two, you guys! Knowing you guys like this and are enjoying this fuels me to write quicker and I really, really appreciate it!
So we woke up pretty early the next day so we could get on the road by 8:00 am. The drive from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale would be the longest leg of our drive yet…at least 10 hours…and we really wanted to get a head start because we knew the drive would take up the bulk of our day. We checked out of the hotel, loaded up the car and got on the road.
We munched on the croissants that we bought at Publix for breakfast and stopped off at a McDonalds an hour or so later for some heartier sustenance. Lane Packing Company is about two hours south of Atlanta, and that’s about as much time as it took us to get there. Even though we had a really long drive ahead of us and we really wanted to make good time, no drive through Georgia is complete without a stop at the peach farm.
Since we’ve been to this peach farm a million times, we’re pretty familiar with the layout and we were able to grab what we wanted pretty quickly. Mom grabbed a few honeybells and a bag of pecans, Stephanie wanted a loaf of peach sweet bread, grandma insisted we buy a bag of hand-dipped chocolate pecans (which were AMAZING!) and me? I found the locally-made peach wine. Leave it to me to find the vino.
Before we left, we stopped into the cafe because even though it was unseasonably cold in Georgia (and it was pretty damn cold), you can’t stop at the peach farm and not get some homemade ice cream. Stephanie got some peach ice cream, grandma got a cup of peach cobbler and I got all psyched up for some of their yummy yummy strawberry ice cream only to be told it was out of season. I settled for a bag of warm candied pecans. I took my obligatory face-in-a-hole picture (even though I take this picture EVERY TIME we come here and they all look the same) and we packed the goodies up in the car and made our way back onto the highway.
Stephanie and I started verbally sparring somewhere in between the peach farm and Valdosta and I ended up putting my headphones on and spending most of the drive playing around on Tumblr and taking pictures out the window.
In that span of time between the peach farm and central Florida (when I stopped my silent protest), I saw two highway arrests and a slew of offensive anti-abortion billboards (which, have whatever opinion you want on abortion, but I question the validity of them when they claim 2 in 5 black people are killed by abortion…I hate those stretches of the turnpike that are just billboard after billboard after billboard of controversial social issues)…but no palm trees. What the flip, Florida? What the flip.
We were making pretty poor time despite the super minimal stops and driving above the speed limit. As sunset was approaching, we were getting kind of hungry and so we stopped at an oasis for some Earl of Sandwich. Yes, the same Earl of Sandwich from Downtown Disney. They’re all over the Florida Turnpike oases. Mom *loves* her some Earl of Sandwich. Me? I’m not a sandwich person. I’m not big on deli meats and cheeses and I really have to be in the mood for a sandwich that isn’t PBJ or grilled cheese. Mom was really psyched for her Caprese sandwich and was pretty disappointed to find out that the Earl of Sandwiches on the oases have a limited menu. Mom, Stephanie and grandma ended up with club sandwiches (I think) and I ended up with some sort of roast beef sandwich that I ate half of and tossed. It was just alright. I’m just not a sandwich kind of person (which is funny considering how many strip loin and brie sandwiches I ordered from room service during the cruise).
It was approaching 8:00 pm when we finally hit our hotel, the Renaissance Plantation in Plantation, FL. We love this hotel for a few reasons. It’s clean and quiet. The parking is free. It’s close to the port (less than 10 minutes). It’s in a quieter area than the Fort Lauderdale hotels but has quick access to Fort Lauderdale and plenty of shopping and dining. Inclusive of fees, I think it was $140 for two nights here via Priceline (which you can guarantee this hotel off of with a search of 4* Fort Lauderdale- Plantation). The room was clean and fairly large and we quickly settled in.
Check-in was quick and painless and we settled into the room quickly. Stephanie and grandma were too tired to go out to dinner so Mom and I headed out to Smokey Bones and brought food back to grandma and Stephanie. Despite it being a weeknight (and a very late weeknight at that), Smokey Bones was pretty busy. We hit a reverse happy hour and appetizers were half off. Mom and I both had combo platters with grilled chicken (I had pulled pork with mine and she had BBQ brisket with hers). The food was good. Our server was a sweetheart (we were chatting about cruises- she wants to take one- and the fact that we had to escape the snow and she’d never seen snow).
We took food to go for Stephanie and grandma and settled into watching some TV before bed. We had a full day to explore Fort Lauderdale the next day and we were definitely going to take advantage of it.
