The joys of driving to and from Florida

On January 1, for the last three years, we have left home in Connecticut and headed west and then south to end up in Ocala, Fl. Most of our friends don't understand why we do this and even more so that we only drive 250  miles a day. We stop 4 nights on the way down and more on the way back.

Why don't we just drive it in two days or fly? First, there is not a convenient airport to Ocala and second, it would mean buying a car. Plus we are too old to drive it in two days, we would be exhausted and we wouldn't get to see anything.

Instead, we drive to somewhere in Pennsylvania, usually around Hazelton, there is a Fairfield Inn that we like with a Damon's Grill in the parking lot. This way we don't have to worry about where we are going to eat dinner.

Our second night is spent in Virginia, it may be Staunton, it could be Winchester or sometimes Harrisonburg. All of them have a lot to recommend them. We love the Museum of the Shenandoah in Winchester, the Stonewall Jackson Hotel in Staunton and the prices in Harrisonburg. 

The third night is spent in the area around Lake Norman in either Davidson or Mooresville. Both of them have a lot to recommend them including comfortable accommodations and excellent restaurants. Davidson also has some fun shopping options. 

The fourth night on the road is always in Savannah. We stay in the same Fairfield Inn every time if a room is available again because of the restaurant in the parking lot, a Houlihans. 

On the way back home, I go a different way, we stick to I-95. We drive a little farther the first day to Bluffton, South Carolina. If it is a Sunday, we know where the Catholic Church is and we have stayed at both the Fairfield Inn and the Candlewood Suites. Candlewood Suites has a great restaurant in their parking lot, the Oakatie Ale House. 

The second night is somewhere in the vicinity of Wilson, NC. The determining factor is usually price. One year we chose Smithfield and discovered the Ava Gardiner Museum. 

Our third night in somewhere near Chantilly, Va. We have chosen a variety of destinations, again the price is the determining factor. This year we chose the Hyatt Place. We have stayed at Holiday Inn, Marriott and Fairfield Inn in the past. We spend several days here visiting our friends and also visiting historic houses in the neighborhood. 

This year was an exception, we drove straight up 75 into Georgia and visited the Jimmy Carter Historic Site and Andersonville. We spent the night in Americus at a Best Western Plus hotel.

We spent our second night on the road in Greensboro, NC at a Springhill Suites. Another year we spent several nights in Roanoke, Va so I could visit the sites there. 

We are pretty flexible about where we stay depending on what we plan to do in the area.

Now you have a better idea why I don't particularly find the option of flying to Florida all that appealing, there are so many interesting places to visit along the way.