Dolley goes to Florida!

Name:  Casey Baker

Date: October 4, 2012

Destination: Lake Worth, FL

Latitude: 26.568769

Longitude:  -80.150999

Round Trip Miles: 2572

Total Miles: 5403.56

When Dolley and I left Wham on October 4, 2012 , she never expected she would be heading off on a grand adventure.  Her adventure, on this beautiful Thursday, began with a trip to one of Carbondale’s fine dining establishments, Quatro’s.  While there, she managed to eat almost an entire pizza by herself, much to the amazement of her tablemates. 

After dinner, we set off for a night of rest since we would not be leaving for Florida until the next day.  While at home, Dolley soundly annihilated me at every game of Guitar Hero that we played.  Needless to say, I went to bed early to avoid further embarrassment at her hands.  Since two members of our carpool had work on Friday, we didn’t begin the journey to Florida until six thirty that evening.  Unfortunately for us, the beautiful weather from the previous day was long gone and we left in conditions that could only be described as miserable.  However, Dolley assured us that listening to N*Sync on repeat would fix our gloomy moods.  She was, of course, correct.

In Tennessee, we stopped at a rest area to stretch our legs and for Dolley to get a Twix from the vending machines.  While there, she ran into one of her idols; a woman with whom Dolley shares a name.  Even though she was only in cardboard form, our dear Dolley was understandably moonstruck.

Around 5 am, after several hours in the car without a break, we decided to pull over for some breakfast in Macon, Georgia.  This was actually an accident since Dolley, our navigator at the time, had fallen asleep on the map and we missed our original turn in the previous town. The food was absolutely delicious and Dolley gorged herself on blueberry pancakes and scrambled eggs.

  

Dolley didn’t wake from her food coma until we had reached Florida when we stopped at another rest area.  Dolley noticed a particularly frightening sign and, having no fear, decided to taunt the snakes by posing for pictures.  Thankfully, she survived.

When we finally arrived at my mom’s house in sunny Florida, after seventeen hours in the car, we were immediately bombarded with food and told to relax in the backyard.  Dolley once again ate much more food than I would have thought possible. 

After resting for about an hour, we set off for the beach.  The weather was absolutely beautiful and Dolley enjoyed working on her tan, looking for jellyfish, and playing with my younger brothers and sister.  She even helped bury one of the kids in the sand.  

The next day, the weather wasn’t nearly as nice, but Dolley insisted that we go back to the beach.  We went to a nearby pier to people watch and to fish.  While we were there, Dolley ran away from the group and almost got lost.  When we got back from the fishing pier, she decided that she wanted to play cards.  Dolley showed off her rummy skills by soundly beating the rest of us.

On our last day in Florida, my step-dad told Dolley and I about an everglades wildlife refuge near the house.  We decided that we needed to do at least one educational thing on our trip so we packed in the car and went.  We stopped in at the visitor center and received a lot of information from the park rangers who were more than happy to talk about the wildlife and plants in the area.  Dolley enjoyed exploring their exhibits.

The rangers said that their most popular trail was a raised boardwalk over a section of everglades.  They said that if we stayed quiet, we might see bobcat kittens or some water birds, but we weren’t that lucky.... or that quiet.

After the boardwalk, the rangers told us that a large alligator had recently been sighted at a fishing area at the canal up the street.  They told us her name was Lucy.  Dolley insisted that we immediately rush over there.  When we arrived, there were several people fishing off the dock.  This dock was only raised about 4 feet above the water which made Dolley and I very nervous.  We waited for a little while and had the good luck to see two small alligators near the dock.  Then, all of a sudden, a gigantic, eleven foot alligator emerged from under the pier and began to aggressively chase off the other gators by biting them and lashing at them with her tail.  Not long after, one of the fishermen caught a small fish.  We all gathered around as he dropped the fish into the water near the big alligator.  It barely splashed down before the alligator snapped it up.

 That night, around five thirty, we packed our bags, said our goodbyes and began the long drive home.  Unfortunately, Dolley didn’t make it into the car with us.  She was having so much fun playing with my little brother that she decided to stay a few extra days.  Thankfully, my mom noticed the oversight and sent Dolley back on the final leg of her journey. FedEx took good care of her on her voyage.  By the time she was returned safely to Mrs. Stearns, Dolley and I had traveled over 2500 miles.