Day 01 - Amelia to Pensacola

This was an absolutely gorgeous day.  When we left, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and temps were already in the low 60's.  It warmed to the mid-70's and we were actually hot in the car.  Our plan was to get over to Pensacola - the other side of the state and in the central time zone.

Angela was born and raised in Pensacola.  She has made the trip from Amelia (Jacksonville) to Pensacola and back dozens and dozens of times.  I've made the trip quite a few times.  The most efficient way to go is simply Interstate 10 (I-10).  It is a straight shot.  Very direct.  Well maintained.  And once you are clear of Jax, there is usually no traffic to speak of.  Assuming no traffic and decent weather, it is a 6-hour drive.  It is pretty scenery, but can get a bit dull.

We were going to avoid Interstates as much as possible, so we took US90 - which parallels I-10 for the most part.  Sometimes running north of it; sometimes running south.  It can be a four-lane highway, but is usually a two lane road.

There is a tremendous difference in the view from US90 compared to I-10.  You go through small towns and past farms.  They grow tomatoes, carrots, cabbage as well as sod and timber.  We went through cypress swamps and even saw gators that were sunning themselves.  This is extremely warm temps for this part of Florida in January.

We stopped briefly at one park that has natural springs.  The cypress trees and other foliage turn the local water the color of tea.

Since neither one of us had travelled this particular route, it was a nice change of pace.  However, it was also considerably slower than the interstate.  There are traffic lights in every small town.  Plus, we went through a couple of larger towns (Lake City, Monticello and Tallahassee).  It was Tallahassee that brought us to a crawl.  It became apparent that to make Pensacola before it got (too) dark, we needed to hop on I-10.

The speed limit on I-10 is 70mph, which the slowest speed at which any vehicle on it travels. The Ghia can go 70mph comfortably; however, 75mph is a stretch.  We were passed by everyone else, but we were making so much better time.

We had dinner with Angela's family and then checked into a smaller boutique motel in downtown Pensacola that we had spotted when we over at Christmas.  It was a long day.  We left Amelia at 9:30am and checked in at the motel at 9:00pm.  We have our doubts about the Ghia's gas guage, so we refuelled a bit more frequently than necessary.  Gas mileage when new for the Ghia was estimated at 26mpg.  On the stretch along US90, we got about 37mpg.  On the interstate, we dropped to about 30mpg - still much better than we were expecting.

We travelled 416 miles with absolutely no problems.