Driving Around Florida Day 2

We started out this day at a Flying J for breakfast and to get some work done. For some reason I love gas station photography (if that is a thing). This particular Pilot/Flying J outside Tampa was probably the smallest one we have been to in a long time, so it was tight quarters on all sides. The super heavy fog made for a non-existent sunrise and very low visibility.

If you are new here, as I mentioned in my previous post in Driving Around Florida Day 1, I'm posting a short recap of some of my favorite images on a trip we took to Florida a few weeks ago. If you would like to see the full length post with all the photos you can click through to our Shanty Travelers blog or follow the link specifically for "Day 2" of our trip at A Week Around Florida: Tampa to Tamiami Day 2.

Tampa to Tamiami

Day 2 took us from just north of Tampa all the way through the Everglades and into Homestead, just outside of Miami where we would head to the Keys the next day. This day was a fast trip, with lots of driving, but it so beautiful. One of the reasons we wanted to do this trip now was to feel the warm humid air in South Florida, and wow was it fantastic!

We have taken this drive many times before over the years, but it has been more than a decade since we drove down the west coast. It is still mostly heavy traffic down I-75 into Naples where we picked up US 41 across the Everglades to Miami.

We really don't like traveling on the Interstates anymore, we much prefer the pace of the secondary roads (or slower), so we had no intention of taking I-75 across Florida to Miami. The drive on US 41 through the Everglades, called the Tamiami Trail, is much calmer. We must have seen over 100 alligators sunbathing on the side of the road. It is just that kind of a drive. A lazy, sun baked, humid, hot, straight as an arrow, drive through one of the harshest environments. And it is an amazing drive. We could have taken a week just to drive through the Everglades, but this wasn't an Everglades trip. The Keys were the ultimate destination.

Because today was mostly driving long non-stop drives I didn't get a huge number of photos, but I loved the bridge cables and the lines across the bridges and lanes of traffic.

A Week in Florida Series

This is series of travel posts originating from our travel site, Shanty Travelers. As I mentioned above, to see the full length post with all the photos you can click through to our Shanty Travelers blog or follow the link specifically for "Day 2" of our trip at A Week Around Florida: Tampa to Tamiami Day 2.

See you for Day 3 soon where we head down to the Florida Keys!

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