Hi, Mom! Went back to my dad's house to finish getting 40+ years of accumulated crap out of it so it can go on the market. Had an interesting trip. I didn't want to rent a van and I was afraid I'd want to bring back more stuff than our Toyota Highlander could hold, so I drove my old work/fishing truck, a 1993 Toyota T-100. As old as it is, I wasn't comfortable with driving it on the interstate, so I drove the 400 mile trip from Pensacola to St. Augustine (and then back again) on US highways and secondary roads. It's interesting to actually drive through towns you've only known before as names on interstate exit signs.

Here's a list of the things I saw most often on my trip through small town north Florida, in order of frequency:

Buzzards
Dead armadillos
Buzzards eating dead armadillos
Churches
U-Haul dealers
Dollar General stores
Correctional institutions

I'm sure there's a meaning there, but I'm not sure what it is.

I also saw four wild turkeys (but, interestingly, no deer), a big snapping turtle crossing the road, and a water buffalo. The water buffalo was not crossing the road. It was inside a fence at a minor tourist trap near Tallahassee.

And I found my dad's old .22 that I couldn't find last trip and had written off as lost forever. It was inside the HVAC service closet in the garage. I almost didn't even look in there because who the hell keeps anything in an air-handler closet, much less a rifle?