Where Are We Sleeping Tonight: Monumental Movieland Hotel, Orlando, Florida
Because we checked into the wonderful 1842 Inn late last night, we didn't have the opportunity to fully appreciate the building. After a sumptuous breakfast in bed, Clare explored the Inn and the surrounding grounds with her camera. We were delighted to view the wall of signed photos from past celebrity guests, which included Olivia Newton John and Oprah Winfrey. Outside, I was amazed at how hot and humid it was already - Clare's camera kept fogging up... how humid is it going to be in Florida!
After driving past an amazing house for sale (above), we drove into the "historic" town of Macon, which was sadly disappointing. None of the buildings were anything special (nothing said ol' Georgia) and there was no antique or touristy shops. What we did see was a Japanese restaurant where I think the waiters should jump out and surprise the customers, and a slightly round law enforcement official on patrol... maybe he should walk more...
Driving out of the town, we were passing through Byron where we visited the Big Peach Antique Mall located under the "giant" peach (it wasn't that giant). We bought a few more cameras (of course), a pile of vintage Star Wars stuff, and a sealed Death of Superman comic! Not to be outdone by a giant peach, continuing on our way, we came across a giant peanut - can't they have regular sized things here?!
We had lunch at Shoney's which had an all you can eat buffet for under $9! Clare kept calling it "Shonkeys" because they had a strange green cream desert thing - it didn't taste very nice. Back on the interstate, we saw a sign for a $3 bookstore - bargain! We pulled off the interstate and arrived at the bookstore. What the sign didn't mention was that the store is a $3 religious book store. I was slightly disappointed until I saw a book called "Bible Bad Guys" - the book looks so cheesy that I just had to buy it.
One thing that has amazed us lately is how many more billboards line the interstates on the east coast in comparison to the west coast. Sure, they had some on the west but over here they are everywhere! At times it felt like most of them were empty and not needed...
Crossing the border into Florida, we stopped at the visitor centre which closed at 5pm - the fact that it is daylight til 8pm seems irrelevant to the operators, a fact that was shared by us and the dozen other people who couldn't believe it was closed at the late hour of 5:30pm! At least the ice-cream vending machine was still turned on!
Back on the road, we stopped for gas at a Racetrac gas station near Daytona Beach where we bought a litre of Powerade for $1.02 and a huge postfix fountain drink for 55 cents! They also had an instore Crispy Kreme counter - it is easy to see after a day like today how a person could easily become the size of a house.
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