so we're back from florida. actually we got back a while ago (we must have, since mary nell left for china this morning..). it was very much fun. got to hang out with my momma, go to the beach, see matt, and slack off. all in the first two days of the trip. then on saturday morning, we left jacksonville, bound for fort myers. en route to ft m, we learned that we were expected to make a short shuttle run to naples as well. once all of that was taken care of, we loaded the 'truck' with all manner of accoutrements and began another 4.5 hour journey. all in all, we put on 850+ miles that day, and arrived just as sunday approached in marianna florida (central time zone saved us an hour, hooray!). mary nell's grandmother was waiting for us at the front door, and immediately began to offer us food when we arrived. we ate sandwiches, visited a bit, and crashed for the night. late the next morning, we woke to the wonderful aromas of southern cookin. chicken and dumplings were served along side salads of fruit and vegetable varities, peas, broccoli, biscuits, and homemade creamed corn (yeah, that's right). needless to say, noone could move much after that ordeal. we had more of the same for dinner several hours later with ice cream and pound cake in between to cleanse the pallate. mmm... the next morning, nell (the grandmother) was still insisting on waiting on us, and woke and made pancakes upon which we gorged ourselves just before hitting the road and heading back to atl. we were all exhausted on the return trip. the one thing that could have made our trip complete was a stop at taco bell which never happened. so to make up for that, mary nell's mother picked up three grande meals for us and dropped them by when she came to wish mary nell well on her journey. that's all from the front.