The bus ride down to Tallahasee from NYC was uncomfortable, long and a little scary. The people we rode with for the most part were lovely, but the bus stations further south got more and more dodgey. They went from nice rest stops, to having security guards to having 3 full time cops. The southern stops were all in view of detention centers and it seems, when you get out of a detention centre you get a bus ticket to go cause trouble elsewhere. There were people with a plastic bags with their belongings, and had been put back in their sometimes ripped and or bloody clothes they were arrested in. Needless to say we were happy when we arrived in Valdosta.
We picked up the rental car in Valdosta and drove the 1h to Tallahassee. Tallahassee is a bus stop on the way up through Florida, to go to Tallahasee it would've been another 10h on the bus! No thanks!! Our plan was to buy a car and catch up with Shaun and Locky, Skye's cousins.
Here is a pic of where we are in the world. The pins are Valdosta, Georgia and Tallahassee, Florida.
Tallahasee is a great word to say, even better with the southern accent TallaHAseeeee. We found out it is the capital of Florida, I always thought the capital was, Miami, but Tallahasee with its 50000 population is where all the business is done.They call Adelaide the city of churches, and London and Paris has its fair share of churches, but they don't hold a candle to the number of churches here in Northern Florida, and Southern Georgia. All with signs out the front calling people to worship. Thankfully all messages were love filled, which was nice to see. We did see one billboard on the highway saying 'Heavan or Hell, you decide!' Lots of people here say 'God bless' but just as a way to finish off an email or message.
We learnt on our first day that people don't walk in Tallahassee, we walked for a bit and were looked at like we were derelicts! Cyclists are also taking their lives into their hands on the roads, cars just aren't in the habit of looking out for them. The few cyclists we did see were up on the foot paths at every chance they got!
The car culture is encouraged also by the price of petrol - usd$2,50 per gallon/3,8 litres.
The weather is impressive, it's pretty consistently 38C and there are often serious thunderstorms with massive rain drops that look are like water balloons. It seems to rain short bursts and only in small areas. We drove through these 'storms', you drive into it, you can't see much, you rely on the brake lights of the car ahead. Everyone drivers slower and with their hazard lights on, then a few minutes later you are driving on a dry road that didn't even get wet!
We tried the local cuisine recommended to us, fried chicken. We even went to the best one, aptly named "Chubby's", and we really didn't know what the fuss is all about. We did find a good student bar called Birds nearby with mountainous burgers including a the famous Grouper burger with Blackend spice accompanied by a great selection of seasonal beers. Our first night in Tallahassee we stumbled upon a Bird's open mic comedy night which was fun. Unfortunately as we were busy searching for our car, we missed the gun and knife show that was in town, that would've been a real cultural experience. Yeeehhhaaa!
It was great to see where Locky is training for Motorcross, a really professional set up with great coaches and riders from all over the world. We spent some of most days together which was really nice.
In the first 2 days we saw cars all over the place with Shaun, it was great having another opinion as we looked at these cars. Some quite far away, one was a 3h round trip to... Alabama! ... But alas, all no good. So we decided on a change of tack, search only for cars in the Tallahassee region. We got a note pad and noted out each car we liked and rated them from great, good to okay. We contacted all sellers and organised visits. By the end of the second day we had found our car and purchased it the following day.
We met some very interesting people on our car hunting adventures, from a business man who wanted to show us his house and lake view (complete with an alagator!) more than the car, to hunters who told us how they have a walk-in fridge where they can dress their kill and age the meat at home. Also, they discribed at length the number of things you can kill in one day, two deer, but you can have up to 2 days worth on your truck and it's ok (but we are guessing a bit smelly in 40 degree heat)......how we had all these discussions while looking at cars, I'm not quite sure, we certainly met the locals! Everyone was engaging and courteous saying 'yas sir' 'yas ma'am', with motorists stopping for us to cross the road in the middle of nowhere.
You would think that buying the car would be the hard part, but wait there's more!
Although we were staying in Tallahassee Florida, Shaun was kind enough to let us use his address in Georgia (30 mins north of Tallahassee), as you need a postal address for vehicle registration.
For registration, you need third party insurance. We went from our first quote from a broker of $1100 which pushed us into research mode for 24 hours where we looked at all the options to drop the price, including looking at getting a Georgian drivers license! Thankfully, that wasn't necessary, but when third party is half the price of the car, we had to find another solution!!! We were feeling a bit defeated for a bit and discussed selling the car and using chicken buses to go south instead. Eventually we found a solution and got it down to about $150.
Insurance was sorted, next step was registration, that is done at the dreaded DMV that we have all heard about, at least on TV shows. Prior to the sale, we had researched what was required in Georgia to register a car, and we had got the seller to complete the necessary forms, we were set! We got to the DMV and it was perfectly 1970's with dusty plastic flowers on the table and all the cubicles were done in polished pine on lovely dark brown carpet. There were two servers as it was just hitting lunch time.
We heard the 'next please' and it was horrific, we got the classic nasty DMV lady! This is our imitation of her face:
She shook her head and we knew immediately she didn't want to make the process easy for us. Thankfully for us, one very long, tense minute of head shaking and huffing, and the phone rings, the nasty lady chose to hand our paperwork over to the seemingly much nicer Miss Nancy.
Miss Nancy was morbidly over weight, and with the hand over, a passport fell to the floor in her cubicle. She had to use a plastic claw to pick it up as she can't bend down any more, because, you know, her leg......we nodded sympathetically and said we were sorry about her leg injury, hoping to gain some good will with the woman who held our car fate in her hands. As a black belt in French bureaucracy, we had copies of each document ready to go, which went down very well with Miss Nancy as she couldn't move very easily to the copy machine.
We seemed to be going in the right direction with Miss Nancy, when she asked a question that we knew was as important as having all the documentation. At the bottom of the license plate, did we want the county name or 'In God We Trust'? Sol and I looked at each other and replied in unison, 'In God we trust'. Miss Nancy gave her nod of approval and our paperwork was approved within a minute!
Without further ado, we are pleased to introduce the newest member of the family, Rosa Bonheure Hart or Rosa for short.
Sol sealing the deal!
The hard fought for license plate
While we wait for the title we are using this time to check Rosa is in top condition to go south.
We are now in New Orleans staying with the fabulous Tiff and Stu and their two dogs Mardy & LB! We will give you an update soon!
