Leg 3: Sumter, SC to Orlando, FL

            We left in the early evening from Sumter and headed down I-95 South towards Orlando, Florida, where my family has a second home. As soon as we pulled into the driveway, it felt like home. The house is significantly smaller than Albany, with two bath and two bedrooms, including two sets of bunkbeds that my brothers and sister and I slept in growing up. For Halley, it was just like home, just smaller and warmer, especially so the night we arrived. Oh it was so nice. Halley sniffed around, did her business and found a nice place to lie down and went to sleep. Hillary and I stayed up having a drink and soaking in the place we would be able to enjoy fully for the next few days.

Leg 3: 443 Miles

            The next morning we awoke before Halley (a change of pace) and went outside to get some fresh fruit from our neighborhood trees. We went outside and watched Halley emerge from her slumber and walk halfway down the front walkway and plop herself down on the warm cement and lay there for a half an hour. She kept watch and looked around but nothing was around to look for: no squirrels, no dogs, no cats, nothing. Just some bugs wandering around, so she enjoyed the sun and peace and quiet. When she got too warm and needed a drink, she stood up and wandered into the house, got a cold drink, and lay down on the tile floor to cool down.

            After a day of relaxing and hanging out at the house and running some small errands, all of us took a drive out to my cousins Jane and Bob's house on the beach of Indiatlantic. Jane and Bob are my dad's cousins directly so they have always seemed to me as Aunt and Uncle, due to the generational gap. With Halley there, she was relegated to the back patio area, blocked out only by the screen but a little barking and whining from her and Jane and Bob had no choice but to let her inside and hang out with us. We split time at the house going to the beach, a first for Halley. The golden reaction of the trip was seeing Halley learn to walk on the sand. She struggled at first and despite the fact I knew the sand would get everywhere in her fur and body. What I didn't expect although I should have was that Halley would rush for the ocean to get a drink of water. She quickly learned that she couldn't drink from this seemingly endless supply of water and kept out of it and on the leash with me.

Jane, me and Bob

           Hillary and Halley and I walked up the beach with Halley eventually running loose yet near us since this was still a place where dogs were not allowed, but it was a quiet and hardly frequented beach that we wouldn't be bothered at. For Halley, she walked like a sin wave - sometimes the water would come in towards her and she would walk away; sometimes the water would recede and she would tempt fate by going near the water. Inevitably, at one point the water came up to her and she was soaked, which wasn’t fun for her but hilarious for us. We walked up the beach for a bit, then back down again. On the way up Halley played in the sand and ran around while on the way down she played and splashed in the water that she know seemed to have an understanding of. By the time we got off the beach, Halley was pooped! When we got back to Jane and Bob’s, Halley drank so much water that she wound up throwing up some of it, so she promptly drank some more after that. She lay down and panted and relaxed, never having been so tired from just walking before. 

            We got back to the house in Orlando that evening and all three of us stayed in. We were too tired to do much of everything; the beach really took it all out of us. Then the next day, Hillary and I woke up extra early to go to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. Although tired, we went through the entire park in the full day, hitting off every ride possible. At the time, this was the newest entertainment park that had been opened in the Orlando area, let alone elsewhere. Roller coasters (Hulk and Dueling Dragons), water rides (Popeye, Jurassic Park) and fun/goofy stuff (Dr. Seuss, Spiderman) kept us busy while we wandered around the park, had a few drinks and genuinely had a terrific day in the part. It was just one of those days couples are able to have under just the right conditions. We went home and looked forward to the trip to Alabama the next day. Halley made it through the day without us, not having gone in the house while we were out. Had she, I would have understood, but she was all good and adapted to it as the trip wore on.

              Again we got moving early in the morning, atypical for me since I couldn't wake up early in the morning for a fire alarm. We got our stuff together and started repacking the car and got on the road headed north and west to Mobile.