Monday, November 7, 2011

Day Fifty-Eight

The Outlets at Sawgrass Mills


Our first semi-road trip in the truck led us 63 miles South, to the city of Sunrise. There, sits the sixth largest shopping mall in the United States, Sawgrass Mills, with over 2 million square feet of outlet deals. Featuring alligator heads as store locators, I immediately got the feeling that Adam might just enjoy our outing today...if nothing else, he'd at least get to see a few gators! We had a simple goal for the trip: find running shoes. And in Sunrise, a Nike Outlet Store was waiting for us to rummage through it. We conceded after a few short minutes of searching the shop, and left without the sneakers. Or anything else, for that matter. Bummer. Shoeless, and somewhat deflated, we left Nike to browse the gigantic mall. We found ourselves in Nordstrom Rack, pulling and pushing the squeaky hangars left and right while we perused various items. We found Adam some "grown up" type clothes, which will replace the LRG style that once claimed his college days. Since arriving in Florida, each with only one suitcase of clothing, we've been slowly trying our hand at replenishing our wardrobe, while keeping in mind the Southern heat. Little by little, we're making progress, but it's not been as easy for us and I originally had thought it would be.

What shocked us most about today was not the size of the mall, however, but the roads it takes to get there. In the Northwest, tolls aren't something we're familiar with. Here, it's quite the contrary. In total, we stopped at 6 tolls, gave a homeless guy 4 bucks, and got another free lesson on life in Florida: the fee you pay is for the mileage you drive on the turnpike, rather than just a flat rate. Newsflash to us. That means, driving 250 miles on the turnpike is going to cost you your arm and half your leg. We'll stick with the Interstate instead. 

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