Why did the Alligator Cross the road- to get to the Christmas tree

Strange title I know but more about that later. An early start and we finished the last bots of cleaning and Noel did the bathrooms and then finished loading the car with our overnight bags and all the last bits of food that we were going to take with us. Jennifer made the sandwiches for our journey and by 10.00 we were ready to go when the chap who monitors the cleaners and check on property turns up and so delays us for a few minutes.
We left the house shortly after 10.20 and headed down to the petrol station to fill with with fuel for our journey and then headed off to the I 75 towards Tampa. The motorway was quite busy really considering it was a Sunday although perhaps less trucks than usual. We continued North and then left the motorway to travel on more country roads. Its strange when the Sat Nav says turn right in 98 miles and then 98 miles later is says turn left for 58 miles, that's how you the distances you travel.

Anyway you get in to a routine with these roads as there is 98 miles of pretty straight road and so you put the car in auto cruise and just keep going with few cars around and the suddenly out of the blue a small alligator appears from the side of the grass and starts walking across the road about 40 yards ahead and were were travelling at around 65 mph and so a quick manoeuvre around it as no chance to stop and a couple cars behind me had the same difficulty but by this time I had put my warning flashers on for the cars behind. So on we continued through the odd interesting old towns with the occasional nice views but we have no time to stop and take photos unfortunately.Then further down another road which was about 60 miles long and miles from anywhere was a four foot Christmas tree covered with decorations and heavens knows what it was doing there, but again travelling to fast to take a photo.
We finally arrived at the town called Perry which approx. 35 miles South of Tallahassee and we checked in to the Hampton Inn and we were so lucky as just as we were unloading the car the rain started and then came down in torrents as soon as we arrived in the Hotel reception, gosh that was close. After a nice cup of tea we looked in to restaurants and several were closed as it was a Sunday but there was an Italian Restaurant down the road, actually it was a lot nearer than we thought and we could have walked there but by  we we had already gone by car.
The waitress at the restaurant appeared at out table and I explained some of my food challenges and said it really was important that the instructions are followed, and she I am the owner and boss so the kitchen staff will be told what to do, and it worked out well for us. Then back to the Hotel and we some some Tv before going to bed.