Journal  February 23, 1953

Roland started off early this morning to job hunt in St. Pete. I cleaned the house and washed.
Roland came home at noon and we decided to draw a little more out of the bank and push on to Phoenix. Roland will get a job in Phoenix and we will stay near my Uncle Edwin (who lives in Glendale, Arizona) for awhile. 

We went shopping in Clearwater this afternoon. Bought sandals for Les and Sandy, ice cream cones, and had heels put on Lesley’s saddle shoes.

Tonight I called Braintree. They had all been waiting for us to call last night. Everyone is fine. My Uncle Max, his wife Rosemond and son, Steve, started for the west by way of Miami last Saturday. We may see them on the way.

Journal February 24, 1953
Today we drove to Sarasota. It turned out to be a much longer trip than we thought it would be. We went to the circus winter headquarters where we saw the floats for next spring’s show. One was a little school house. Another was a little showboat pulled by two horses – very elaborate – a fine bit of work. One float was in the shape of a birthday cake, another was an outhouse.
We saw the elephants having their toenails fixed; baby elephants, and a horse being trained; plus the rest of the menagerie.

Elephants getting toenails filed

We reached home about 6:30 after stopping to pick up a large bunch of wash at a laundromat. The girl who worked there had thrown a green bag in with our wash. It turned everything green. Tonight I ironed while Roland snoozed.

Journal February 25, 1953
Got an early start (7:25 am). Fed and dressed Sandy in the car. Then dressed Lesley and stopped to eat breakfast on the way. The road was straight and flat. Little sand hills beside the road. Land crabs???

We made very good time until 3:30 pm when our right rear car tire went flat. Roland walked back to a gas station (Shell) with the flat tire. They were a new station and had no tubes in stock. Two hours and $3.98 later we started on our way. We stopped at a gas station in Youngstown, Florida for the night.

We have sent to our Braintree bank for $150 to be rushed to New Orleans. Our money is getting low so I don’t know what we’ll do if we don’t get to New Orleans tomorrow, or if the money isn’t there, or if we have repair bills, or etc.
Note: We forgot to take our TV off the shelf when we left this morning. Thankfully it landed in a box full of hoses and was saved.