Trip to Florida June 2015 - Drive Time

Yes, this is three months overdue, but that's just kind of how my life rolls. Be grateful I'm actually doing this instead of taking care of the sink overflowing with dishes or the laundry that needs rotated or going to bed. :) I'm hoping I can get caught up by, or during, General Conference in October.

I needed an escape from reality and we hadn't been to Florida for over a year. Eric said he couldn't take time off or afford the trip. I have paid time off to use or lose and I felt like we needed to make a personal visit with John and Diane. Barb agreed to cover the Fishers front desk for a week and I took the kids to Florida, doing the 14 hour drive solo. Not something I'd ever done before, but was willing to endure to give the kids and I a break from our summer of work and responsibility. We were going to leave Friday night and spend Saturday and Sunday with the Walkers in TN. The leaving Friday night would depend on my state of being come Friday evening.

I decided we would leave Saturday morning, if that tells you anything.

Kids were anxious to go, but the Elders Quorum was in charge of cleaning the building, so we stopped there first to help out (you never know who is going to show up). We left June 13th, around 10:30 and had a six hour drive - all day light - which is a good thing. We arrived at Walkers around 4 o'clock Tennessee time so the kids had some time to burn off the pent up energy.

Jumping on trampolines are a favorite!

Bouncing buddy - cousin Samuel

We enjoyed Saturday pizza, a movie, night's sleep and church with the Walkers. The original plan was go come back to their house after church, have lunch, visit and then leave for the remaining eight hour drive around dinner so that we wouldn't have to buy gas on Sunday. Well, their plans changed due to a local cousin's birthday, so we left after making sandwiches at church. I was thankful to be driving a lot with daylight, but knew that we'd run short on gas before Sunday was over and discussed with my co-pilot, Xela, what her thoughts were.

We got stuck in an hour long traffic jam just outside of Atlanta. One of the kids had brought a white board and so Aurora decided she would communicate with the car behind us. Her first question was: "Do you like bacon?" She got a thumbs up. We all came up with different questions to ask and shared some good laughs, especially when she wrote, "Is that your wife? She's pretty." She held it up for a split second and then realized it wasn't a "she" at all. "THAT'S A DUDE!" So funny! That car eventually found it's way around us, so Aurora asked her bacon question of the next lucky person to be stuck behind us. Mental note - take small white board on road trips.

Eventually night hit and I needed some sleep. We pulled off at a rest stop and I tried for an hour to sleep, but the kids were not tired (that's what happens when they sleep while the driver can't). They tried to be kind of quiet, but when you're not in a comfortable position, sleep doesn't come easy and the extra noise (aside from the rigs' rumbling in the parking lot) makes sleep that less likely. Finally, I gave up and told Xela she had to keep me awake.

We did make a quick stop to get gas at one of the credit card tanks, I think around 11 (which was before the rest stop/try to sleep station). I didn't want to press my luck and get stranded. Yes, there was someone at the counter in the station, but the machine would have worked without them there. Nate was a little upset about not keeping the Sabbath day holy, but I wasn't sure what else to do.

The last 10 miles, at one o'clock in the morning, was the longest. My eyes were really heavy and the last long road, Dunnellon, before we turn on to Citrus Avenue and John and Diane's house, I thought would never end. We finally pulled into their garage, turned off the car and started to sleep, around 2 am.

It probably wasn't too long after that when there was a knock on the van and I saw John and Diane standing by the van inviting us to come inside to sleep. Kids got up, gave hugs, and then fell into their assigned beds.

We made it!!