Driving to Florida

Excellent investment for our trip!

My son running at the Georgia welcome center rest stop...you can just see a hand and a foot. My camera is rarely quick enough to catch him. :)

I am finally writing about our vacation to Florida.

We decided to go down to Florida to visit my husband's parents, but it was too expensive for the four of us to fly down. So, we decided we'd take my Camry, which only has 160,000 miles on it for a little drive down south. Because we have two kids and just the car, we were wondering what to do with all the stuff we were going to need to transport. So, I started doing some research, and we wound up purchasing a Thule roof rack system from Rack Attack. I chose that company because I found their demonstration on how to install the rack on You Tube, and because they offered free shipping. To go along with the roof rack, we got a cargo bag, which I don't ever remember seeing before. I have seen boxes hitched to the tops of cars and trucks, but never a bag (of course now that we have one, I notice them everywhere). Since we live in a small apartment and wouldn't have any place to store a box, a collapsible bag was a good solution. So, I hunted on Amazon for the cheapest, most reliable and highly rated bag. We wound up getting the Highland KarPak. It worked fantastically well, keeping everything dry through the deluges we drove through on the way home.

So, we were ready to pack up the car. I made a list of what the four of us needed, and spent two days packing. It took longer than we thought it would (of course) to get going, and we wound up leaving two hours later than we had expected. Since we planned to drive through the night, it didn't really matter.

I was very nervous about driving through the night. I have never driven such a long distance before. The longest car ride I've ever taken was eight hours long. This would be closer to 24 hours. I was hoping I would be able to stay awake, I was worried about other people staying awake on the road and being sober, and I was worried about how the kids would handle the ride. It's a long ride for an infant and a four year old...especially one with PDD-NOS and ADHD.

So, finally, by 9:30 Friday night, August 14, we started the car, and WE WERE OFF!

I was so excited. I've always believed in the saying that getting there is half the fun, and I was so happy to be able to spend so much time with my family.

I was doing the first leg of the drive. The kids looked so cute in their PJ's. I had my Starbucks frapuccinos and Twizzlers at the ready. My son joined me and had some Twizzlers too, which is very unlike him, because he doesn't usually eat anything. He looked like the Joker by the time he was done with red all around his mouth.

It was pleasant driving with no traffic, my daughter was out cold and my husband was sleeping on a nice, fluffy pillow be brought from home. My son became a boon companion. He loves riding in the car. I never know how much information he understands, but he seemed to know we were off on a very long car ride to visit Grandma and Grandpa and Minnie and Mickey. He was much too excited to sleep, and he was just adorable. I really enjoyed the company, too. I got us down nearly to Washington D.C. By 2:30 I needed to stop to get some sleep. Unfortunately, I have a horrible time falling asleep in the car, but I did sleep until most of the way through Virginia. It was around 4:30 and my son was still up, and my daughter woke up. So, we found a Kohl's parking lot, and I fed her and changed her, and rocked her, and eventually she fell back to sleep, and my son finally fell asleep. My husband made it all the way to North Carolina. We stopped at a diner and had a breakfast that included, of course, grits! They were pretty good. We fed and changed the kids and dressed them, and we were on the road again. I got us down to South Carolina, and we stopped for lunch at South of the Border. I've seen bumper stickers from there since I was a kid. It was such a funny place...very much a tourist trap...but it had a bathroom and some of the best fried chicken I've ever had. Then, we were on the road again. We stopped again in Georgia at the Georgia welcome center, and we let the kids run around. It felt so good. It was extremely difficult to get back into that car, and it was extremely difficult to get the kids back into that car.

I was very disappointed that everything looked the same the whole way down. I95 doesn't provide much to look at. Trees are nice and all, but it gives you no reference point as to where you are. The biggest clue to having crossed into Dixie are all the Piggly Wigglys.

We cheered when we passed the Florida state border, and the last couple of hours seemed to be the longest part of the ride. Finally, at 8 pm, we pulled up to Mom and Dad's house, exhausted, sick from coffee, and so, so happy to be done with driving for awhile.

We were very grateful to God that we all were delivered safely to our destination.