Monday, October 30, 2017

Epic Florida Vacation, Day 1 Off We Go


Off we go, into the wild blue yonder!


My Dad used to sing that to us anytime we started a Road Trip. 
Now it feels like we're unlucky if we don't sing it.  
At the start of our trip (now over 2 weeks ago!) I sang it twice. 
We got the car mostly loaded Friday night, and then put the finishing touches on loading ourselves before we hit the road for Gymnastics in the morning.  


Jacob recently graduated this class, but we still let him stay in it because he's been doing so well with his teacher.  He rocked it out for her today. I was happy to let them get some energy out of their systems before we hit the road.  It was going to be a long day, I wanted to get past Chattanooga before we stopped for the night.  Ideally, Georgia.  I went ahead and made reservations in Adairsville, GA at the Quality Inn before we hit the road.  I wanted to make sure we had a place to crash.  


Sam is easy to spot in his telltale green shirt.  I let him wear an exercise shirt to gymnastics, but had him put on a red shirt once we got back in the car. It gives me comfort when we all travel together in matching colors.  It's harder to lose them that way. 


We made it as far as Scottsburg, before stopping to eat.  
They are usually hungry after Gymnastics, but I was able to keep them happy by letting them watch a DVD, we watched Lego Batman.  About the time the movie ended, they noticed a sign mentioning a McDonald's with a playplace.  They were Sold!  I like to let them play. They like to play. I don't mind McD's either.  It's definitely not Eric's favorite.  I always travel with Thieves Spray.  So I hosed them up and let them play. We thought we'd eat there plenty on this road trip south, so he wouldn't have to eat there while we traveled. But I thought we'd make it further than an hour and a half. 
Oh well.  At least they were happy. 


Welcome to Kentucky! 

Apparently, if you cross the bridge, they take a picture of your license plate and send you a bill for 4$.  While we were south, there were news articles about how KY had not been billing wisely for these. Apparently, they only bill you if you come back over the bridge.  Whatever, it's easy.  When they bill me, y'all remind me to pay the bill! 


Through Kentucky we found our groovy.  The kids had their DSs and Jake took a nap, woohoo!


I was surprised to see a touch of color in the hills of Kentucky as we drove.  
One of these days, I need to just come down here and Stop. Vacation here a bit. Do the caverns, or the Bourbon trail.  Seriously.  Kentucky and Tennessee are So Pretty! 



In Tennessee, we didn't really stop to do much but pee and get gas.  We were making good time, and had happy kids.  My goal was to make it to Chattanooga before Sundown.  It's quite mountainous and trafficky around Chattanooga.  It didn't work.  I was hitting these mountains with warning signs and a sea of breaklights just as the sun went down.  We passed by Lookout Mountain as it got dark, and crawled through traffic through town.  I was so grateful we already had a reservation for the night. 


The Quality Inn.  
We were happy for the Disney Channel. 
Confession time: when I saw that the movie The Descendants was coming, I was happy to sit and watch it.  I'd not seen it yet, and I wanted to!  We had a floor picnic for dinner, driving through Wendy's.  Then we stayed up until almost 11, all curled in our beds, diffusing Purification and Lavender for a cleansing bedtime blend.  It ended up being a nice quiet evening. I was very proud of the boys for holding tight for 8 1/2 hours.  They traveled quite well. We can do this!  
I had some friend tell me she thought I was crazy for taking the boys to Florida on my own. Well, I was a little crazy.  But I felt very comforted having my Black Belt in Karate with me.   I'm proud of my boys.  They did well, and not one time did I have to scream myself horse.  Sure there was a little yelling, and I had to make them take a 1 hour screens break, but that was the worst. There's safety in numbers.  And I was able to sleep well having safely made it through three states.  More tomorrow!



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