we managed to pack the moving pod, load up the car and clean the house. apparently that was the easy part. and by easy, i mean freaking exhausting.
day 1.
i fully anticipated some things to not go as planned...i mean, that's the kind of luck we have...
after we finally got the car loaded (after many failed attempts) we squeezed in and set off...a meager 6 hours later than scheduled.
if the windows weren't tinted, you would see how much stuff was jammed into our car.
first, a brief stop at the beach to dip our toes into the gulf of mexico one last time, and then lunch before hitting the road , ocala bound, for our first scheduled stop. now we're 8 hours behind schedule.
our feet in the gulf.
the ever so spacious inside of car. i think it took me about 12 attempts to get all of us in the picture, which doesn't really do the situation justice.
the command center. i had a pretty sweet set up going on. charging mp3 players/cameras/gps/laptop/phones.
once we arrived in ocala, we stopped at don garlit's museum of drag racing. we got there about 20 minutes before they closed so we were pretty rushed, and then ended up getting kicked out. all in all, a brisk walk through the place was really all we needed...and actually sort of glad we weren't able to spend much time in the gift shop after seeing the prices...i know most gift shops are rip offs, but this was pretty ridiculous.
museum of drag racing checked off the list, we loaded back into the car and set off for our final destination for this leg of the trip: winston-salem, north carolina.
as we got close to jacksonville, we decided we needed to stop and eat and hit the bathrooms. we chose jacksonville beach as our picnic spot..and a perfect place to dip our toes in the atlantic ocean. after searching for what seemed to be hours (time drags when your bladder is at full capacity...) we found a parking spot. spilled out of the car and went searching for the restrooms, only to find out they had all closed maybe 15 minutes before we arrived.
awesome.
we ran towards the pier in hopes for bladder relief only to find they were for customers only. but, for $1 each, we could be passed the chain link fence barrier and in restroom heaven.
wait, you only take cash? that's messed up dude.
i was seriously tempted to let the kids pee on the guy...just to prove a point.
but, alas, i didn't.
we ran back to the car to search for a restroom. thanks to katie's quick driving and lavatory locator sense we pulled into a DQ and finally were able to breathe.
now that the urgency had dwindled, we made our way back to the beach. we got in a couple pictures before it started pouring.
our toes in the atlantic ocean.
we didn't make it back to the car in time. we were all soaking wet.
as we assessed the situation, it started raining a bit harder. and that's when we realized the rain was making its way into the car via the straps holding the roof top cargo carrier.
awesome.
the night before we left, we let danielle put some temporary color (red and black) in the girls' hair. it was almost magical how adding a little water to their hair transformed the inside of our car into a tie-dyed wonderland.
double awesome.
thankfully, the rain didn't last very long and we were able to have our dinner and dry off a bit. as we pulled away from jacksonville beach, it was (i think) 9:30pm...the time we were scheduled to be in winston-salem...it was apparent that we would have to drive through the night to make it to our destination at a reasonable time.
many hours and lots of exhaustion induced conversations later, we stopped at a rest area somewhere in georgia...it was 3 am...and there was a torpedo.
K & E posing on the torpedo.
Q riding the torpedo.
two very tired people. on a torpedo.
the pictures didn't turn out so well, but it was dark...
we persevered.
even more exhaustion induced conversations...i remember something about ducks and their anger about bread rationing...and the quote of the night "oh, sporadic leapfroggers! i don't want to be part of this game." (katie talking about the caravan of late night/early morning semi tractor trailers...)
you just had to be there. you would have laughed too.
we finally arrived in winston-salem, north carolina at around 7am.
sunrise in north carolina.
found the hotel. unloaded what was needed from the car, and made our way to the front desk to check in. the woman standing behind the counter, of course, had no reservation for us. it had been cancelled.
luckily it was sorted out quickly and we made our way to our rooms, ordered breakfast from room service and passed out.
i can only hope the rest of our journey is as eventful and exciting as the first day.
