I started this reply probably 45 minutes go. I put in the title and then just stared at the big, empty white box on my computer screen. I don't know if I got nostalgic or writer's block or what. I just couldn't come to bring myself to end the trip. I know, I know, it actually ended over a month ago. But I've been
reliving, just as all of you have been living it for the first time. This won't be the last entry for the Trip Report. I have at least one more to sum everything up and provide some parting words. As for now, let's pick up where we left off.
We had spent last night at Epcot's Extra Magic Hours. I love staying at the Beach Club - you get off your last ride and it's literally a 10 minute walk and you're at your hotel room door. As much as I love the Disney buses, I love not riding them just as much!
So we wake up on Thursday morning. I really didn't pay attention to the clock. We finished off the food we had in our fridge for breakfast, packed up what need to be packed up, and hauled it out the van. We put our swim suits on in the room, kept a bag of clothes to change into and bid farewell to room 557. Next stop - Storm Along Bay.
When I bought our waterproof camera (Olympus Stylus 770SW) a few years ago, I purchased a second battery so we would always have one charged. Silly me, I tried to save a few bucks and bought a generic battery. A full charge on that battery lasts about 5 pictures. For some reason, I haven't thrown it out yet, and that was the battery that was in the camera this morning. Long story short - no pictures of swimming this morning.
Anyway, the 4 of us spent a good couple of hours playing and swimming. The kids love the sandy beach. We built several sand castles. Unfortunately, each one met the same fate - being trampled by giant monsters! Arrrgh!
The kids also love the little water slide. It's only about 12' long, but they would slide down, swim to the steps, climb up, and slide down again. Over and over and over. There were a few other kids there as well. One of them cut off Evan in line and Madison darn near punched him. She's a very protective older sister.
Around 11, we told the kids that it was time to get going and get some lunch. Around 11:30, we actually convinced them to get out of the water and get changed! We couldn't really decide where to eat, so we hit an old stand-by - Chili's - that was on the way back to Grandma & Grandpa's house.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We made it back to two very happy dogs shortly after lunch. We started doing some laundry and cleaning in preparation for our long drive home the next day. Grandma & Grandpa spent the evening with the kids and said their goodbyes. (They both had to leave for work before the kids would be awake)
The next morning was spent staring at the back van, trying to figure out how to re-pack everything. The biggest problem was Madison's Cinderella Castle play set. It was big, ackward, and breakable. Not the idea item to squeeze into an already full van for 1200 miles! I was able to get it protected, load up the bikes, kids and dogs and we hit the road around 10:00 am.
We stopped at a rest area in northern Florida to let the dogs out, hit the restroom, and grab the lunch that we had packed. I remember 2 things about this rest stop. 1. It was ungodly hot, and 2. There was a gentleman there working on something in the back of his SUV. He was not wearing a shirt, had about 6 inches of plumber crack staring back at me and breasts that would make a stripper blush. Toto, I don't think we're in Disney World anymore.
Most of the drive seems like blur now, so I'll let Facebook tell the story.
Facebook, 10/23 2:05pm: In Valdosta, Ga for gas and bathroom break.
This was taken about a half hour later. Allie really is a sun dog. Any patch of sun coming in and she'll find it and lay in it.
South of Macon, GA, I started looking at the Atlanta area traffic reports on my Blackberry (settle down out there, Bambi was driving.
) It showed a 14 mile stretch of interstate around Macon that was moving at "0-10 MPH". This is where our investment in a GPS paid off. We hit the "detour" button, got off the Interstate and drove through Macon. Nice little town. We stopped to gas up, grabbed Subway for dinner and kept heading north once we were past the traffic problems.
That's not to say we didn't catch any of Atlanta's traffic. Through the city was fine, and we were good as long as we had the high occupancy vehicle lane. As soon as that ended north of Atlanta, we were in bumper to bumper traffic for about 30 minutes. Frustrating, but it didn't last too long.
Again, we hit Chattanooga in the dark and I didn't get to see any of the mountains. (We've got driving trips planned for March and December of 2010. We'll see how the timing works out then!)
Facebook, 10/23 9:43pm: Just west of Monteagle, TN. 624 miles down, 628 to go. Looks like fall in Tennessee, at least from the yellow glow of the rest area street lights.
Nothing very exciting goes on for a while. I'm driving through Nashville around midnight while everyone else sleeps. I coast in to a Shell station on fumes, but no one needs to know that...
We trade off driving a few times. I even pulled into a rest area and caught a quick nap with everyone. Driving home after 2 weeks of partying just isn't quite as easy, is it?
Facebook, 10/24 6:10am:Just about to the Indiana/Illinois boarder. Should be home in 2 more hours
Facebook, 10/24 8:06am: 23 hours, and we're home. now to unpack and figure out how to integrate back into "normal" life. And start planning our next vacation.
The problem with getting home at 8 in the morning is that you have a full day in front of you. We unpacked and started sorting out our stuff. After being gone for 2 weeks, our kitchen was pretty empty so we went grocery shopping. We got home, but the cold and frozen stuff away and then all 4 of us took a nap.
As I said before, I'll have at least one more official entry in my Trip Report. I'll try to sum everything up and come up with something profound to say. If I can't do that, I'll just go on with some mindless blathering for a few paragraphs.