Florida Road Trip

I kept no journal, I wrote nothing down, I took very few pictures, but I'm going to try to write about what I remember about our road trip to Florida two months ago.  I should probably just link to Christa's blog and her posts about it or at least read them again to jog my memory, but I've decided to just wing it.

Road Trip members:  JD, Me, Christa, and Travey (notice the lack of children!)

I have taken exactly one road trip to Florida before this one.  I was 7 (but 8 on the way home).  I was with my parents and my siblings (just two brothers at the time) and we were driving a little red two-door Ford Thunderbird.  It only had two seatbelts in the back seat and my dad had installed a third so that we could drive legally.  (We found out after the trip that his license had been expired the entire trip.)  I don't remember much about the ride, except that my brothers and I fought over who got to sit in the "middle."  I'm not completely sure why we fought about it; it was a hump and not very comfortable as it wasn't intended to be a seat.  I think it was that we could see out the front window from there.  We took about three days to get there.  We stayed at my aunt and uncle's home and I celebrated my birthday there with my cousin whose birthday was just two days before mine.  We went to Disney and Sea World.  We drove home.  Every other time I've been to Florida, it has been by way of an airplane.

We decided to drive this time due to the cost of tickets, the flexibility of travel, and the cost of a car rental.  We weren't taking the kids, so screaming one-year-olds and whiny school-age children weren't part of the equation.  Four adults that get along well- we figured we could handle it.

We left Vermont at about 4 a.m. Saturday morning (after a scramble to finish sub plans Friday night, figure out why my car battery was dead, and do all of my packing) after very little sleep.  We picked up Christa and Travey and all of their luggage (another advantage to not flying- bring as much as you want!).  We drove straight through to Florida with only two stops that were for something other than gas- an hour long rest stop when we spotted a Cabela's store in Pennsylvania and a sit down dinner somewhere in the Carolinas.  By about 7:30 a.m., we were at our destination of Ft. Myers, Florida.

We napped and headed over to Sanibel Island for the afternoon.  The next few days in Ft. Myers included shopping, the beach, reading, pedicures, swimming in the pool just outside of the condo (my mom and her husband's), Monopoly, and just enjoying the freedom of being childless.  On Wednesday, we went on an airboat ride in Everglades City and then went over to Ft. Lauderdale and stayed with my aunt and uncle for the next couple of days.  We walked to the beach, went on a boat ride with my uncle on the inter coastal and a bit of the Atlantic, had a scrumptious Thanksgiving dinner, and headed back home on Friday.  We spent the night in North Carolina and finished the drive on Saturday.  While the long drive was bearable, it took up several days of our vacation time, so I'm pretty sure that next time we'll pay the extra money and fly!