Florida - Monday, June 24th
08-21-2002, 10:17 a.m.

Florida - Monday, June 24th...

August 21, 2002

The morning came much too soon, and we all got up not so happily. Not because we didn't want to get up so much, but because we didn't want to leave and have it over. In some ways it was exciting to be getting home, but yet we weren't ready for it to end either. We got up, and just got dressed and started packing up the van. Cory had an early flight and so we didn't have much time. We had most everything clean already, but we wanted to do a few things at the last minute, and we had to empty the fridge and stuff. I still cannot believe how much food we threw away.. that is something I think we will know better next time. We are all eating so much less now, and we need to take that into consideration.. what a waste, lol.

The ride to the airport was quiet. I think we were all lost in thought, and I was enjoying the sunrise. I think that was the only good thing about Cory's flight being so early. It was so beautiful, and a fitting send off. I got a few pictures both from the car and then when we got out to say goodbye to Cory. I thought that we were going to stop and wait for her to check in, but Jen was anxious to get on the road since we had such a long day of driving ahead of us.. so we said our goodbyes at the curb. It was a bit emotional, as it always is when we are parting ways.. and I am not ashamed to admit I cried, hehe. I hated leaving her there, and once again I wished that she was driving with us. We were all quiet for a bit after we dropped her off.

It was still way early, but we decided to go ahead and stop for breakfast. Of course we made our way to our favorite, cracker barrel. It was a yummy breakfast. I wish that we had been able to have breakfast with Cory before she left, but with her flight being so early, there just wasn't time. Still, it was nice to sit down together and eat before we got back in the car for our long long day ahead. The plan was to make it all the way to Charlotte (15-16 hours), but we decided that if we felt like stopping elsewhere we would. I was so tired at this point from the lack of sleep the night before, and I was happy to give the front seat to Tonya. Jen did most of the driving.. she really did most of the driving the whole trip, but that is what she wanted to do, so who were we to argue, especially when all I wanted to do was lay down and read. I was grateful she wanted to drive actually.

I did spend most of the morning alternating between reading and napping. It was actually a very nice ride and we seemed to enjoy it, and just being together. We talked a lot and laughed a lot and read a lot, and drove a lot. It was not as bad as I thought it would be spending that much time in the car in one day.. it really seemed to go by so quickly.

Since we hadn't been able to get many souveniers while we were in Florida, we decided to stop at one of the souvenier places on the way thru. It was fun, we were looking at all the goofy things and just cracking up. The place where we stopped had a huge alligator, and so we took goofy pictures by it, and just goofed around. We got some souveniers for our families and for each other, and felt better that we were not going home too empty handed. We were going to make a stop at a bead place too, but once we got to where we thought it was, we stopped seeings signs and when we asked someone we found out that they closed down.. bummer.. we looked forward to that for miles, hehe. So I bet you can't guess where we stopped for dinner that night. Yup, yet another cracker barrel. Even I was sick of them at this point, but it was so convenient, and it was a tradition by now. We had a nice dinner together, and laughed about how much money we really spent at these places throughout the trip. They are a great value, food wise.. but we always wanted to shop while we waited for our dinner, and thus would spend more money in the store... hey it was a cool store, what can we say.

The whole ride was uneventful and we did make it all the way to Charlotte. We did give Jen some breaks, and Tonya did some of the driving. It was an easy drive, but it was late by the time we got there, and we were tired, and happy to be there. Jen's SIL was kind enough to let us stay at her house, and when we got there, we took showers (we didn't shower that morning, so it felt good to finally take one) and talked to Kevin for while and then crawled into bed. I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow which was kinda funny. I spent a lot of time napping in the car that day, you would think I would be wide awake.. but there is just something so tiring about spending the whole day in the car. We did get to see a beautiful sunset though.. to go with the beautiful sunrise we saw earlier... breathtaking, they both were.