Florida - Wednesday, June 26th
08-22-2002, 10:46 a.m.

Florida - Wednesday, June 26th...

August 22, 2002

Wednesday dawned and along with it came mixed feelings. We knew that we would be saying goodbye to Tonya and the girls shortly, but we were also anxious to get home, so it was such a mixture of sadness and excitement. First came the sadness though. We took our showers and started packing up our stuff. I (and Jen) were in lots of pain with our sunburns so it wasn't so easy doing all this stuff, but we managed to get it done without too much fuss. Of course we had to stop constantly to rub soothing gels on each other, but hey you have to do what works. The kids were all running around trying to get in whatever fun they could before they had to get back into the car, and the girls were all sad to be saying goodbye, much as we older girls were. We headed down to the hotel lobby for breakfast, and I think that we all ate as slow as we possibly could just to make it go by more slowly. After we were finished eating (and taking last minute pictures together), we stood around talking for as long as we could.. in the lobby, in the parking lot, every step of the way pausing as long as possible, but we couldn't wait forever, we had a long day in the car ahead of us, and we had to get going.

I cried as we said goodbye, but that is normal, I always do, lol. Jen and I were both quiet for a little while into the ride... just lost in our own thoughts, but as we started making our way towards home, the excitement took over, and we were anxious to get there. This is the only day in the car, on this whole trip, that seemed to drag, but every hour felt like 3 or 4, and I felt like we were never going to get home. Jen felt the same way, and we talked about it more than once. The kids were so antsy as well, and this was the only day that they were actually not so well behaved in the car, and I think that was getting to Jen as well.

We made all of our stops quickly, anxious to get back on the road, and all of our meals were eaten on the road. We had McDonalds a few times, lol, and at this point, we didn't even care. All we could think about was finally being home. When we finally got into Indiana, we were both sooooo excited, especially when we started seeing signs for Chicago. We ran into a little traffic at one point, and that about killed us, hehe.. but it wasn't so bad and we were on our way again shortly.

When I saw the bridge that I hate going over so much, I was actually happy to see it because it meant that home was only an hour away... the kids loved teasing me over this bridge, because on the way there, I told them how when I was a kid (we had to cross this bridge to get to my granparents house), I would close my eyes whenever we went over it. I hated it so much and I still do, except for this one day.. I was too excited to be close to home to be scared... hehe.

When we got to my house, I was ready to cry, I was so excited to see Stephen and even to see my Shadow kitty. I felt bad for Jen because she still had an hour to go, and I wish that I could wave my hand and have her there, but I couldn't, and they headed out shortly to get home. I know that she was every bit as anxious to be there as I was. However, it was a wonderful trip, even more so than I ever expected, and I will never forget the 10 days that I spent with my friends or the fun that we had. I would do it again, and I would love every minute of it. I am lucky to have such wonderful friends, and lucky that we can do this sort of thing together. I realize that we will not always have chances to do stuff like this, so when we do, I treasure it.