Our little family got home about a week ago from our first BIG road trip...almost 2500 miles round trip. That's a lot of miles for kids who are used to walking to Grandma's house. Our exchange daughter, H, told us her family was planning a huge trip to the U.S. and we started scheming about meeting them. We didn't know when we would have another chance to meet her parents and siblings. They were headed to Florida, so off we went for another beach trip.
Since there are lots of fun pics to share (and I know that's what you really want to see), I'm breaking up my report into installments. You'll have to keep coming back to finish the trip with us.
I spent lots of time and energy prepping, hoping that I could stave off the car crazies for 30+ hours in the car. Our most valuable weapon in this fight was none other than my 17-yr-old niece, R, who earned her room and board by playing countless games of tic-tac-toe, passing snacks to the back seat, retrieving thrown toys, breaking up arguments, officiating trips to the bathroom, bunking on a sleeper sofa, and listening to songs from the Cars soundtrack more times than we want to admit. If you are planning a long road trip, I highly recommend you pack yourself a responsible teenager.
I packed picnic foods and we planned to eat on the road, taking in the sites along the way. Our first stop at the Trinity River Island Recreation Area made my homeschool heart proud. We went in to the visitor's center, explored the exhibits, learned about the animals that call the marshy area home, then schlepped our stuff to a picnic table for lunch. Before Jeremy even got to the sidewalk, I was yelling to him, "Go back! Go back! The mosquitos are the size of wasps!" Don't picnic by a swampy river in Texas. We had our picnic closer to the building where we were only occasionally assaulted by a daredevil dragonfly, but we all agreed that picnics for lunch were a bad idea because of the crazy heat.
Our next stop was just down the road at the Louisiana welcome center. Then another stop at the Tiger Truck Stop in Grosse Tete which boasts a live tiger on site. He was there alright, sleeping away in the heat like any animal in their right mind should have been doing. After all those stops, we slogged on for a few hours, skipping the Mississippi welcome center. We made it to our hotel in Gulfport and tucked everyone in.
We were excited about waking up in Gulfport and going just down the road to Biloxi and touring their lighthouse. Unfortunately, we failed to see on their website that tours were only offered from 9-9:30am every day due to the heat. No, it's probably not a good idea to be inside a large metal can when it hits 100 degrees. So we only got to see it from the outside. Bummer, but still really beautiful.
Then we got our first glimpse at the girls' attitudes about the ocean. They were actually excited and eager to get in the water! I could not have predicted such a totally opposite reaction from last year's beach fright fest.
We stopped briefly in Alabama to buy postcards and souvenirs. We overpaid for stuffed animals that had nothing to do with the part of the world we were in.
We made it to Florida and were so excited to be finally "be" in the right state! Everyone knew we were stopping in Tallahassee and would have to finish the trip the next day, but we were still so happy to be in Florida.
Florida takes their highway beauty very seriously. Huge pine and oak trees line the interstate, lush green grass, blue skies, nary a billboard, building, or residence to be seen. For miles and miles and miles. It was a perpetual treadmill of trees. Then bam! Town. And more trees. J decided he didn't drive all the way to Florida to stare at trees, so he found an alternate route that traced the coast in hopes of getting a glimpse of the ocean as we drove. Not so. Even the coastal route was a tree treadmill, just dotted with more rural towns and sketchier gas stations.
It was somewhere along this rural route that we stopped to eat at Emily's roadside diner. I'm pretty sure our waitress' name was Flo. The kids all thought it was a hoot with the Hollywood decor and folding tables. It will always be remembered as the place where C picked Elvis' nose.
To be continued...
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