Day Fifteen: 3280 miles

Setting Mrs. GPS for home...

Home Sweet Home

After 12 hours in the car, we pulled into Gould Farm and our family and our puppies and our kitties and our log cabin Friday night! It was a long day but the girls were little troopers. We got a big heaping chunk of perspective on our trip and feel ready to enjoy the Spring on the Farm. The girls have shown us that we can take road trips with them and all enjoy it!

We said goodbye to Tom and Cathy and Dylan and took a nice drive through Charlottesville on our way out of town. We didn't stop until Maryland and then again for a last Chipotle lunch. We took our last stop in New York and had some ice cream while the sun set. Maddie and I decorated a pine tree with fallen pine cones (poor, confused tree) and sang Christmas carols to it.

Playing in the sunshine in Maryland

Poor baby Sonja, trying to get her Dad's ice cream cone

The dogs were excited to see us but not overly so-- they had a great time with Angie. It was so good to be home and put the girls in their own beds. They slept well and we woke up to a beautiful Berkshire morning-- breakfast at Main House and playing with cousins. What could be better?

Day Fourteen: Fun and Too Much Driving

Slept in until 8:00 today and then had a hotel breakfast with all the old people who stay at the Quality Inn. I am feeling better but Fox News was on and I’m sure my blood pressure was reaching a dangerous level by the time we left the dining room. Nathaniel said that having that drivel on in a public place is as bad as having the most radical anarchists screaming at you about revolution and burning the country down while you’re digesting your waffle (yes, he had another waffle).

We packed up and I stole two pens (!) from the room. Of course we didn’t get too far before we hit South of the Border and bought presents for Ben and Myra and Maddie spent her Easter money ($2.60) on a thimble and a sticker. And we may or may not have bought some fireworks. Who knows?

Holding her Pedro sticker and her South of the Border thimble-- yippee!

Fun with hats! And two pink flamingoes for Ben and Myra

My girl, trying on some Nicole Richie glamour

Then we drove right into a traffic jam and spent almost an hour sitting in the 95 North parking lot. (Que sara, says Pedro.)

Every Lincoln Towncar that we see, Maddie asks, “Is that Nana-Papa?”

We’re stopping at Chipotle’s for lunch and we just had the following conversation with Maddie:

“Do you like burritos?”
“No.”
“You like burritos!”
“No. Like chips.”

**************************

After Chipotle deliciousness (Maddie and I shared a burrito with just a little bit of rice and lots of veggies-- very "Eat This") we didn't stop again until we reached Tom and Cathy and Dylan in Charlottesville, VA. This was a mistake. Our car was on empty, Sonja slept too long, and Maddie lost her damn mind. Nathaniel and I spent about 40 minutes singing Christmas carols, trying to keep her from screaming her head off. We were so glad to get out of the car at 8:30pm and Tom's mom had made a strawberry pie that we ate with ice cream and called dinner (very "Not That").

Dylan was so excited to hold baby Sonja again and was just in love with her! It was awesome and she grinned and grinned her little Sonja grin at him. This is a great place to be!

Day Thirteen: Sight Regained

Eating some Cheerios after a good night's sleep in the Florida outdoors

We tucked the girls into their tent beds after some hot dogs and hamburgers. Maddie wasn’t a huge s’mores fan but she ate up some graham crackers right quick. Nathaniel and I stayed up late, in front of the fire, in our camping chairs—watching “Six Feet Under” on the laptop. While we were enjoying the wilderness, we heard someone come into our dark campsite. They walked up right behind us so we turned the flashlight on and no one was there! But there was a scuttling and crashing in the bushes next to us so I jumped on the picnic table in case it was an alligator. Nathaniel couldn’t see without his glasses but I was able to pick out a little grey body under the leaves—an armadillo! It was so cute and armor plated! I saw another one on the way to the bathroom and boy, they are not subtle when they are snorting in the dirt and moving through the woods. I bet alligators can hear them a mile away.

So we all slept well—it’s perfect camping weather, no bugs, cool but not cold, and not crowded. Sonja woke up at 7:10, right on schedule and said, “Ummmm” and looked over at Nathaniel and gave him a big smile. She is just a little angel. You’d have to go a country mile to find another baby as sweet. My dad said that you can tell she’s going to have a really warm personality. I think that’s totally true. Maddie has shown herself to be super warm and friendly this trip, too. She says “Thank you” to all the cashiers and servers and tour guides who’ve helped us. Two different strangers have expressed to us their concern with how friendly she is. Is it such a dangerous thing to be? Stupid dangerous world. Most people like how friendly she is. Especially since we’ve been teaching her how to say “sir” and “ma’am” while we’re down South.

My sweet Sonja, sitting up all by herself and hanging out in the tent while we break camp

My friendly little camper playing on the slide

We GPS’d our way to two phony Waffle Houses (one closed, the other non-existant) before finding one in Jacksonville. Sonja actually fell out of her car seat in the restaurant while it was sitting on the floor and she ended up under the table on her back. But we didn’t even know about it because she’s so chill that we only noticed when Nathaniel happened to see her on the floor, smiling up at us. From the brown-tiled floor of the Waffle House. Parenting award, here we come.

One of the actual locations where Mrs. GPS told us there would be a Waffle House

We headed up to Savannah, calling our insurance company and various eyeglass places on the way. We went to a Sears but there was a super cheap Eyeglass World across the street so Nathaniel went there and for $70 left with a pair of contacts. They charged extra to show you how to put them in, so I helped him in the parking lot and we had some laughs.

We drove until 8:00, our first night driving of the trip! Nathaniel started to get a little silly towards the end and I got pretty excited by all the South of the Border signs we started seeing. We barely got a room in Florence, SC and then had an okay dinner at the Olive Garden. Everyone admired our sweet Sonja, just hanging out in her seat, watching everyone go by. Of course, they all thought she was a boy because she wasn’t in pink. I don’t mind, I think she’s beautiful in blue.

She slept well in the Quality Inn and so did Maddie, except for one horrible coughing jag in the middle of the night. It was a fun road trippy day!

Goodbye Florida!

Day Twelve: Now this is Vacation!

Coloring with Jessica while the adults keep an eye on the weather

One of my favorite vacation days! We woke up at Ruth Ann’s after a nice family sleep together and there was a wild storm raging, even threatening tornadoes! Very exciting. We got clean and Maddie had her appetite back so we fed her some good stuff and she played with Jessica. Jessica was home from school and showed us her impressive collection of grasshoppers. She is so nice to Maddie and Maddie thinks she’s terrific!

My parents and Uncle Walt came over to say goodbye. Maddie got so excited that she stood at the open front door, watching for them through the rain and screamed when they came in. She’s going to miss them so much! We finally left and Nathaniel was a little crabby. I drove through the rain and traffic while the whole family slept. We stopped for some fast food for a late lunch and Nathaniel had Taco Bell. He brought Maddie with him but she wisely refused the burrito he bought her. He ate everything he ordered: A burrito supreme and a baja gordita. I got a Wendy’s salad and chili (sans finger) and Nathaniel made me promise to never let him eat at Taco Bell ever again. I felt pretty superior about my fast food choices… until I spilled chili all over my white shirt.

We stopped outside of Jacksonville at the Kathryn Hanna campground and set up camp in a fabulous Florida site, dripping with Spanish moss and shaded by tall trees. It was beautiful and had three playgrounds and a lake (full of alligators!). Nathaniel and Maddie gathered fire wood and kindling and Nathaniel made a soft bed of Spanish moss to set the tent up on. Sonja sat in her Bumpo and supervised while I unpacked and organized our stuff. Then we changed into bathing suits and headed for the Atlantic Ocean, which was about ½ a mile away.

Better than a tarp!

What a fun playhouse, Dad!

We walked out this long walkway, past dunes and gazebos, to a empty beach. It was just us and the waves and the seashells. It was definitely our “True Romance” moment that I’ve been fantasizing about. There were cool pools for Maddie to play in and Sonja, our sitting up baby, sat and watched us from her blanket. She loved grabbing the sand in her fat little hands and she didn’t even try to stuff it in her mouth.

My beach babes

Nathaniel and Maddie dug a huge hole and I wrote “Rundle” with seashells in the sand. Then Nathaniel went for one more swim in the ocean and lost his glasses in the waves. My poor, blind sweetie! Oh, well, at least it wasn’t his wedding ring.

Nathaniel, looking very abashed after being bashed by a wave and losing his glasses!

Day Eleven for Reals: Puking

Up early to get out the door and on the road. It will be sad to leave Gainesville and all our family, not knowing how long it will be before we see them again. Hopefully it will be before Sonja graduates high school, which is how long it’s been since I’ve seen my McMahon cousins!

I slept with the girls again while Nathaniel camped in the tent and it didn’t go super well. Sonja spent about an hour pooping, cheerfully. Then Maddie puked and puked and puked. She didn’t want to puke in the toilet but she puked everywhere else. Poor little muffin. Too much Easter.

We had breakfast with Uncle Pete at Clock, which I highly don’t recommend. Then we headed to the ocean! Finally! After months of waiting and all of Maddie’s anticipation, undaunted by Benjamin’s warnings against going in because of sharks, we were actually headed to the ocean! When we stopped and Maddie asked (as she always did whether we were stopping for gas or a pee break), “Go swim in the ocean?” we could say, “Yes!” Only, on the way there, she puked again. A terrible spewing puke that went everywhere, all over herself and Sonja and their car seats and clothes and hair and special blanket and scared the bejesus out of Maddie. She was tied into her car seat and it was just too sad. Nathaniel got us off the road immediately and we stripped her down and cleaned her and settled her down and tried our best with the car seats and Sonja and wondered if we should cancel the ocean. It was so unfair! We decided to keep driving to Tampa and see how things went. She dropped off to sleep once we were on the road again.

Maddie with her puke bucket and Sonja's blanket since hers was a biological hazard

We got most of the way to Clearwater Beach before she woke up and started telling us her belly hurt. We stopped and let her have some fresh air and did this many times before we caught up to my parents, who were waiting for us near the shore. Sonja had exploded a poop all over herself and we were all a little ragged by then but we sucked it up and soldiered on. My parents helped up change the girls and Nana took Maddie down to the water while I fed Sonja in the car. I missed it, but Nathaniel said that he took Maddie into the ocean and she just hated it. She had gobs of suntan lotion and sand running into her eyes and snot coming out her nose and the waves just overwhelmed her and she said, “Out of the ocean, please. Out of the ocean, Daddy.” Nathaniel said it was just too sad.

He brought her back to the beach and she ran up to our blanket behind the lifeguard station and wanted Nathaniel to come too. But he sat in the sand and started making a seat for Sonja in a little pool of water and told Maddie that he was going to stay near the water. And he said that he could see her decide, right there, to have a good time. And to enjoy the damn ocean, in spite of everything. So she came back and played in the sand and her eye didn’t stop crying and her nose didn’t stop running and I’m sure her little belly still felt crappy but she had a good time at the ocean.

Maddie, making the best of it and loving the ocean!

We put Sonja in the pool of water and she sat up! All by herself and for a long, long time! We now have a sitting up baby! Maddie helped bring her water and build a little fortress around her and she even went out into the ocean to bring back endless pails of water like a little sorcerer’s apprentice. Way to go, little trooper!

She really did like it until I took a picture! I swear!

When we were oceaned out, we rinsed off and de-sanded as much as was humanly possible (the white sand was so fine that it didn’t even grit in your teeth like regular sand does. It got everywhere. It got into my dad’s closed car trunk. I forgot how much sand is a part of the ocean experience.) We hit the road and drove to Ruth Ann’s house in Tampa for dinner with her family and Uncle Walt and Aunt Claire. It was so nice to see everyone and they fed us a delicious, laid-back meal. I was so tired. I hope I was sociable. It was nice to be with some Meuniers! I love having such a large, generous family!

Day Eleven? Ten? I've messed up my days! Anyway, it's Easter!

Happy Easter!

A real quick entry:

Church: Sonja an angel, priest very nice, other kids soooo cute in their Easter duds, nice time with parents, very long service

Dinner: Delicious and Southern! Plentiful and overabundant!

Family: So cool. They have their own softball team and play other teams every Tuesday! The young folk are all so bright and enjoy being together and they organize stuff to do with each other—very tight. And I got to see one of the twins, Taylor, who was born on the day I last left Florida. Nineteen years ago. I saw him get cleaned and have his tiny footprints stamped before his mother even held him. And now he’s a grown, handsome man with plans and ideas and a life! The baby I held whenever I could get my hands on her when I was 11 (and who in my mind’s eye looks just like my Sonja) is now a beautiful woman who holds my baby!

Chelsea and Sonja-- Chelsea wasn't even born the last time I was here! Now she's going to college to be an English teacher!

My Dad and cousin Kim

Egg Hunt: So cute! And the Easter bunny gave Maddie $2.60! Score! She basically just followed Breanna, her three-year-old cousin around and spotted an egg every once in a while and then stopped looking and ate jelly beans.

So proud of her eggs!

Nathaniel played cards with my aunts and I talked with my cousins and we all stayed up until midnight (well, not the girls of course!). It was a super-great Easter!