Drive to Florida and Day 1

In honor of Luke's birthday/spring break, we decided to go to Florida. Our spring break coincides with my sister's, so it was a good time to visit. The first hurdle was clearing our house of the virus that plagued us in the weeks before we were scheduled to leave. Thankfully, everyone was well by Sunday. The second was Thomas' work. He has been extremely busy lately and before he could leave he needed to review 13000 documents to determine whether they were releasable (basically nothing classified in them). He only had about 3 weeks and this was in addition to all his other work duties. He brought his computer home on the weekends and after work and somehow managed to get it all done.

Hurdle 3 was getting to Florida. Airfares were relatively cheap, around $150/person.  But, with a family of 6, that adds up to almost $1000, throw in airport parking and minivan rental and we were closer to $1500. Of course, there is also the aggravation of transporting 3 booster seats and a car seat and all the other stuff we needed to bring. We decided driving made the most sense, which would cost us about $150 and allow us to bring all the stuff we needed without carting it through two airports and Orlando is a massive airport to try and hustle through.

However, the drive to Florida is around 13.5 hours, without stops. The older kids are fairly easy to entertain, they can watch movies, play Kindles, read books, color, etc. Luke was the wild card. This was going to be his longest car ride ever. To minimize the misery, we planned on leaving at 1am, so the kids could spend the first 6 hours sleeping. Thomas was going to go to bed by 7 to rest up in preparation. Unfortunately, it turned out that departure day (err night?) was also Jack and Kara's first practice for baseball. And, Thomas is the assistant coach. They didn't even get home until 7:30. I had spent the day packing and preparing, but there was still stuff to check/double-check and load. We finally laid down around 9, but were too wound up to sleep. Hence we decided to just go. We knew we could always sleep at a rest stop if we needed to and we could take turns sleeping/driving.

The boys had fallen asleep but the girls were still awake and very excited by the change in plans. Thomas took a quick shower while I did the very last minute stuff, like packing up our picnic lunch, and we departed at 9:49pm.

Everyone had trouble falling asleep, even Luke. But, no one was grouchy. With Luke still rear-facing, I couldn't recline the passenger seat very much, so I never got in a comfortable sleeping position. But, I was able to doze off and on throughout the night. I was also worried about Thomas falling asleep and frequently woke to make sure he was okay, which he always was. The kids also didn't get much solid sleep. They kept waking up, but remained quiet. I imagine their night was a lot like mine. Around midnight, Kara needed to use the bathroom, so we made our first stop of the trip at a North Carolina rest area. Luke was (mostly) asleep, so Thomas and I took turns staying with him.

We were off again. Our next stop was for gas. This time we took Luke out so he could walk around a bit too. We actually had to make two stops because the card reader wasn't working at the first place, which we didn't realize until everyone was out and half of us were inside using the restroom. Then, we were on our way again. Around 5, Thomas was too tired to go on, so I took over. Fortunately, I felt pretty good. It was still dark out and it was very boring driving in the dark while everyone else slept. I have no idea how Thomas managed for 7.5 hours. People started waking up for good, as opposed to the quiet dozing, around 7. I was ready for another bathroom break, so we stopped at a rest area somewhere in Georgia. Everyone got out and walked around again. Thomas realized he wasn't going to be able to sleep and it was much more fun driving with him to keep me company. We played our special drive mix, which included everyone's five favorite songs, or at least the songs they chose for the drive. We had it on shuffle, and it was fun to see whose song would come on next. At one point, we had already heard one of Luke's, when it started to play a second time. It happened to be his favorite song (Steal my Girl) and Thomas tried to quickly hit next. But, Luke had heard the opening and knew it was his song and started yelling and crying. Thomas quickly turned it back on and all was well again. It was pretty hilarious listening to Luke sing along. He has a few more words in the song now. It used to just be "I know, I know, I know" and "for sure".  Now he does "she knows" too.  :)

For those who might be curious, here's our playlist. Those who know us well can probably figure out who belongs to at least a few songs. For Luke, we just picked songs from the Kings Dominion playlist:

 

We stopped again for gas just before the Florida border, but no one got out since we knew were just a few miles from the big Welcome to Florida rest area where we planned on having a breakfast picnic. Thomas resumed driving duties. Originally, this would have been our lunchtime stop, but obviously plans had changed.

We spent around 45 relaxing minutes eating and walking around inside and out. It wasn't quite 9, but they were still handing out OJ samples, which is a fun tradition. Another tradition is that I always drive in Florida. So, I took back over. We let the kids play their Kindles, which didn't last too long. Then, we listened to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We handed out their first treat of the drive (some fun sticker scene books) and everyone was happy. We hit traffic in Orlando, despite the fact that it was 11AM, there were some stop and go moments. It was much worse on the other side which was backed-up for miles. There were no accidents, just congestion.

It feels like we should be there when we get to Florida, but it's actually the longest state to get through on the drive. We still had over 200 miles to go.

In his jammies and eating a breakfast bar. An inauspicious start to his birthday.

We just can't resist a face cutout.

Luke wanted in too

Because, why not?

Anna needed to use the bathroom again, so we gassed up and had one final restroom break. Then, we went to a park in Winter Haven to get rid of some more energy and enjoy our picnic lunch. We were right near Debby's work, so she popped over and said a quick hello on her lunch break.

We headed to my dad's house. Luke fell asleep on the drive and we tried to put him down for a nap, but he wasn't interested.  We propped the kids in front of the t.v. and Thomas and I tried to sleep. Thomas did eventually fall asleep, and the kids grew tired of t.v., so I took them out for a short walk to the mini golf area. We played for a little while when my sister called and said she and the kids would be home shortly.

We went back to my dad's, who was now home from his appointment and made dinner plans before going to my sister's house to say a quick hello and meet their bearded dragons. Luke wasn't interested in the dragons, but he was fascinated with their two cats. He loved them! Then, it was off to dinner with my Dad and Maggie. We definitely needed a casual place, so we opted for Cici's, a pizza buffet.

Shortly after 6, a mere 21 hours after departing Maryland, we got to Marta's house where we are staying this trip. It was only a 10-minute drive from Cici's, but Luke fell asleep and was completely out. We couldn't wake him, so we finally just put him down for the night. The poor kid was exhausted. Not much of a birthday, but he still has Legoland to look forward to. He handled the drive much better than we expected. He only cried twice the entire time, both for relatively short periods. The first was when we tried to skip his song. The second was at our last bathroom break when we didn't let him out of the car. We knew it was going to only be another 20 minutes to the park, but of course, he had no idea and just knew that Anna got to leave the car and he didn't. The older kids were fantastic. We were worried that with so little sleep they would be cranky and difficult, but they weren't. It went much better than we could have even hoped for.

Now, it is 7:15 on Friday. Luke is playing next to me while everyone else sleeps. He has already had his breakfast and is ready for the day to begin. Reading back over this, I can certainly write a much more detailed blog when the facts are fresh in my mind, but I am not sure that is a good thing. :)