Did A Thing...

 Had I known a week or more ago that there was about 3000 miles of driving ahead of me, I might have had a full-on nervous breakdown.  Or worse.

On March 3, 2023, we packed the car.  On March 4, 2023, my wife took the kids to the airport.  She came home, we packed all of the items we needed to bring, and we planted our butts in the car.  Along with Cheyanne.  We drove from Burnsville, Minnesota to Iowa City, picked up some camera equipment, then continued on to the Day's Inn in Hannibal, Missouri.  The next morning, Sunday, March 5th, we got up, hopped into the car, and drove from Hannibal to Atlanta, where we had dinner with a high school friend of Ann's and his wife. On Monday, March 6th, we got up in Atlanta and drove from there to Ocala, Florida.  We unloaded the car, then turned around and drove about 6 miles to the Publix supermarket, picked up some basic groceries (including Havarti Onion Cheese, yum).  The next day we had dinner with our future daughter-in-law's parents at their home.

That brings us thru March 7th.  On Wednesday, March 8th, Ann and I drove to Orlando and picked up her brother, then back to Ocala to his hotel.  We then went out to dinner at the Ivy House in Ocala with more relatives.  On Thursday, March 9th, we took a car trip to the second oldest town in Florida, Cedar Key.  We got to see the ocean, then turned around and came back to Ocala.  Friday rolled up, Ann got her nails done with the rest of the girls, and we had our Rehearsal dinner after the rehearsal, then we went back to the Vrbo house we had rented, did a little cleaning and packing up, and took a collective deep breath.

Saturday, March 11th, was Wedding day, where my son married his best friend.  Somehow, the wedding planner set everything up perfectly so I got plonked in the second seat to the left from the aisle, right where a shaft of sunlight fit between two trees and struck me right in the face, which had maybe a whopping 1% of the blame for my tears.  The other 99% could be placed at the feet of the 3-week premature little boy who climbed onto the roof of my house, generally gave me fits and surprised and impressed me countless times over the years before becoming the sort of man I always wanted to be.

Saturday ended with a dance and I did have to twist the arm of the DJ and took the blame for asking him to play Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls".  I will note that the dance floor was pretty empty - there was some sand on it, but that was about it.  Once the vocals let up and the guitar cut in, there was another problem with the dance floor.  It was too small.  

Then came Sunday, March 12, the expected departure day, opened with me getting up at 4:20 am, getting to my brother-in-law's hotel, the Howard Johnson's in Ocala, and then down the same Florida Turnpike to the Orlando airport, on the day after daylight savings change, where he caught an 8:05 am flight back to Iowa.  We then, instead of departing, were invited to a family reunion - being, now, family.  A wonderful gathering with wonderful people in wonderful weather.  We then went back to the VRBO rental, packed a little, and crashed.  The next morning, March 13, I arose at 6:30 am, thanks to a powerful thunderstorm.  We finished our packing, and I proceeded to haul everything out to the car in varying levels of pouring rain.  Lightly pouring, heavily pouring, downpour, and holy hell, I'm thoroughly soaked.

We left the house one last time, then headed over to my son's new in-laws, where he was staying, where we dropped off the groceries we hadn't consumed, picked up his suit and the wedding dress, a few other items, and then headed north.  We took a total patchwork of my doing to avoid Atlanta, and took a detour through Plains, Georgia - because what the hell, we were down there, heading north, and it was on the way from Ocala through Americus to Columbus, which took us north to Chatanoogah.  Or however the hell it was spelled.  I was driving, not editing.  We stayed in the Athena hotel.   The next morning, March 14, found us awakening in the Athena, hopping back onto I-70 north then a quick second stop at the only Starbucks in Paducah, Kentucky (we'd stopped there on the way down, too - it's in between a Five Guys and a Freddie's).  We made it all the way up north in Illinois to Springfield, and eventually turned west to get to the Quad Cities, where we turned north to get to Maquoketa, Iowa, Ann's home town and a part of my heart, as well.  We crashed out at the hotel behind the McDonalds, slept a solid night, then got up, loaded up, headed over to get breakfast, see a close friend, drop off the cameras and other equipment we'd picked up for the filming, and then headed home.

I suppose it helps that we packed the car and left town on a 38-degree day.  Thanks to the internet and all, we were able to keep up with the news at home, learning there was another 8 inches of snow falling when we were in 89-degree weather when we reached Ocala.  The only "bad" weather we got was the thunderstorm on Monday Morning.  Back home, the low temperature was 6 degrees while we were gone, and 89 turned out to be the high temperature we experienced in Florida. 

As this was my first, and likely only, trip to Florida, I can say that it was pretty well-timed, in that it's spring down there, the bugs and the pollen has yet to reach overwhelming status.  It's green, of course, which was pretty much the case from mid-Georgia south.  The last snow we passed on the way down was a little bit in Missouri.  On the way back, we found snow in central Illinois.  But for the record, we traveled through Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida on the way down.  Our reverse trip skipped Missouri.  We did see license plates from Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, California, New Mexico, Kansas, Pennsylvania, New York, Maine, Virginia, West Virginia, Quebec, and Alaska.  Not bad,  Half the country. 

Once I get and convert them, I'll have more pictures to share, but it was a journey.  And I gained a daughter-in-law.  Along with extensive appreciation for long-haul truckers and the highway engineers and maintainers in this country, because most of the roads we were on were fantastic.  Some of the drivers, on the other hand... well, we'll cover that a bit later.