Friday, September 12th.
YEA!! We made it out the door on time. Having the whole car packed then night before really helped simplify the morning. Everyone has their own suitcase. I have a seperate bag for extra shoes for everyone. We have small blankets and pillows in the car for the drive. Then we have all our bed pillows, too. We have 3 coolers. One big one for the cold food. One smaller one for drinks. One really small one to keep up front. The dry food is in one of those cloth grocery bags. The kids have two cloth bags between their seats. Those two bags have books, their music, their games system and games, and coloring stuff. Between Todd and I, we have my purse, his man bag and a cloth cube basket. The basket has baby wipes, all our medications ( in a plastic lidded container of its own ), books, my cross stich, and other odd stuff. His man bag has his 17 music and comedy CD’s he created for the trip. It also has his phones, the GPS device.. which is now on the windshield. Lord knows what else is in there. LOL The most important device is my laptop, which is in my lap!! The laptop bag is at my feet and my camera and chargers and batteries are in it. SOOO, I would say we are all set!
We headed out at 4:30 this morning. It was hard to leave the dogs. I will miss them. They both slept with us last night and cuddled up along side of me. Not much room to sleep with the Bloodhounds, but I didn’t mind. They didn’t want to get out of bed and neither did I. We stopped for gas and then headed for Port Charlotte, Fl. There is a Crackle Barrel there. HMM YUMMY. We were 45 minutes to early, ( they weren’t open yet ) so we headed over to the Walmart. I got 2 longsleeved shirts for Todd jr. Found a fleece lined hoodie for Nathan. I also picked up a shirt for me. I orginally wanted clean pillowcases for the boys’ pillows, but I forgot.
Crackle Barrel tasted wonderful! They gave us Maps of the United States with out alot of stuff written over the states. Nathan is now tracking the cities we are passing. 
Todd jr. is passed out. Todd is yawning and I am getting sleepy. I am about to ask him for a bathroom. That should just thrill him. HEHEHEE
I will post later! It is 7:40 a.m
Good Afternoon! It is 12:46 p.m. We just passed Lake City. We stopped to visit my Aunt Audrey. She lives right off the interstate. I haven’t seen her about 2 years. It was wonderful to visit with her again! On our way back, we will stop and spend the night. Then I can spend some time with my cousin Kathy. Auntie has a gorgeous house on 10 acres covered in hundreds of trees! Butterflies, birds, deer, racoons, and squirrels abound! What a wonderfull place to live! The dirt road that leads into her place is canapy covered by trees. STUNNING drive in!
Here is a goofy from me. Driving down the interstate and I see small white livestock grazing in the distance. I start shouting, “Sheep, sheep, sheep”, yea.. not sheep. What was I thinking??? It was goats. Faithy, they were such cute little doggies! LOL
We are about an hour from Valdosta, Georgia. Nathan wants to stop and collect Georgia clay. So, that is what we will do. It will feel good to be in Geogia.
I can’t wait for the kids to see Tennessee and Kentucky. Green, wooded, mountains.
The boys have been really good, so far. No fighting, no complaining. It helped to stop at Auntie’s so they could run, play and burn off energy.
I will post again when we get to Georgia.
OH, Praise GOD! We made it to Georgia!!!! We stopped at the visitors center and took a picture. Then the boys bagged up some clay dirt and pine tree cones. It is now several hours later…at 5:05 p.m. We are a little bit away from Atlanta. Great timing,eh? NOT.
Rush hour should be a ton of fun. We are going to stop for dinner later.
The hills are great here! Up and down, up and down. The farther we go, the higher and deeper the hills and valleys. They have real trees here. Unlike that swamp I call home.
Well, the boys finally began to reach their threshold of tolerance. (giggle) I thought they would have cracked long before now.
We do keep making frequent stops, though. Gives everyone a chance to use the potty and move around. I just picked up a book of clean kids jokes. So, they are back there telling really corny jokes. Hey, but they aren’t horsing around. I didn’t even think to bring movies. My laptop can play DVD’s. It is currently plugged into the lighter. I picked up some movies at one of our stops. Tonight they can watch Happy Feet or Open Season.
7:16 p.m.
We had stopped for dinner at Olive Garden. Now, we are full, satisfied and ready for a nap. No time for that though. GPS says we won’t arrive in Columbus Twp. untill 8:00 a.m. I am so hoping we make better time overnight. LOL I doubt it. I will be calling for a potty break in a little bit.
I am going through internet withdrawls. I am typing my blog in Notepad. When I reach my brother’s house, I will load it up. NEXT trip, this computer gets sattelite internet.
There is downtown Atlanta, now. Traffic is very light. That is a good thing!! See ya later!
I anticipate the night driving to be a real drag. I thought I had the trip planned out so that we would see Tennessee in daylight. Guess I was wrong.
Oh, crap.. we just hit serious traffic. Must be getting close to Atlanta. The kids were amazed at the skyscrapers in downtown Atlanta. They have never seen such buildings, so they were just amazed by the height and detail. After awhile, I got tired and fell asleep. I feel bad for Todd. He has done 99% of the driving.
10:54 p.m.
We are approaching Lexington, Ky. I sure wish it was daylight. We just stopped for some gas. Gas prices are wild all over the place. We left Florida at $3.89. We paid $4.19 in Lake City. We just paid $4.49 here in Kentucky. I am out of touch, but apparently Ike is disrupting the flow of gas and will probably continue to do so for the next week or so. That has caused panic, hoarding all over and price gauging and general price raising. The gas station attendant we just talked to said that he heard gas would be up to like $7.00 by next week. I would certainly hope not. My brother said it was $3.89 right now. That is good. I really can’t afford to double my gas bill on this trip! The kids are still doing great. I am very pleased. I also am flippin tired. Will I ever get to Michigan?????? Will I ever get back on the internet??????
It is 12:27 a.m. We have been going through the mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky. I have seen this in the daytime, when I came up with my Mom in 1995. I know how stunning and amazing the scenery was. But, let me tell ya, in the dark it is not wonderful. I feel more secure on my flat swamp land. ROFLMAO Sissy!
Saturday, September 13th.
We are STILL on the road. It was a rough night. Todd had to stop several times to nap. Then we hit the rain. ICK. I am trying to talk him to doing a 2 day trip back. This is really hard on our bodies. The kids are still very good and Todd and I still have killed each other. LOL BUT, we are in LIMA, OH, and we have 2 more hours of freaking driving to do. Tired of driving. SO tired.
You know, Ohio sucks. It didn’t impress me in the daylight 11 years ago and it doesn’t look anymore impressive in the dark. The radio sucks here too. These people have nothing decent to listen to.
Oh, I so need to get online. I am so out of touch. There is no news to be found on the radio. I don’t know what is happening in Texas. I don’t know what the real deal is on the gas. I miss my friends at MamaCentral. I can’t check my bank account. I can’t get my email. ARGGH This is driving me crazy. I think I am a little to plugged in. My phone is dead. Of course, the batter is dead. Oh, wait..I can charge it with the converter I bought for my computer. OH, my brain is mushy!
We MADE IT. 31 hours, but we MADE it. Very well worth the drive, though. Uncle Rick gave the boys’ permission to chop wood. ROFLMAO Todd went out with them and Todd jr. got a course in chopping wood. He did great! The ax was bigger and heavier than Nathan. He tried, bless his heart.
Here is a photo..
Here is my brother
