At the end of January, we took a trip to Florida--4 days at the beach with Tom and Alice, and then 3 days at Disney with mom and dad. Our plan was to rent a car, drive down, and then fly home. The trip did not have an auspicious start! Here's a little rundown of the first night of travel.
We rented a car in Grand Rapids, packed it, and left the house at 4:30 on Friday, destination: Alli and Micah's house in Lexington, hopefully by 11 pm.
4:45 pm: Stopped to add fluid to wipers; realized wiper fluid dispenser didn't work. And neither did the 12V plug for the DVD player. 2 kids + long drive + potentially wet weather = potential disaster. Also realized we forgot something so return home quickly.
5:30 pm: Arrive at Kzoo airport to swap out for a new car. I start joking that we're not going to make it to Fort Wayne (our intended dinner stop, 2.5 hours down the road).
6:00 pm: Switch over suitcases, car seats, etc. to find out that new car's license plates are expiring on Saturday.
6:15 pm: Handed keys to car #3 (did I mention the car rental lot at airport isn't plowed, so every car is sitting in about 2 feet of snow?). Open the new car and it smells like smoke and even has cigarette pack on the ground. Company decides to clean car rather than dig up (literally...out of the snow) another.
6:30 pm: We eat at Subway (still in Kzoo) while car gets vacuumed and sprayed.
7:30 pm: Finally on the road. 6.5 hour drive has us looking at a 2 am arrival in KY.
9:00 pm: Desperately needed diaper change requires a rest stop.
9:30 pm: Now Thomas needs to go. Only in Indiana, and not by much. And it's snowing.
2:00 am: Arrive in Lexington. Woo hoo! Only 10 hours to go on Saturday!
4:45 pm: Stopped to add fluid to wipers; realized wiper fluid dispenser didn't work. And neither did the 12V plug for the DVD player. 2 kids + long drive + potentially wet weather = potential disaster. Also realized we forgot something so return home quickly.
5:30 pm: Arrive at Kzoo airport to swap out for a new car. I start joking that we're not going to make it to Fort Wayne (our intended dinner stop, 2.5 hours down the road).
6:00 pm: Switch over suitcases, car seats, etc. to find out that new car's license plates are expiring on Saturday.
6:15 pm: Handed keys to car #3 (did I mention the car rental lot at airport isn't plowed, so every car is sitting in about 2 feet of snow?). Open the new car and it smells like smoke and even has cigarette pack on the ground. Company decides to clean car rather than dig up (literally...out of the snow) another.
6:30 pm: We eat at Subway (still in Kzoo) while car gets vacuumed and sprayed.
7:30 pm: Finally on the road. 6.5 hour drive has us looking at a 2 am arrival in KY.
9:00 pm: Desperately needed diaper change requires a rest stop.
9:30 pm: Now Thomas needs to go. Only in Indiana, and not by much. And it's snowing.
2:00 am: Arrive in Lexington. Woo hoo! Only 10 hours to go on Saturday!
Saturday morning we had breakfast with Alli, Micah and Eli and then got on the road. Ed planned a few side trips to break up the 10 hour drive. The only drawback is that they were all on the front end of the trip and at 6 pm we weren't even into Alabama! Oh well...we had fun!
We stopped first at Mammoth Cave and took a tour.
Not great pictures inside the cave, but very cool to be there in person! I hadn't been since I was in high school and Ed (and the boys, obviously) had never been.
We made an impromptu stop at the Opryland Resort & Convention Center. Three huge atriums packed with foliage and pathways to run walk, even a river and riverboat. I think you could spend several days in there and never see the same thing twice.
We rolled into Navarre Beach after midnight and were greeted by Tom, Alice and Mickey. Hooray for vacation!
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