Post-Christmas Travels

And the driving continues!

Leaving Jacksonville, we weren't planning on going straight home. We were taking a 'detour' and adding an extra day to our trip home. And our 'detour' wasn't so much a detour as it was an extension of the trip because it was hardly 'on the way' home for us. But that was the plan all along.

We left from our hotel and heading SOUTH on I-95. (Told you it wasn't on the way) First stop was to see Eric's parents and his sister and the kids, who were visiting their condo on the west coast of FL. We were just planning on stopping by and having lunch there... but we had to get there, which meant a relatively early rise (for a vacation day) and a drive on I-4 through Orlando (always fun). We stayed relatively close to our schedule, despite my desperate need to find a Starbucks and some traffic (surprise!) between I-Drive and Disney. We got there around 12:30pm, and there was plenty of time to visit and grad some lunch.

But our trip south wasn't done! We then jumped on I-75 SOUTH to go down to Naples to visit some more friends. We planned a little more poorly for this segment of the trip and didn't get to see as many people as we would've liked, but we still had a nice dinner with some friends and were reminded of how much the Doubletree at Naples still loves (and remembers) Eric from all his stays there when he worked at Kite. Kind of funny, actually. We also saw a pretty beautiful sunset, which I always love to catch if I can when I'm near the ocean.

The next morning, we woke up and had a tasty breakfast at the hotel before finally starting our journey home. Eric suddenly had this lofty goal to do the entire trip to Indy in one day - just push on until we were home. I told him, "we'll see" and asked him to keep an open mind about staying overnight somewhere along the way. I had in my mid we'd make it to Atlanta, maybe a little further. Florida is a LONG state, and seems even longer when you start where we did. But we got on the road and started north. It was mostly uneventful until we got closer to GA. Then, as I started checking traffic on my phone, I saw trouble ahead. And sure enough, around Valdosta, we came to a standstill. A guy decided to steal a semi in northern GA, only to crash it into a bridge pier in south GA. We eventually detoured through Valdosta and got back onto I-75 just north of town, but not before losing at least an hour sitting in traffic.

During that hour of down time, though, I convince Eric we weren't making it all the way back to Indiana and we needed to book a hotel room. We figured we could make it to Chattanooga, so we booked a hotel just west of downtown. Shortly after getting past Valdosta, we came into a lot of rain. Did this rain just sit here for a week?? I know it didn't, but still found it interesting that it started close to where it ended for us on the drive down. We got into Atlanta and decided to stop at The Varsity for dinner. So horrible for you, but so yummy! And from there, we got back on the road to get to Chattanooga for the night. Which we finally did a little after 10pm. And it was a good thing we made a reservation, because they were booked solid for the night, likely due to crappy weather.

The next morning was an easy drive to Indy. Only about six hours, or so. I-24 was pretty empty until we got into Nashville, and then I-65 all the way to Indy was a pretty typical drive pattern for that road. The rain ended shortly after we started our drive in the morning, and we were left with some foggy patches through the mountains. But all in all, not bad. We were home around 2pm-ish. Had the evening left to unwind from the drive and relax.

So will we drive again. Yes - we will. We had some of the worst possible driving conditions (rain for at least 75% of our travels), but in the Armada, it wasn't so bad. We lucked out with gas prices, for the most part - we were thinking prices would be closer to $4/gallon when we started planning all of this. But the biggy was that it wasn't nearly as stressful as trying to fly. We could take whatever we wanted, both in our suitcases and just in general, plus, there was no shipping of any gifts, down or back. No security to deal with, and we weren't on anyone's schedule but our own. It was a win-win! At least this trip felt that way for both of us.

Besides, I so rarely get to play the license plate game anymore. I almost got all the States (and DC)!! I was only missing Hawaii, Vermont, and Wyoming (still not sure how I never saw Wyoming - I almost always see it!). Maybe next year...