the 24 hour drive that wasn't

So we decided that we were going to drive to Florida because the cost to fly down was just too much.  Well, your sanity is a pretty high price to pay too!

Our intended day of departure ended up forecasting a major snowstorm so we packed up like crazy and left a day earlier.  However, when we do these long drive days we always leave in the wee hours of the morning.  We leave the kids in their jammies and snuggle them into the car around 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning and enjoy a peaceful four or five hours drive while everyone continues to sleep, or at least that's the plan.  We just find that it works better for us.  This time we didn't have that option since we woke up, heard the forecast and decided to see how quickly we could get on the road to try and keep ahead of the snow.  We were on the road by lunchtime.

We wanted to get past the Pennsylvania mountains before stopping.  Unfortunately smack in the middle of them stuff started to fall from the sky.  Even worse that stuff was freezing rain.  We took the next exit and called it a night.  There was no hesitation.  We certainly didn't want to be driving on those mountain roads in crappy weather conditions.

We were on the road the following morning by five'ish...  Luckily we woke up to no snow or freezing rain, just good old rain.  and it rained, and rained and rained.  and we hit commuter traffic too...  We were on the road 14 hours that day and we estimate that it rained at least 12 of those 14 hours... and no gentle sprinkling either, we're talking downpours!!
Since we were on the road that extra night we decided to drive the extra couple hours to Myrtle Beach for free accomodations with Nana and Grampsy.  It was dark when we got there and dark when we left around five the next morning but I loved the sound of the ocean waves crashing against the shore.  The home cooked dinner was worth the extra long day driving!

Our final day of driving went smoothly but felt like it would never end.  We were all so anxious to get to our destination, but once again we hit traffic.  After 11 hours we arrived in Orlando with the beautiful sun shinning down on us and breathed a big sigh of relief.

I have to admit that although the drive took much longer than we expected, the kids were great.  Mostly, they watched movies on the portable dvd players and those I must say, are just about the greatest invention in the world!!  Caelan certainly had moments of being fed up of his car seat but did awesome for being two years old.  I was very proud of all my children.