The Journey Home

Well, the vacation recap is almost complete. I'm sure you are probably glad. Thanks for bearing with me through it all. One day I will look back on this blog and be able to remember just exactly what I did on vacation, which to me, is a good thing as my dad would say.

The Friday of vacation was spent driving back home with my dad. We dropped my mom off at the airport that morning around 10:30 and we headed north in the van. Mother's flight wasn't until 4:30 in the afternoon but we wanted to go ahead and hit the road so we left her to fend for herself. My dad was nervous up until the moment she got on the plane. He was so afraid her flight would get canceled or something. He said said it was the biggest gamble he had ever taken. I wasn't worried at all - either I'm a more positive thinker or less caring; I hope it's that I'm a positive thinker! Thankfully the flight was not canceled and mother made it home by the time we were in Atlanta.

My dad drove the first leg of the journey until we had to stop for gas. I don't think I mentioned, but the gas gauge is broken on the van. All my parents know is that no one can seem to repair it and they ran out of gas at 214 miles on the trip odometer. So, every 214 miles or a little less, we had to fill up. After the first stop which was right before we crossed into Georgia, I took the reigns. My dad wanted me to drive through Atlanta as well since we would be hitting the capitol of Georgia right during rush hour. I didn't mind this at all because my dad is a ball of stress when he drives in massive traffic and it is annoying. I mean, I don't like to be stuck in traffic either but there's nothing I can do about it so (most of the time) I'm not going to huff and puff about it. My dad, however, huffs and puffs and complains every step of the way, which is humorous at times, but mostly, as I mentioned, annoying. So, I drove from the first stop, through the next stop and through Atlanta rush hour traffic. The traffic gods must have been on our side though because despite the rush hour time, we still managed to make good time and we were able to book it through some parts of Atlanta, which was more fun than riding a roller coaster! I think it was my favorite part of my drive, and I don't even like driving as you probably know.

We stopped for dinner at Panera on the northwest side of Atlanta and then my dad drove the remainder of the way home. We reached my house right about 8:30 p.m.; so, with the stops for gas and dinner, we made the trip in about 11 hours - not too bad - and , miraculously, I did not sleep one minute of the time. I'm like a baby in that riding in a car lulls me to sleep but by the grace of the good Lord, I managed to stay awake the whole journey, which was great because I don't like it when people snooze on me when I'm driving long distances. In my older and wiser years, I've managed to become a lot better about staying awake on road trips. I guess I realize the importance to the driver.

The weekend after we got back was spent catching up on sleep, catching up on the DVR and finishing the book I was reading - I promise a book review is coming soon. It will probably be next week. I managed to do a lot of reading on the trip, especially the last day we were there, and the book I was reading turned out to be a really lovely and interesting read. So, stay tuned for that and a whole lot more!