[travel] Southwest Florida

Well, we did it. My sister and I drove a U-haul all the way to southwest Florida without any accidents or even close calls, thank heavens. It was two GRUELING days of driving. Saturday 6am - 8pm, and we only made it as far as southern Virginia. We fitfully spent the night in a Comfort Inn (paranoia periodically woke us up to go to the window and check on the U-haul to see whether or not it was being unloaded by thieves). The next day was 6am - 10pm. I swear. We really couldn't push the moving van over 74 mph without it shuddering and making the drive more unpleasant.

The first day was rewarding because the states are so small up here. Vermont... Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, etc. The next day was like, "God, are the Carolinas EVER going to be OVER? We've been driving for, like, 6 hours." By the time we rolled up to the gate at my mom's housing community and the guard asked, "Who are you?", I was ready to get out of the passenger seat, walk around the front of the van and drop kick him in the groin. And then maybe kick him in the gut a few times after he hit the ground.

Then came the rest and relaxation...






A shell graveyard I made.



This was our U-haul with Champ on the side:



I had a very nice time. There were still come, ah, "lost in translation" moments...

###

MOM: This is the only type of grocery store I've seen here- Publix.

AMY: Uh...

SIS: I think it's pronounced puh-blicks.

AMY: [snickering]

MOM: What? What was I saying?

AMY: Pube... hahahahha... Pube-licks.

SIS: Hahahahahh.

AMY: HAHAHHAHAHAHA.

MOM: What's so funny?

###

MOM: I show you the East Day houses on the other side. They are bigger than mine.

AMY: Okay. I wonder what these East Day houses are. Must be a style down here.

the next day...

MOM: They have East Day houses there too. See?

and the next day...

MOM: Let's go look at these East Day houses.

SIS: [reading the sign] Estate.

MOM: What?

AMY: WHAT?

SIS: It's a soft E. Eh-state. Not EEE-state.

MOM: That's what I'm saying.

AMY: All this time I thought you were saying East Day, like it's a type of house down here.

MOM: Hahahah.

###

Yeah... Anyway, it was good. We flew back and it only took three hours (which somehow made the drive down more painful in hindsight). We saw the Dartmouth Coach bus outside the Jet Blue terminal as we were waiting for our bags- and then it took off. I started to freak out, not wanting to wait another two hours for the next one and luckily thought of taking a cab to South Station to catch the northbound there. Haha, tricky bus people can't outsmart me.

Now I'm home, chillaxing. Well, almost chillaxing. I bought a rigid-heddle loom so I can start learning to weave and it has been... I've been reminding myself that I was no good at and hated spinning at first too. But more on weaving later...