I never quite got around to finishing this post last month.
As our time in Florida was winding down, I started looking at the weather to find a good window of opportunity for our return trip. After checking the weather at home and along our route, I decided that driving home in the rain was better than coming home to an ice storm or a snowstorm. So we planned to leave Thursday afternoon and stretch the trip out over three days instead of two. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do the trip in two days again, it was just too hard with no one else driving.
Micah had been sick on Tuesday, but we hoped that it was something he ate or that it was a virus that only he caught since no one else felt bad. He slept all afternoon and was a good bit better that evening. He was back to normal by Wednesday evening, so I thought we were in the clear. We packed up some things on Wednesday, intending to finish packing on Thursday morning.
On Thursday morning, Mark woke up sick. He wasn’t able to keep any food or water down all morning just like Micah. The rest of us really didn’t feel good either, so I wasn’t quite sure if we should head home or stay. We finished packing and loading up the van after lunch. Mark seemed like he was ready to go to sleep (like Micah had), and I thought if I get him in the van, he can sleep while we drive. No one else was feeling any better, but we weren’t feeling any worse either so we hit the road.
As soon as we got in the van, Mark perked up and was fine. I, on the other hand, felt worse the longer I drove. We stopped several times just so that I could take a break. When we were almost to Pensacola, I knew that I needed to stop, not just for dinner, but for the night. I called Todd and asked him to find us a hotel room. It was such a blessing to have him handle all of that from home. We found a McDonald’s right next door to the hotel, so we stopped there and took our food with us to our hotel room. We settled in and found one of the college football playoff games on TV to watch as we went to sleep. I was almost asleep when Mark got sick again, all over the sofa bed that he and Matthew were sharing. After much cleaning up (and bagging up of clothes), we got to sleep.
Most of Friday was a blur. Matthew was feeling really sick (headache and congestion) so he slept most of the morning. Having your navigator go to sleep is not ideal, but Maggie filled in and after one missed turn, we accidentally figured out an easier route to take. (Take that Google maps!) We drove most of the day in the rain and stopped a lot earlier than I would have liked, but we made it to Texas. That left us with about six more hours to drive on Saturday.
We made it home around lunch time after all the ice thawed and before the snow (which ended up as just flurries) arrived. Home sweet home! I have to say that the concrete floors never looked so good!
chickens on the trampoline 