Skip to main content

White Sand to the Bayou Summer Roadtrip 2018 - Day 7... Panama City Beach, FL to Apopka, FL

By

1,850.7 miles
36 hours and 28 minutes spent in the car
5 hotels
4 states
2 happy kids
1 exhausted family
Countless memories

... And our road trip from Florida to Louisiana and back again is over. We had such a great time!

When we asked everyone what their favorite thing we did was we got these answers:
Kenzie - Staying in all the hotels and seeing the Blue Angels
Will - Eating beignets
Kristen - Seeing the Blue Angels
Steven - Visiting New Orleans because it is somewhere he has never been before

This morning we were up early (as usual) and we packed up and loaded the car before breakfast. It's probably good this was our last night or the kids may have started revolting when we tried to make them eat out. Especially breakfast. They definitely slowed on how much they ate as the week went on. We were on the road by about 8:00 Central time. We knew we would switch back to the Eastern time zone and the drive was 5 hours so we wanted to get on the road. They kids rode for a long time playing games with each other and coloring. Eventually we stopped to use the bathroom and get a drink. We didn't turn the movie on yet because we knew we wanted to eat soon. We switched into the Eastern time zone before lunch but wanted to get back on our normal time so we had to eat early-ish for us.




There were minimal options for stopping so we eventually decided to just grab McDonalds whenever we found one. We also decided to grab lunch and go. Eating on the road on the way back definitely worked for us so we could get more miles under our belt. We set up Toy Story for the kids and they ate lunch and watched the movie for a while. Will fell asleep during the movie and when it ended we didn't put anything in right away.




Kenzie announced she needed to use the bathroom so we stopped. Will woke up and said he had to potty but apparently didn't wake up all the way. He spent the next 10 minutes crying hysterically with me in the bathroom because he couldn't decide if he wanted to potty or not. He was still half asleep. Eventually I made him get in the car and we continued on down the road. He screamed and cried for about 25 miles before finally settling down some and watching Up with Kenzie. He has never really woken up from naps well unless he wakes up on his own free will. Oh well. The rest of the drive was basically just us driving through patches of traffic that were backed up because it had rained. It never really rained on us but it apparently rained earlier and slowed traffic that we were still dealing with. When we made the turn onto 429, the cloud coverage closer to our house was dark! Typical Florida rain clouds. We made it all the way home and right as we were getting ready to pull into the house, the downpours started. So we had to unload the car in the rain. Then we had to switch the rental car with mine in the garage so we could vacuum it. Yeah, that's right. We vacuumed it. The kids made a big mess in the back and we didn't want to chance a cleaning fee so we took a few extra minutes to make sure it was okay. I think we may be the only people that vacuum a rental car before we return it.


Steven took the car back to the airport while I unpacked. I did it in record time while the kids played in their rooms. They were so happy to be home. We just have a ton of laundry to get done. Then we left to pick up Steven at the airport. The rain was so terrible that it took about 15 minutes extra to get there.


We have now had spaghetti for dinner (though I used frozen meatballs to save time) and are getting ready for bed soon. I think the adults may fall into bed almost as quickly as the kids do tonight. It was a long and tiring week but we wouldn't trade a second of it. We learned quite a bit traveling with two young kids and I have a post planned with things we learned and tricks that may work for others (as well as to remind us in a year of things that worked or didn't when we plan to do this all over again). That is going to come later this week more than likely though because I am just too tired tonight.

Day 7 (and the White Sand to the Bayou Summer Roadtrip 2018) - Done!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ushering in Five-and-a-half

By
No. Nope. Not happening. Not even close.... but it is. As of tomorrow, Will is officially five-and-a-half. Halfway to six. SIX. What on earth? Both of our kids need to slow their roll and take it down a notch. It's so crazy to think that Will is going to be six in just six short months. He will start Kindergarten soon. He is already registered and ready to go. He is growing up so fast right before our eyes and it is a happy and sad time for me as Mama, for sure. So, a short update on Will at 5-and-a-half... - Will is growing like a weed. It is not uncommon right now for people to ask me if he has grown inches upon inches overnight. We are noticing that he is catching up to Kenzie fairly quickly and some of his friends that he used to be very similar in height to, he has gotten slightly taller than them. It's just his growth spurt time, apparently.  He remains remarkably skinny. So skinny that his clothes tend to fall of of him if we don't have adjustable waists. T...
Post a Comment
Read more

Preschool Done.... One Step Closer to MIT

By
So, here it is. The end of "preschool." Note: "Preschool" and "VPK" are not used interchangeably for the purpose of our discussion. In the sense of the word, Kenzie is done with "preschool" and next year will be in "VPK". Eek! That's not allowed. Kenzie's first official year in school is now done. She is one year older, one year wiser, one year more stubborn. It's crazy for us to think back that just a few short months ago we were going to her Meet the Teacher day and we were both having some major anxiety about our baby going to school. I remember the first day of school plain as day. I thought she might have some apprehension. Nope. None. I probably shouldn't have been surprised. Kenzie went in like she owned the place. There was a day that her teacher mentioned that Kenzie was one of the quiet ones in the class and rarely spoke. I'm still not sure that she was thinking of my Kenzie. Maybe I had been dropping of...
Post a Comment
Read more

Eight is Great!

By
Today Kenzie is EIGHT! It's so crazy. We have an 8 year old. Only two years away from double digits. A third grader. A girl that is quickly becoming a preteen. There is only a year left (technically) until that is officially the stage we are in. Though I have to say... she acts more and more like an actual preteen every day of her life. She's too much. We often joke that she is 8 going on 28, but in all honesty, she is an old soul and often acts much older than her years. At 8-years-old, Kenzie... - Is still the friendliest kid I know. She loves with her whole heart. She hates to hurt anyone's feelings. The downside is that her feelings get hit hard when someone isn't nice to her. We have had to deal with that on occasion, especially in the last year when we had a run in with a girl that Kenzie thought was her friend but she ended up being not really nice to Kenzie in the long run. We learned as parents that the "mean girl" stage starts early. Kenzie...
Post a Comment
Read more