And return home - #45-02

June 23, 2004 (Wed) Englewood, Fl - Today has been a day of catching up. We and Jennifer from our grueling two days of travel - Shane and Great Grandma Bom in getting to know one another. Mark and Joy got up early and sat out front listening to a couple of very active mocking birds compete for attention as dawn brightened the sky. Jennifer joined us after a while but Shane and GG Bom slept in until it was fully light. After breakfast we all walked over to the pool for a swim. Shane took to the water for his first swim as if he had been at it all his life - all 4 months of it.

Joy, Jennifer and Shane went shopping for dinner fixings while Bom read the paper and Mark translated our travel notes into the newsletter. In the afternoon Joy took a walk over to some thrift shops. Other than that it's been a lazy day - and hot!

June 24, 2004 (Thu) Englewood, Fl - Shane seems to thrive on all the attention he's getting. He had three attentive adults at his beck and call all day long and admirers aplenty. He's going to miss it when he gets home. In the morning, while Mark and Joy took care of some business with a lawyer, he visited a neighbor (94) with his mom and GG Bom. In the afternoon he visited an old friend of his GG Bom's in an assisted living home with his Grandpa and Bmommom. He also got his first chance to stick his feet in the Gulf of Mexico - the water was too rough and choppy to go any deeper. He didn't know quite what to think of the waves constantly coming at his feet and legs. The rest of the time we adults stayed busy attending to his every need and resting up in between.

June 25, 2005 (Fri) Englewood, FL - Slow day today. Other than reading, napping and entertaining Shane we did very little. For lunch we went to Leverock's Seafood Restaurant below Grove City and had some of the best seafood we've had in a long time. Shane was an angel but got a little impatient so we didn't linger.

June 26, 2004 (Sat) Englewood, FL - Our discount gas purchase card allows us to make one purchase a day for a 5% discount. This is a real good deal when filling up a 37 gallon tank. Since we'll be using more than one tank of gas tomorrow Mark took QII out to fill up. Some gas stations limit the amount pumped (discount card or not). There is no way to know this until the pump turns off. The station Mark picked stopped pumping at $50.00 - 3/4 of a tank. We had wanted to make it into GA where the cheap gas is. - $1.89 in FL vs $1.71 in GA. 3/4 of a tank won't make it!

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June 27, 2004 (Sun) Manning, SC - Travel day today. We had breakfast with GG Bom and said a tearful good buy at about 8:00. 77° is a good travel temperature but it didn't last long. It was over 90o by the time we passed over I-4 on I-75 headed north. The air conditioner worked well cooling the cab but struggled to keep the cabin comfortable for our passengers. Jennifer was good not to complain too loudly. Shane was good too, sleeping most of the way to our first stop - Dade City. FL where we got enough gas at $1.88/gal to get us into GA. Our generator powered house A/C kept us well below the 98° outside during our lunch break at an I-10 rest stop. Gas in Brunswick, GA was $1.69 - down 2 cents from Tuesday. We filled up. A 10 to 12 mile traffic back up heralded our approach to South Carolina. There was no indication of the reason adding to the frustration of it all.

We wanted to get to Florence, SC where we stopped on the way down but the late start, the heat and the GA traffic jam conspired against us. By the time we hit Manning, SC we were more than ready to stop. Jennifer selected a Holiday Inn Express motel where the desk clerk was more than happy to allow us to camp in the parking lot. She even suggested a "camp site" and told us we were welcome to enjoy the complimentary breakfast in the morning. Our view on two sides was of of crape myrtle bushes (parked cars and the motel rounded out the panorama). Jennifer's room was nearby, clean and sweet smelling (no stale cigarette odor).

Q003197 (535mi) - Holiday Inn Express parking lot

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June 28, 2004 (Mon) Home - QII has an automatic ceiling vent - when it senses rain the vent cover comes down and when the rain stops the cover goes back up. It rained off and on all night - sometimes quite hard - and we listened to the sound of the little motor closing and opening the vent all night! It was about as annoying as it was satisfying. Because of it we didn't sleep very well. Or maybe it was the heat and humidity, or maybe the "strange" bed. At any rate dawn and a nearby diesel pickup startup came too early.

Traffic around Washington was horrendous! Jennifer commuted to work every day on the road (I-95/I-495). She said it's always like that. Her saying it didn't make it any easier. Construction and 4 lanes plus a 2 lane entrance ramp narrowing to 3 lanes across a bridge was the cause. Knowing this didn't make it any easier either - especially since our gas was getting low.

The sign indicated 3 different brands of gasoline at this exit. So we got off. No gas station! 10 miles later, still no gas station. Correction. We did pass one - on the other side of a 4 lane divided - closed for renovation. Finally a Shell station - $1.98/gal. We got enough to get us to NJ and a better price. Then we passed several - each with a price lower than the one before! There should be some rules about highway advertising! The NJ price, when we got there was $1.79/gal

Shane got increasingly more agitated as we neared home. But his mother and grandmother were able to keep him from distracting the driver completely. We dropped him and Jennifer off at about 8:30 and got home at 9:00.

Q003881 (684mi) - Home