Driving...

5/26
12:55AM - After roughly 25 hours of traveling (after the 5 hours that Bridget and I drove from Michigan), we arrived in Florida.  To quote my dad, who is quite astute, "Yeah, flying is quicker than driving."  Yep, that is true.  Especially with 11 people squished into 2 cars.  We had 13 seats in all, but the "lucky" person who got his/her own bench seat in the back of one of the cars wasn't exactly lucky - the lack of legroom really wasn't worth the whole bench seat… 

Despite leaving at 10:30PM and driving all night, we all battled to either sleep or stay awake (depending on the driving order…).  Some of use were more successful than others…  My brother Jordan was quite rambunctious all night and emphatically stated "It is impossible to sleep in a car," but after sleeping for several hours, he qualified it and said "Well, maybe you can only sleep in a Honda Pilot."  Not sure how much data supported his assertion, but it probably wasn't statistically significant I have a feeling… :)

The hours flew by without much activity aside from the standard family road trips.

• "Hey! Who is touching me?"
• "Whose foot is that?"
• "Can I PLEASE borrow your iPod?"
• "What is that smell?!?!?!"
• "Was that YOU!?!?!"
• Asking a sleeping sibling to borrow his/her headphones and claiming to have permission later when he/she can't find them.
• Bantering back and forth with the two-way walkie talkies.
• Figuring out how many headphone splitters you can daisy-chain before nobody can hear anything.
• Calculating how many computers can plug into a 400W power inverter without blowing a fuse.
• Arguing about which restaurant to stop at until all of the major towns have passed and we're relegated to eating at the only culinary establishment in a 50 mile radius.

But a dinner at Olive Garden outside of Tampa with all 11 of us was totally worth it. :) And when the server brought the bill, she dumped a huge pile of Andes mints on top. which disappeared instantaneously.  She was definitely playing it up for a big tip and knew just where to play her cards. :)

All 11 of us at Olive Garden

 The wait was surprisingly short (only like 20 minutes), but enough time to go outside and take a quick panorama shot of some cool cloud formations off to our East.  Kind of looked like a shuttle launch without the shuttle.

Sweet Cloud Panorama Shot - Click on it to see a larger version

The last few hours from Tampa to our final destination went pretty smoothly.  Upon arrival, the army of people hauled the bags to everyones' respective rooms.  Two of my sisters ended up on a Hide-A-Bed sleeper sofa and my youngest brother slept on his inflatable air mattress, which he affectionately called his "raft".  He was quite possessive of it too…  But once everything was unloaded, it was "Lights Out" in a jiffy.