21 November 2008

(Travel Day to our Cruise) The Long and Winding Road

Posted by BaBa under: Travel .

It has been a blur of activity the last few days preparing to get on the road to Fort Lauderdale or as we say Fort LaTeDa. I ripped three books for us to listen to in the car. I also spent the day grading in a frantic effort to get through with the work that I had fallen behind on while sick with sinusitis the last week. I did not quite finish the grading, but did get the papers done so that I did not have a bag full to take with me. I have a few electronic files to grade and 9 team short papers to complete. I plan to do these on the drive home.

It was soon time to leave as the bell rang at the end of the day and I had completed the tote bag of binders that needed grading as well as sending out the scores on several projects to the students. I posted to both classes and got the call that my cruise director was at the front of the school waiting to whisk us away. I had packed the car the night before with the suitcases that MaMa had packed. Magoo got his own suitcase. We took the larger one. I packed the geek gear last night. Camera and even video camera in addition to a monopod with base so that I can get in some of the pictures. I also had the computer bag ready to go as I need to download pictures and write the blog posts. It seems that we forgot the idea of packing light for this 7 day sailing. It is the first cruise for Magoo and we tried to make sure that he had everything that he needed.

Well Mama packed him many outfits and in fact packed us a fresh outfit each day. Something that we never do as we often carry only 3 to 4 outfits for a 50 day trip. Well traveling with a toddler is a little different and we will learn to adjust the packing for the next excursion.

We hit the road at 3:45pm with a clean house and a full tank. We were afraid to cut the trip close by delaying our departure from Atlanta to later on Friday and then trying to time it right to arrive at the ship during the boarding window. This approach would have too many variables and too much stress. We had decided to get on the road and drive. If we made good time, we would stop and rest and then begin in the morning.

MaMa drove. We stopped briefly a couple of times and made great time. We were in Valdosta before you knew it. We got an eat in the car meal from Arby’s and soon were on I-10. We cleared Jacksonville and by midnight were just outside of Daytona Beach. We were running good on time and were able to stop for the night at a cheap (no other way to say it) hotel for a night’s sleep.

I drove only about 1 hour of this trip. I am so appreciative that MaMa was able to drive. I was worn out from teaching this week, but she was no less worn out from all her activities in getting mountains of laundry done, packing, cleaning the house and other errands in addition to his normal schedule of classes that he takes each week. We bedded down for the night and slept hard at the end of a long day of preparation and driving.

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