Florida Vacation Part 1
2004-01-05, 11:08 a.m.

Wow. I haven�t updated in a long time. 16 days. I think that may be a record for me.

Florida, my pets, was da bomb. I think with that particular bit of slang, I have dated myself.

We left Michigan in a snow storm on Friday, December 19. We foolishly followed a �shortcut� that my brother in law found which, turns out, was really a longcut. Sometime around 11 pm we stopped in Kentucky to spend the night. I�d been told never to stay at a Motel 6. Now I know why. Ugh.

Saturday morning seemed vaguely surreal: we were in a Waffle House in the South filled with people with Southern accents. And still it was 25 degrees and snowing. Too weird. Saturday�s trip to my dad�s was nice. I got to see how beautiful it was along the route Dawn and I traveled last spring in the middle of the night. SC is beautiful. At least that part is.

My dad was convinced that if we left Seneca, SC any later than 6 am, we�d hit �rush hour� traffic in Atlanta and be stuck for hours. Rush hour? On a Sunday morning? Please. But, still, we left at the ungodly hour of 6 am. I won�t comment on my BIL�s driving. Let�s just say that all that braking left me carsick. We had three cars: our rental car, my dad�s truck and my sister and Jim�s Aztek. And we managed not to lose each other, though there were some tense moments when someone :cough: took an exit when they didn�t mean to and then whipped back on the highway causing the two of us behind him to have to attempt the same maneuver. Luckily, no one died.

The one real downside to the trip: Lucky was horribly car sick. We had to stop for him to puke several times. He was all calm about it, though. His mother had given him a plastic bag when he announced that he thought he might puke. He did his thing in the bag and then announced to his mother that they might want to pull over so he could toss the puke. At the next stop, we washed out a plastic humongo size soda cup and christened it his �Vomit Vessel.� Which, hilariously enough, he called that cup for the rest of the trip. �DAD! Don�t drink out of *that* cup! That�s my Vomit Vessel.�

About 8 pm we got to Clearwater. Clearwater is beautiful. There were palm trees and we could drive with the windows down. Of course, the locals thought we were nuts to be driving around with our windows down but we were thrilled. First stop: Krispy Kreme for some doughnuts and to get the hell out of the car for a few minutes. My dad left us then and went to his friends�. We had a doughnut or 2 and then went to our hotel. It was right on the Gulf of Mexico, but not on a beach. We had to walk down the street to get to the beach, but who�s going to complain? Not I. As promised, I got in the water. It was cold as fuck, but I got in. And swam around a bit. Not much, but a bit. Then, I got out. Brrr. Still. It was December and I was swimming. Life is good.

The motel was actually all apartments. Ours was a 2 bedroom, of course, since there were 6 of us. P and I had one room and Dawn, Jim & kids had another room with 2 beds. The apartments were cool for a vacation place. And close to everything. We easily walked to the beach and to the downtown shopping area.

Florida vacation Part 2 tomorrow.