The Trip!!!

Wow, glad to be back home. Glad to sleep in our own beds on Sunday night. Wow! What a trip.

Ok - so here's the short (probably long... grin) of it... We left a week ago Friday for a 9 hour trip to Florida for a 7 day vacation. Of course on the trip down, we did some geocaching and Natalie caught a cat-nap in her car seat. Thank goodness for portable DVD players. :)

Got there and enjoyed visiting with Doreen's Aunt June and Uncle Dick. Sabbath morning, at Sabbath School, I got a text message from my dad, that Grandpa Pester was in a coma. So I left and called Dad. And got the story - Grandpa had a couple of small strokes earlier in the week, which I knew about. Turns out he had a biggie on Wed evening and wasn't doing so well. Late Fri he slipped into a coma - then later Sabbath - dad called to tell me that Grandpa died.

So for the next few hours we tried figuring out how to work everything out. We bought non-refundable tickets to Sea World - had some other pretty big plans. So what to do - and how to get to Nebraska.

After the funeral got scheduled for Thursday afternoon, we had things in place. We cancelled the hotel and Islands of Adventure. Then we decided to go ahead and hit the beach with some cousins on Sunday, Sea World on Monday and leave for NE on Tuesday Am to get to the viewing Thur evening.

At church, Doreen ran into a cousin of hers that I hadn't met. So they brought the family over to visit for an hour or so Saturday afternoon. Also - Doreen's folks were in Orlando, FL - turns out they had a load to pick up Monday morning headed for West Nevada. So they were there too. We had a GREAT visit.

Went to bed early, got up early and headed down to Tampa, FL to go to the beach with some cousins that lived down there. By the way, we cached on the way down. :)

We had a lot of fun, then cached on the way home.

Sunday morning we got up early and headed to Sea World. And what a fun, FUN day!!! Although it was HOT and it rained pretty hard a couple of times - but we always had it timed to be under cover and so we thoroughly enjoyed the critters.

So Wednesday, we left early, EARLY for NE - realizing we wouldn't make it in one day 3 & 5 year olds. So we drove a 15 hour day and made it to Mt Vernon, IL - exhausted. We all slept, then up early and another 9 hour day to Lincoln, NE. The last hour on the road, Natalie was sleeping and Joelle was getting so wiggily, she could hardly stand herself! :)

We arrived in time for the viewing, then back to my folks 5th wheel where all our family stayed, Ma & Pa, Sis Staci and daughter Bekah, Niece Emily (Cindy couldn't make it cuz of her husband having surgery.) and the 4 of us. We fit nicely.

The next day we said our final goodbyes to Grandpa, then had some good family visiting time, did some swimming, played games and did some caching Thursday, Friday and Sabbath. Instead of church, we went to the Sunken Garden in downtown Lincoln, NE and then the zoo for a bit.

Back to lunch and then packing everything up and head home. We took 2 days heading home, did some caching and took our time, but finally got home and it's good to be home! Oh it's good to be home.

Check out these numbers from our trip...

Miles - 3408
Driving Time - almost 58 hours
Max Speed we drove - 86mph
Average Speed (Moving) - 58.5 mph
Average Speed (Total) - 48 mph
States we Passed through - 8 (FL, GA, TN, KY, IL, MO, IA, NE)
# of days with nothing but driving - 5
States we geocached in - 7 (Didn't do any in TN - this trip)
# of geocaches found - 23
# of fuel stops - 10
Gallons - 148.5
Cheapest Fuel - KY $2.67
Most Expensive Fuel - IL $3.01

Man - what a trip. What an experience - boy, is it GREAT to be home!!!!