Yesterday...take 2

Well my last post was extremely brilliant but I lost it...so lower your expectations!!!

After two days of driving the words "arriving at destination" were magical to say the least! If you've ever been to the Beach Club you know what I mean by THAT SMELL....oh we walked in the doors and the blissful smell hit us!

I make the same request with every trip - a room on the Epcot/woods side on a higher floor. You never know how that will pan out. We got here around 1:00 and our room wasn't ready yet. No worries we grabbed lunch and enjoyed the heat of the day. It was HOT. Very hot, very sunny and quite wonderful!! I think the earth must have shifted on its axis because Chip joined me in having a Mai Tai....and liked it! Finally the text came. Our room was ready. Room #471 was waiting!!! Holy moly we've never had a better room! The view is smack dab in front of Spaceship Earth (a/k/a the big golf ball). Wow! I was blown away!!!

A shower was on the agenda and man oh man did it hit the spot! Then it was off to Epcot for dinner and I thought to Magic Kingdom since it was open until 1am. We ate and wandered the rule as Madi announces she'd rather go for a swim. What? No MK? No rides? The pool. Well okay, we were tired so that worked!!!

Being the uber mean parents we are the thunderstorm that passed over with lightening but a damper on swimming plans. Literally. We watched the lady half of the Super Bowl and crashed!! The view of the fireworks from our patio was spectacular!

I woke to the sounds of Madi's spoon hitting her bowl of Froot Loops. It is vacation after all!!

She declared today a chill day. Already? It's our first day. After coffee on the patio with the sun blazing we hit the pool!!

On the way down we were talking to the resort greeter, Tina. She reminded us that we might want to avoid the Magic Kingdom. When Eli Manning says "I'm going to Disney World" he means it!! The victory parade was this morning. All set with that for a number of reasons!

So I'm chillin in a lounge chair, Madi's swimming and Chip is up in the room relaxing. I have a pedicure later this morning. Unfortunately I seem to be losing the sun. Rain is in the forecast for later. It's warn so let it rain!

Where did it go???

Well I had a post about yesterday but the app crashed & I lost it. I'm being summoned to the pool. It's a beautiful hot sunny morning. A post can wait!

Are we there yet????

Remind me about how much fun I said the traveling part was mmmmkay?? LOL.

We spent most of yesterday on the road. Well, from about 11am on we were any way. I don't know how Chip does it but he just goes and goes. Sign him up for the 24 hour Daytona Rolex race.

At around 10:00 we had too far to go for a logical check in but didn't seem worthy to get a hotel for a few hours. So a rest area it was!! All the pillows and blankets got unburied and we crashed for a good 7 hours or so.

We were back on the road around 5am & projected to be at the Beach Club around 10:30. And lemme just say my butt cheeks are numb and are SO ready to be there!!

Madi has been so good and patient. With every mile her excitement builds. She says she loved being surprised so much she wants every trip to be a surprise. I'm guessing she has no clue how difficult it was to get everything ready without her knowing. Not sure this is something we can manage to pull off twice but you never know!

We also found a western boot "outlet" which I encouraged Chip to stop at so I could check out the Gringo's. Turns out my idea of an outlet isn't the same as the Booty Bros! The owner was a real fine southern gent, let me droll a bit and off we went. Again.

Madi says no road trip is complete without a stop at Cracker Barrel. So that's where we had dinner!! It was such a nice warm evening, after we ate we chilled in the rockers on the porch and played a game of checkers. Turns out I need some lessons - totally forgot the rules! Oh well, I was there more for the fresh air and photo ops.

I am now seeing palm trees all around which you all know makes me giddy! That was, I saw these palm trees before the fog set in! But it's warm and the forecast for the next few days is 80*. Can't beat that in February!!

Just a couple more hours and we will be "home" again. We are all quite ready to be there and all for different reasons!

Motoring.....

We were trucking along doing really well until..... we got to Washington DC. Ugh. The traffic stopped dead. Boooooo. It was getting late & we needed dinner but were stuck until we rolled to the next exit and got off the highway.

I got duped by my "what's at the next exit" app again. Outback Steakhouse sounded like a good option (seeing as that was about it for options) and we went searching. And searching. And searching. The GPS had us going in circles. Not again. We never found it but we did see some nice residential neighborhoods.

As we tried to find our way back to 95 we happened upon TGIFridays so looks like we were going there!! WOW! Either I'm getting old or that place had its music louder then some dance clubs I've been in. Yowza. But the food was good and we got a break from the car.

[SIDEBAR; I must say I was rather amused that the promo night at TGIFridays is on Thursday nights. Silly, no??]

So at this point everyone was tired and there was a hotel nearby so we went and crashed for the night. The good part about having extra time is we had no need to set an alarm or be off at any special time. See why I like this?? We got a good nights sleep, breakfast and hit the road again around 11am. We are in Virginia somewhere. I think.

On the road again....

[PS - if you know me, you know how much these pictures posting out of order is annoying me]

Mission Accomplished

We did it!!! We pulled the wool over the busiest body in the whole wide world. And it was soooooooo worth it!!

I woke Madi around 6:30 this morning and told her "no school for you today". I'm waiting for a reaction.....nothing. I say it again. Nothing. "Madi, don't you want to know why there is no school today?". Huh she says, okay...why? Because we're going to Disney World this morning!!!! She didn't believe me. "No sir, you just are tricking me just to get me up." I finally convince her it's real and we are going and going today! She then squeaks in excitement and asks if she can please go to school and then leave for FL. FOR REAL??? Oy! We needed to go pick up her school work so she was being able to run in her class and say good bye. Aside from wanting to do the project planned for the day, she seems to have gotten over the whole going to school thing. Sheesh.

We left home around 10:30 - not too bad since our goal was to leave by 10. Madi has an entire backseat of fun stuff to do. What does she choose first? Math. What??? Math?? "math minutes are the most fun." Whose kid is this?? Oh well...she's happy doing her school work as we make our way along.

So far we've made it to NJ and just stopped for lunch. We left much earlier then we needed to since we don't check in until Sunday. This gives us time to go at a leisurely pace and stop along the way.

People think we are crazy to drive. We love to, it's part of the adventure! We are on no ones schedule but our own. Whatever floats our boat is what we shall do! And besides I don't recall asking for input LOL!

Here's some pics so far. Not to worry there will be LOADS more!

It's Always Something....

The older I get, the more I realize there always is, and always will be.....something.  Something that sets your routine off course, something that makes you stop to think, something that complicates life...all kinds of "something" always happen.  Either it becomes easier to cope with the 'Something Roller Coaster of Life' as I age or I am learning to cope better with these "somethings".

Today's something was my mom.  I got a call from my dad this morning saying "I just want to tell you that mom is in the hospital, she is going to be fine but I just wanted you to know".  Wow, that caught me off guard!  Huh? I thought you were calling to ask what Madi wanted for her birthday, mom being in the hospital was not on my radar!  She had gone to the hospital early in the morning with symptoms similar to a heart attack.  He said that initial tests seemed to show there to be no cardiac issue but mom was being held overnight for more testing and observation.

As it turns out, it so far seems that he was right - she is going to be fine and thank goodness for that.  It is comforting to know that all measures are being taken to make sure she is healthy and good to go, but a "scare" nonetheless.  And another reminder that life IS short and to always spend enough time doing what makes you happy!