Day 23: Take the Long Way Home

  Brooklyn, New York, United States
Saturday, August 12, 2006

001 - Hanging Out in the House

It was an early start this morning... a very early start. My alarm went off at 4:00 in the morning and I really, really didn't want to get up. Not only was I exhausted but I hated dealing with the fact that we were now leaving one of my favorite places in the world after our three-week long magical vacation had flown by. It wasn't fair! Haha! I got all of my stuff together and went to take a shower. Mom and dad weren't even up yet but I knew that I take forever to get ready and I wanted to make sure I was done on time. I took a shower and by the time I was out mom and dad were up and getting ready. I did my makeup and wanted to blow my hair but Mike was in the bathroom at that point. There was no time to just sit around and wait for him so mom and I both blew our hair in her and dad's bathroom at the same time. When I was done getting ready I got the rest of my bags together and brought them all into the living room. Dad was even able to fit these bags into the trunk... I don't know how he did it! When everyone was done and everything was packed away, mom and dad walked Oreo and then we did a quick walkthrough of the house to make sure that we weren't forgetting anything.

003 - Hanging Out in the House

Then, at 5:30 in the morning, we all walked out the door of our vacation home for the last time and closed the door behind us. There are few things harder than leaving one of your favorite places in the world on the last day of your vacation. We all piled into the car and made our way out of Crescent Lakes Resort. The entire time I listened to New York songs on my MP3 player and tried not to cry. My eyes teared up a few times as we passed Universal Studios on I4, but I was able to hold it all together pretty well. This year's crying episode was a lot better than last years! We eventually made our way out of Orlando and continued on through Florida. At 7:00 we stopped in some really small town out in the middle of nowhere; I don't even remember what the name of it was. I had to go to the bathroom really, really bad so mom and I ran into a McDonald's and then ran back out and we were on our way quickly.

004 - Georgia

We eventually stopped for breakfast at a McDonald's in the beginning of Georgia at 8:30. Mom walked Oreo before dad and I ran into the restaurant. It was ridiculously packed! The line was really backed up and we knew it would take forever for us to make it to the front so we ran into the bathroom and then headed back out, deciding to stop for breakfast later on. Then mom ran into the bathroom before we drove across the street for dad to get gas. We were at the same gas station that we had stopped at on the way home last year. It was next to a gift shop that sold Georgia souvenirs and peaches, and there was a cardboard cutout that you could put your face through to take pictures with. We were also across the street from El Cheapo gas! Ah, the memories!

005 - Georgia

We continued driving until we stopped at a McDonald's in Savannah at 10:10. Dad and I ran in to get the food while mom and Mike walked Oreo by the car. We got mom an English muffin, dad got a croissant sandwich with sausage and cheese, and I got a biscuit sandwich with bacon, egg and cheese. It was really good. I probably shouldn't have eaten it, though, since my stomach was really bothering me. It didn't hurt, but I was getting the worst cramps on the left side of my stomach every time I moved the wrong way or breathed in deeply. I didn't worry about it too much, though. Mike just had a cereal bar because he didn't want to get a stomachache. We ate our food and ran into the bathroom before we continued on our way.

024 - South Carolina

We reached South Carolina at 10:30. As we drove through the state the sky kept getting darker and darker until it started pouring. We stopped to go to the bathroom at the South Carolina Welcome Center and it was really coming down by then! Dad and Mike ran into the bathroom first and then mom and I did. There was a HUGE puddle we had to cross, though, and mom and I both had sandals on so dad got back out of the car and mom jumped on his back and he carried her across the puddle. It was the funniest thing EVER!!! I was able to make my way across the puddle and mom and I ran into the bathroom. On the way out, though, dad had pulled into a spot really far from where we were and I wound up splashing right in the puddle. My feet and legs were covered in dirty water... ew! Mom and I ran back to the car and jumped inside, and I used a towel to wipe of my feet. As we drove through South Carolina the rain kept getting worse and worse. As we neared the border of North and South Carolina, and South of the Border in Dillon, more and more cars were flying by us. With the weather being so unbelievable bad it made no sense whatsoever for them to be speeding like that. Mike and I passed the time taking stupid pictures and funny videos of each other. Mike had a pimple on his chin and would cover it up in every picture and I made it a mission to catch him off guard... anything to keep ourselves entertained.

026 - South Carolina

By 12:00 the rain had stopped and I had to go to the bathroom again. Dad passed the nearest exit, though, and I wasn't happy. We just kept driving and I thought about how there's hardly ever any traffic on I95 and that we would be at the next exit soon. As soon as I thought it I knew that I had jinxed myself. Just as we reached Dillon, South Carolina we hit a ton of traffic. I mean a TON. We were at a complete standstill. It was horrible enough, but to make matters worse I had to go to the bathroom really, really bad. It took us twenty minutes to inch up a few feet to the next exit and we pulled off the road. We stopped at a gas station in Dillon and mom and I ran into the bathroom. We then got some candy to eat in the car, and mom bought some Mega Millions lotto tickets since South Carolina also participates in the drawing. I thought it was funny, and kind of scary, to see that they were selling tons and tons of fireworks and they were just out on the shelves next to the candy and kid's toys. I would hate to see what would happen if a kid got his hands on those. Behind us in line was a woman who was also driving back home up north along I95, and she said that there had been a fatal accident. It must have been one of those people who thought they were indestructible and sped by us at a hundred and twenty miles an hour in a downpour. Sad.

029 - South Carolina

What was really nice was that the girl at the counter gave us directions to bypass the accident. We would be able to drive through Dillon, past South of the Border, and completely miss the accident and all of the traffic it caused. I listened to her directions but still wasn't sure where to go. We thanked her and made our way back out to the parking lot, where Mike was sitting in the car while dad walked Oreo. Mom was mad that dad was walking Oreo since the floor was wet and her paws were getting dirty but when you gotta go, you gotta go! I told dad the directions the girl had told us but he didn't completely believe them so we made a U-Turn and he ran into the gas station to get the directions again. It turns out I was right the first time. Told you so. We made our way through the back roads of Dillon and really got to see what a small town it is. I can't imagine what it would be like to live in a place like that. It's definitely a different lifestyle. There were lots of trailer homes and rundown motels, and I really wouldn't recommend stopping overnight in Dillon. At 2:05 we started seeing a lot of South of the Border signs and then we passed through the attraction. We got to see a lot more of it now than we had as we drove past it on I95. There were a lot of tourists in the area but it's not a stop I think we'll make anytime soon. The place is pretty run down and dumpy. Within ten minutes we were back on I95 and the traffic was flying along. We had bypassed the accident and the hours of traffic sure to accompany it. Thanks girl at the gas station!

047 - South Carolina

We kept driving and had some snacks as we did. Mike entertained me by shoving whole Pringles in his mouth at once. That kid's got talent. We finally reached Virginia at 4:00 and by this point we weren't sure if we even wanted to bother stopping overnight. The hotel was $100 a night and we knew it would be a dump. None of us were tired so we figured we might as well just keep driving and arrive home later that night. We calculated the time and realized that we would be home by midnight, which was when a lot of people would just be heading into the city to party the night away. We would have been driving since 5:00 in the morning so it wasn't exactly the same, but it wasn't too bad. Mom called the hotel, which was located in Fredericksburg, and cancelled our reservation. If we were too tired to continue driving by the time we reached Fredericksburg we would just stop at the hotel and get a room. We doubted the hotel would be full.

075 - North Carolina

We stopped for dinner in Richmond at 6:00. We pulled over to a McDonald's in a small suburb of the city. Dad and I ran in to get the food while mom and Mike waited in the car with Oreo. Dad and I brought the food out and there were no outdoor tables so we all ate by the car. Mike and I got chicken sandwiches, mom got a chicken wrap, and dad got a burger. The food was actually pretty good. As unhealthy as it is, it IS tasty... even mom admitted it! Mom ate in the car with Oreo while dad, Mike and I stood and ate leaning against the trunk of the car. When we were done eating Mike waited in the car with Oreo while mom, dad and I ran back into McDonald's. Dad got himself and mom a coffee each while mom and I ran into the bathroom. There was a pretty big convenience store attached to the McDonald's so she ran over there to get some wipes, and then we were on our way.

086 - Virginia

I snapped some pictures as we drove through Richmond, and the drive was pretty uneventful. We listened to the radio and hung out. I really wanted to listen to my Mp3 player, but regardless of the fact that I had been charging it for the past few days it somehow ran out of batteries. We reached Washington DC by 7:00 and I took more pictures and kept trying to listen to my MP3 player, but it just wouldn't work. We listened to more of the radio and time seemed to be flying by. As we drove through Washington DC the sun was beginning to set and the sky was a gorgeous shade of pink. I tried to get some pictures but none of them came out that well. At 7:30 we reached Maryland and stopped at the Maryland Welcome Center. It was really crowded and really chilly. We had just been sweating in Florida for the past three weeks so it was weird for it to be so cold out! Dad and Mike ran to the bathroom first while mom and I walked Oreo. There were a lot of other people walking dogs, and one family came up to us to introduce their dog to ours. Oreo wanted no part of it, though, and she just kept barking. She isn't very friendly! This family's kids were walking around barefoot and had gone to the bathroom the same way, and they were kind of weird so we really didn't mind Oreo's lack of enthusiasm for making any friends, haha! A girl around my age also asked to pet Oreo and Oreo just started barking, and the girl laughed and said that her dog was the same way. When dad and Mike were done mom and I ran into the bathroom, and then we were back on the road.

111 - Maryland

At 9:00 we reached Baltimore. We drove straight through and the skyline was really pretty so I took some video. We then drove through the Delaware Memorial Tunnel and were out of Baltimore within ten minutes. By 10:00 we had driven through all of Maryland and the fifteen minutes of Delaware that we drive through on our trip to and from Florida, and we stopped at the Delaware Welcome Center. Mike waited in the car with Oreo while mom, dad and I ran in. We all went to the bathroom and then we decided to get a quick late night snack to keep us awake and alert for our last leg of the trip. First we went to Cinnabon to get a few mini-Cinnabuns and mom and dad got coffee, and then we went to Nathan's to get some corn dogs. We brought the food back to the car and ate it while dad got some gas across the street from the rest stop, and the food was really good! We then continued on our way.

114 - Delaware

As we drove through the last few minutes of Delaware I saw a huge ball of white light in the sky. It looked like the moon but it was really low and absolutely HUGE. I told everyone to look for it, but they kept missing it. I thought that maybe it was a sign for a science museum or something but then we all saw it. It was the moon and it was a perfect moon... it was absolutely gorgeous and surreal. Here in New York the moon is pretty high up in the sky, but from Delaware it was really low. The moon was so big, white and right on the horizon that it looked like we could drive right through it. It reminded me of the big, perfect moon they always show in "Moonstruck." It was really beautiful. I tried to take same video but the video doesn't at all do it justice. The video looks nothing like what the moon looked like in person.

115 - Delaware

At 10:20 we reached New Jersey, and it was the longest ride ever! Whenever we get to Jersey it always seems like we're home, but the beginning of Jersey is actually a long way from the parts of Jersey that we usually go to. We drove for a good hour and a half before we stopped at the Joyce Kilmore rest stop. It was really crowded in there and I felt like a lunatic. I had been dozing off in the car, and when I looked in the mirror I could see that my face was really pale and my black eyeliner had been running down my face. Nice! Haha, I was just glad that I didn't know anyone in there and that I would never see these people again! Mom and I ran into the bathroom and were in and out quickly. We kept driving and finally reached Staten Island at 11:45. There was a ton of traffic on the Staten Island Expressway... welcome home! We slowly but surely made our way through and were crossing the Verazzano Bridge into Brooklyn at 12:10. We had a great view of the city and I tried to take video of it, but for some reason my digital camera doesn't take good video at night.

119 - Delaware

We drove through Brooklyn and were home by 12:30. We unpacked the car and brought all of our bags in. The house was really, really hot and stuffy and I was so exhausted that the house actually seemed alien to me. Nothing looked right. The lighting in the house was weird, and when I went to the bathroom even the toilet seat felt weird! The same thing had happened when we arrived home the year before. We had gotten so used to everything in the vacation home that we weren't at all used to our regular home! It took some readjusting. I put my air conditioner on and made sure that everything I had set to Tivo in my room had taped. It had all been taped except for the latest episode of Big Brother. That wasn't too bad considering I had nine episodes of Big Brother taped, as well as fifteen hours of other shows! I unpacked my bags and kept thinking about how surreal it was that just that morning I had been in Florida. It's different when you wake up in Florida and then fly home... the plane ride is like a transitional period. Driving had been different. It didn't at all seem like we had driven as far as we had in only one day. It felt like we should still be in Florida!

I wad done unpacking by 2:00, and I wound up just leaving a lot of my stuff in my room to put away the next day. I was exhausted but I still helped out around the house while Mike sat on the couch in the living room and watched TV. He's really good at pissing me off. When everything was done and put away, I got into bed and tried to fall asleep. It was good to be home, but it had been an amazing, amazing vacation and I already missed it!