I realize this post is a bit late. 🙂 However, I wanted to share our traveling time with ya’ll!
We left Michigan on May 3 and had our reservation in Florida on May 5. We spent two nights on the way down and it was an incredible transformation of the landscape, weather, and culture. Here is our Trip from Michigan to Florida….
On May 2 we got groceries for our trip. We wanted to do as little of buying fast-food while we traveled. The night before we left, Miranda and Sadie made up 14 dinner salads, 21 turkey wraps and packed fruit for an army.
FYI, I’ll never do this again. Tip to everyone who will ever travel: Packing food, hauling it inside hotels, worrying about ice and salads is NOT the way to go. We have discovered Loves. It’s amazing and basically the best gas station known to the United States. They are everywhere. They have great food choices (including salads and fruit/meat), good bathrooms, and a good drink selection. We’ve also discovered Publix or any other grocery store is a great way to get a package of deli meat and fruit on a long trip. Just make it a bathroom break too and no worries about coolers! In fact, even while in Florida we have stopped packing lunches. Just get what we need at Publix. 🙂 We will be donating our coolers before we leave Davenport.
Moving on…Aaron has again proved his skills at being a champion van packer. He kept telling me that we weren’t going to fit everything in. HOWEVER, he did. It was challenging and he had to pack it 4 times, but he fit everything in!
I even told him that we would eliminate various items. But he wasn’t going to have us change a thing. I should also mention that the day we left was cold (34 degrees) and raining. ALthough everything was in the garage, it was still uncomfortable and miserable outside.
Once we had the van and trailer packed, we hooked on the hitch. This was a little bit of a dilemma. Turns out that the weight of the trailer was so heavy it pushed the front of the trailer lower than before. No problem for Aaron – he just switched around the hitch settings. In the cold. In the rain. Just sayin.
We all went potty again, got in the car and said goodbye to our beautiful michigan home. It was challenging to get it ready for renters before we left, so we hired our cleaning team to take care of the final details. We were SO thankful for them. Here’s what we looked like when we pulled out!
Here was the spring in Michigan in May. It was cold and dreary. There were a few daffodils out, no leaves on trees, the grass had just greened up a bit. Lots of dark clouds. We had no idea it could change so quickly.
This is how we roll. Guns and ammo. You never know when you might need that last bullet.
Waving goodbye to our home. We love you Michigan, but we are ready for some sunshine and people to love on!
It didn’t take very long before it started heating up. By the time we got down to Indiana, we were seeing open Lilacs, opening apple blossoms and smelling freshly cut green grass. It even got up to 70 degrees! We couldn’t believe how much a 5 hour difference made!
Our first stop was to spend time with our friends the “Bailey’s” in Indiana. They are a sweet family we met when we were in Florida in January/February. They invited us to stay with them on our way down and anytime we can. I wish we would have gotten a couple more pictures. Kailey took me on a 4-mile walk to stretch my legs after riding in the car all day. It was amazing. Their home was welcoming and they fed us like royalty!
The kids shared a room in their guest house and it was adorable seeing everyone laid out in the morning. Aaron and I woke up before they did! We were ready to get to the warm!
Our second day of driving took us through the hills of Kentucky and Tennessee, all the way down to Chattenooga. It was a beautiful drive. The sunshine through the mountains was breathtaking, as was the fields of poppies! We had to stop to take a picture in the field of poppies.
There was some rain, and we were able to see the clouds in the mountains. It was a beautiful sight that we will never forget.
The morning of our third day of driving proved to be beautiful. Sunshine and a breeze met us as we left Chattanooga.
Did you know that if you haul a trailer, you should be parking with the semi trucks at rest areas? It was funny to see us amidst the giant trucks.
Since it was in the 30s when we left MIchigan, we didn’t have any shorts in our bags. That was quickly remedied with a pair of scissors. a few of us wore cut offs into Florida. It reached 97 degrees on this day of our drive.
I decided that the highways and cities in Georgia were the most beautiful I have ever seen. The landscape was lush and beautiful. In fact, many signs were unable to be seen because of the trees and vines. Even amidst giant skyscraping buildings, there was luscious trees and grass to soften the building edges.
Then FINALLY we reached Florida! It was actually kind of funny because we thought we were in Florida about an hour before we actually were.
Then we arrived at Champions Gate in Davenport. It’s a huge community that is more of a town than a community. However, we were so excited to be here on a beautiful day!
When we arrived at our condo, we had some great friends waiting for us. They came and nabbed our little kiddos to play while we unpacked. It was fun to spend time with them for a few days before they left. Thankful for those minutes.
After our friends left, we were able to get settled in and get started on a routine. It’s been a challenge and we’ve tried a few routines (see my last post about that), but we are still in the process. We have so many things we want to check out, and so many people to meet.
Wait till you hear about our first week at church. Whew. It was interesting….
