The Drive

Our trip to Florida took seven days. We left on a Tuesday evening with our car filled to the gills with stuff and three plants. We decided we would try to travel around 500 miles/day. Since we left in the evening, our first stop was Price, Utah. The second stop was Albuquerque,New Mexico. The third day we were able to go to Lubbock, Texas and see Sean, Amber and the kids. We had brought Christmas for them and some things from the storage unit, so that left us with a little more room in the car. Texas is HUGE and it took us all the next day to drive through but we finally got to Shreveport, Louisiana. There was a cute shopping center near our motel and I was also surprised to find that we were right near the Mississippi River.

Saturday we drove to Pensacola, Florida. Our motel was very close to the beach. We decided not to travel on Sunday. Pensecola is on the Gulf side of Florida so I was kind of hoping we could walk along the beach after church. But it was so cold we ended up staying inside the lobby near the fireplace, just reading most of the day after church. Monday we drove to Orlando and Tuesday we reached our motel in Plantation (near Ft. Lauderdale).

It was a long drive, but also interesting to see all the different parts of the country. From the eastern part of Texas to Florida there were so many trees lining the highways that we could hardly see what lay behind. I was also amazed at how cold it was all through our trip until we got to Orlando. I’m so grateful I had my big coat!

We spent three days in the Fairfield Inn in Plantation where Mark has stayed on all his trips here. When we finally got into our condo it felt so great to finally be away from motels and into our own space!! Our boxes and furniture arrived Friday December 16th. The boxes just kept coming and coming and coming! We filled the spare bedroom with boxes and furniture pretty much to the gills!

Little by little we went through boxes and put everything away or got rid of more stuff. It was pretty chaotic for awhile! I thought I had the kitchen completely done at one point and felt so elated until the next day when I opened a couple of other boxes and found more dishes! Oh well.

It took about two weeks to get everything completely put away. Mark helped me hang pictures. I switched picture frames with recent kids and grandkids's pictures and
it feels like home now.

As for my three plants. One died and another almost died, but revived after several weeks. My Christmas Cactus suffered the least amount of damage. I'm glad I have it because it's probably at least 20 years old! I got the start from my mom in California. I was actually trying to kill the other one, but the moist air has been keeping it alive and it has some new growth, so I cleaned it up and watered it today.

It's so great to be here!