Ft. Myers or Bust

We got on the road not long after Kevin got home from work a week ago Thursday. It was just after rush hour and we had hotel reservations in Chattanooga, so all in all, not too bad of a trip. The boys did really well. We colored until it was too dark, then watched movies from the crate of tapes that the gracious Aunt Robin let us borrow.

Into Tennessee the boys all fell asleep, and in the middle of that state is when I started having trouble staying awake. I was wiped out and even though Kev had no problem with me sleeping, I know that he was tired and I wanted to be sure to stay awake with him...especially when we weren't exactly sure where we were going.

We made it fine, and had a nice quick stay in the hotel. Had a great breakfast (nothing like a free hot breakfast for some famished kids!), and got on the road to head to Venice. We couldn't get into our condo until Saturday, so we decided to stay about an hour outside of Ft. Myers and drive in for Kevin's practice the next day.

[ Did I tell you we were going down there for the Roy Hobbs World Series? Kevin, my dad, my brother Billy, and three other friends of ours played on a team together. Dad and Jerry became friends with some Russians over the years of playing down there and they asked them to play again this year. ]

Friday was a bit more difficult of a drive. It rained the entire way. We had plans to stop at a park or a rest area to have lunch and let the boys run around but the monsoon we were driving through didn't let that happen. We called 800-goog-411 and found a mall nearby. (Have you ever tried it? It's an incredible free tool--especially when traveling!) We get out of the van when Kevin notices we have a flat tire. Thank goodness we were at the mall! I'm not sure if you've ever driven 75 S through Georgia, but there isn't much going on. I can't even begin to imagine what would have happened if we discovered the flat on the side of the highway in the downpour.

Needless to say, we were lucky. I took the boys into the Macon Mall and Kev drove the van over to the Firestone across the street. After two hours, the boys had played skee-ball for the first time, cashed in their tickets for some toy soliders, ate lunch, and we had our tire patched. Our catastrophe could have been so much worse!

We were back on the road and made it to Venice in good time. After another good night of sleep we woke up to a bit of drizzling, but by the time we made it to Lee County Stadium for the RusStar practice, it was nothing but blue skies, palm trees, and sunshine!