Back from Florida

The Parks Family returned from our last trip of the summer Saturday. We spent the week relaxing with my family in Florida. Vacations at the beach aren’t what they were Pre-Josie/Jenna. Instead of carelessly flitting away hours reading and basking next to the surf we now spend our time monitoring the little angels.
The journey down to Florida was outstanding. All of our stops were organized and efficient. We ate lunch at an Arby’s drive through. While waiting in line for our food we sent the kids in to use the restroom. Everything went like clockwork and we put up a respectable 7:06 time (Columbia to Perdido Key). The solid effort and good teamwork helped to remove some of the sour taste from June’s debacle. The stage was set for a possible sub-7 hour return trip to Columbia.
On Saturday’s the trip home ran into early trouble. Just minutes into our trip Jenna soiled her diaper. By that time we were in Pensacola and had to wait to find an exit with east on/off access to minimize our stoppage time. Once out of Pensacola we pulled over on a county road, made the quick diaper change, and were back on the road asap.
For the next three and a half hours everything went great. At lunch time the plan was to pull off and hit a McDonald's drive through and get back on the road. As we exited the interstate, Amy saw that the exit also had a Cracker Barrel and suggested that we stop there. A stunned silence fell over the van. Looking at the girls in my rear view mirror I could see the disbelief and shock in their faces. Josie’s look seemed to say, “Dad, she knows that is a sit down restaurant where you wait for your table and your meal, right?” Jenna’s was equally puzzled, “I sat in my own poop for half and now she wants to throw it away for a veggie plate?”
We had a sit down family meal that included a ten minute wait to be seated. The final time on the return trip to Columbia was somewhere over seven and a half hours. I don’t know the exact time because I couldn’t bring myself to look at my chronometer once it hit 7:30. Same story as our trip to Oklahoma in June, solid effort going, disaster on the trip home. My team can’t close the deal. Phil Mickelson and the Dallas Mavericks think we can’t finish.