A Whole Lot of Miles

After much discussion, this year for Thanksgiving we decided to go to my older sister's house in Florida. My parents and younger sister and her 3 daughters were already going, so we thought it would be a nice way to spend Thanksgiving. My schedule was not as cooperative as I had hoped, but we did manage to leave "somewhat" early on Tuesday morning. Oh how I wish we would have left Monday - any time, even late, but I didn't get a chance to pack or get anything ready, plus I had obligations pretty much all day Monday.

So, 4:30 am on Tuesday I am up and getting ready, getting the car packed, basically running around in no orderly fashion. By 6:00 am we are on the road. By 6:15am I am putting on a movie for a little girl who will not go back to sleep. The drive down went fairly well for most of it, though there seemed to be a perpetual cloud overhead the entire way down. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel in Kentucky just to walk around, then back on the road. In Chattanooga, we ran into some traffic, but nothing terrible. It really wasn't until we hit Atlanta around 4:00pm that we hit any major traffic, and by that time it was raining and getting dark and people were driving extra crazy.

Once we got through Atlanta, it was smooth sailing, but still rainy and dark. We arrived in Warner Robins, Georgia and met my sister so we could get on base (her husband is in the Air Force). We finally arrived at our destination, just an hour later than expected.

The next day, we headed for Florida, but we didn't get on the road until close to 10am. It was only a 6 - 7 hour drive, so we thought it would be okay.

Nope.

It started out okay, but by the time we hit Ocala, Florida on 75, it was a traffic nightmare. After several miles of backup and stop and go, we decided to jump off and follow a route parallel - at least we were moving. We eventually jumped back onto 75, but probably later than we should. We eventually arrived, but once again, later than anticipated - by about 2 hours this time.

I actually packed running clothes and got out for a run Wednesday morning on base. Then had plans for a nice long run on Thursday before dinner, but I was exhausted. Friday though, I got out and ran in the humidity - ugh. It was not a good run by any means. After that it was more driving (and more of the same traffic) back to Georgia, then back to Indiana from there. Traffic was actually at its worst on Sunday night and we did not arrive home until 10:30pm. 1300+ miles of driving and about 7-8 miles running...

But we had a great time at the beaches.