Holiday Rooaaaood!

SPECS

2 Adults
3 Kids (7, 3 & 21 months)
1 Dog
1 Bike
Cooler
Snack Bag
Movies
491 Miles.....

God Help Us!!

We made it to Tupelo before we heard our first "Are we there yet?", which I thought was pretty good. It was also in Tupelo that I discovered that the car's headphones were broken, which meant I had to listen to every Looney Tunes & Tom & Jerry that the kids were watching. The fifteen minutes that Kimberly and I tried to listen to our music turned into a full mutiny from the back of the car, so we caved. The kids got settled into their show and the ride was going remarkably well, until....

As were were about to turn onto 65 South in Birmingham it happened. "Mooommy" was all I heard, I turned my head at the exact moment the projectile vomit occurred. The car turned into complete panic, actually just Kimberly and I, as Asher was too busy with "Swamp Brothers" on the Ipad and Julia, well, she's just Julia. We immediately pulled into the first parking lot we could. I slammed on the brakes and jumped out. It was bad, really bad. Kimberly handled Turner while I ran into the restaurant to get paper towels. I forgot to mention that the parking lot we pulled into was a Popeye's chicken. Remember that scene in Lampoon's Vacation when they ask for directions in East St. Louis? It was like that. The restaurant had no paper towels in either bathroom, so we ended up cleaning the car and Turner with paper napkins. With clean clothes and a semi-clean car seat we were on our way, without "Honkey Lips" painted on the side of the family truckster. Success.

For the next 2 to 3 hours, everyone was great. We stopped for lunch, filled up with gas and continued down the road. There was one growing problem, Julia was not taking a nap. Kimberly and I both knew this was not good, and she was going to turn on us at some point. The change occurred when we reached Highway 331- Julia had been replaced by the pea soup spitting girl from the Exorcist. We spent the next 30 minutes trying to maintain sanity while she screamed bloody murder. When we hit the beautiful resort town of Florala, she fell asleep. I figured it was smooth sailing from here out, but there was one more bump in the road...

With Julia finally asleep and only 40 miles left, Asher decided he had to pee. Kimberly firmly announced to him "this car is not stopping, if you want to pee, here's a bottle". He sat quietly for a moment, then caved. He unzipped and let it fly, it was classic. I kept thinking of that scene in Dumb & Dumber. We all got a big laugh out of it, and Turner found it so funny he had to give it a whirl. Classic road trip memory.

We pulled into the beach house at 5:20, nine and a half hours after we left. The ride had its ups and downs, but I would definitely call it a success. There is still the trip home, but that will be for a later post.

With the car unpacked, it was beverage time and thankfully, the family that stayed the week before had left a six pack of Stella in the fridge. I felt like I had won the lottery. By 6:30 we were on the porch enjoying the view.



It was an early night, but we were all glad to be settled in and ready for a great week.

My vacation has not put my training on the back burner. I had arranged an off day for Saturday, but Sunday morning I was back at it. I really love riding down here in Florida, the scenery is fantastic and Highway 98 is great to ride on, nice bike lanes and minimal stop light. I suited up and hit the road for my first ride.



My schedule only called for an 1:30 minute ride, so it was a nice way to start the week.



I can't think of a better view to end a training ride.



Monday was an off day. We spent the morning down at the beach playing. Asher loves the water, Turner...not so much. Julia loves just sitting in the sand and playing with her water buckets. After beach time, Kimberly and I packed up the kids and did some shopping and had lunch.



That night, the whole family drove down to Seaside for dinner. I've been very good lately about my nutrition, but it was an off day and I just couldn't resist.




This morning was another beautiful day. I passed on the donuts from Charlie's donut truck in Alys Beach and ate my wheat bread with Justin's Hazelnut Butter. By 9:00 am I was on the road for another ride.



So far...So good.

Now for a Post Script...
Checking the blog stats today, I noticed I have surpassed 3,000 page views. So to thank all of you for reading, here is a gift in return. Blue Suede Shoes- courtesy of Big Daddy. Enjoy...

Untitled from Larkin Grisanti on Vimeo.