It was a long but worthwhile journey. We made it up to Pennsylvania to see Mary before she passed away – mission accomplished. That didn’t make Mary’s death any easier but we felt fortunate to have seen her while she was still awake and able to interact with us.
My post here is to document our travels. Starting on Thursday February 9th I packed up the kids and headed across the state to Tampa where I picked up Shannon from her office there (The David Group has a Tampa office that Shannon is now responsible for). Shannon had left that previous Monday for presentations and meetings. It was a nice 3:30 hour trip over to Tampa with good weather and well behaved babies all the way. My Rand McNally maps gave me a nice route that cut across the state well before Hwy 4 up in Orlando, which is the more traditional trek. I would go this way again and in fact if the trip was to Shan’s office I would have just stayed on Hwy 60 as it comes out RIGHT next to Shan’s office. This would compare to the route I went that cut over to Hwy 4 just east of Tampa.
After a two-hour lay over in Tampa where the kids tore up Shan’s Tampa office we got on the road to Pennsylvania on I275 to I75 North. We took I75 north about 80 miles to Hwy 27 that led us shortly to Hwy 301 North (also Hwy 441), which moves you from the west coast, northeast across the state. Before we got off I75 on Hwy 27 though we had to stop for dinner. I looked up Italian restaurants on Yahoo! Local on my phone and found a Carabba’s one exit before our Hwy 27 exit that we would be taking. As we were getting off the freeway Shannon joked that it would be good to see a Chucky Cheese so we could let the kids run around before they went to sleep overnight in the truck since we planned to drive straight through. This was really just a play on my hate for Chucky since my ex-wife insisted that Max and Charlie have ALL their birthdays there. I’m not exaggerating – while they HAD birthday parties with friends EVERY one of them was at Chucky’s place in Dublin, CA. Argh! So, it was pretty funny that as soon as we pulled off the freeway we say Chucky Cheese. Needless to say – I survived Chucky and the kids had a great time running around. Of course, John now loves Chucky Cheese. That’s not a problem so long as he has birthday parties in other places, in addition to a trip to the Chucksters for ONE.
That night was a long hard drive. The kids would wake up and let us know in no uncertain terms that they were very unhappy with us. At one point Julia was so upset and crying that she threw up on Shannon. All in a day’s road trip when you’re traveling with small kids.
We got through the night after taking 301N to I10E towards Jacksonville where we steered clear of the city on I295 to I95. From there we tore up I95 through Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. We took I26 in to Columbia, SC, home of The State, a newspaper and online site I used to work for at Knight Ridder Digital. From Columbia we turned north on I77 to Charlotte. Charlotte looked cool, at least from the skyline that I saw at around 4 or 5AM. Another KR market, it was funny to look at the downtown and think about the office Tryon and all the people I worked with over five years while I somehow never once made it to the Charlotte market for a visit. In fact this was the first time I had ever been to Charlotte.
After a week and a half in Pennsylvania we drove home starting late Monday afternoon, February 20, 2006. We went to Mary’s funeral and wake at the Eagles club and then went back to Shannon’s Dad’s to pack. That wasn’t easy and we got out of New Brighton at 4:10PM. We couldn’t stand the idea of going home the same way we had driven up to PA, even though it added about 125 miles to the journey. On the way up we actually left out of Tampa so that changed things quite a bit as well. We took I76 across the state for a ways until I70 turns south and heads into Maryland. This route continued through Hagerstown, Frederic and Rockville Maryland before we got into to the outskirts of DC on I270. DC and Rockville were by far the most visually interesting parts of the trip – at least for night driving. We saw the Gannett headquarters building that was impressive at night all lit up. We looked up at an overpass at one point in Rockville and saw Gude Drive. Another branch of the Gude family made it big in Rockville and Chevy Chase MD and there are all sorts of things named after them. Even though I knew of Gude Drive in Rockville it was really strange to see it. There were tons of other good-looking skyscrapers in this general area that were fun to look at as well. We merged onto I495 to I95 for the long ride home. We made it through Arlington and my favorite, Manassas, which is dubbed Man-asses for the remainder of the trip. We planned to run around 6:30 before finding a hotel for the night. We pretty much did that and stopped around 12:30AM on Tuesday, February 21. We stayed at a Sleep Inn in Stony Creek, Virginia. Comfortable and easy. The babies had been sleeping in the car so when we got them up to get in the hotel they didn’t want to go back to sleep. After about an hour they finally went to bed and Shannon and I got to bed.
The next day we pulled out of the parking lot at 8:13AM for our long push home down I95. We had good weather all the way and made decent time. Had some excellent Hardee’s burgers along the way. Hardee’s is the same as Carl’s Jr. in the West that I particularly like and have missed since moving out to Florida from Cali. For the record there is one in Florida – provided you are willing to drive a few hundred miles to Jacksonville! We had some light left around Yulee, Florida so we stopped to find a park for the kids to stretch their legs. No parks so we ended up at a McDonald’s playland. It worked out well and served its purpose. Let me just say again that traveling with small kids does in fact suck ass. From there we pushed on through Jacksonville, another town that I had never seen in the Flesh. It has a nice skyline and definite Florida feel, especially when viewed from the south as the City sits on the water and around a nice curve of intracoastal waterway that is in the shape of a crescent. At least, that’s how I remember it. Soon after we were going past St. Augustine and I was wishing we had the time to stop and visit. St. Augustine is recognized as the oldest city in the U.S. and has a great historic area. In addition, it’s also home to the Golf World of Fame and resort. Just south of there is Ponte Vedra, Florida which is where the TPC is located (Tournament Players Championship Course). The TPC venue introduced Golf fans to so called stadium golf course viewing and is home to the annual Tournament Players Championship, which has the feel of a major. The course is amazing and I would love to play it with Shannon some day. We noticed a restaurant along the freeway here owned by the Murphy Brothers (so called) – Bill and Brian Doyle Murphy’s place no doubt.
After a piece (about 100 miles) we went through Daytona, where Shannon and I had been almost exactly five years before for the Daytona 500. Well, I was there on business for the Daytona 500 but we were there to see each other and it was a magical trip and experience. Again, the desire to pull off the freeway and stay a piece was really strong. We still owe each other a longer motorcycle ride up in Daytona, after having rented a HD there to put around on. It was too short a ride though and we saw one of the great rides there in the dark. We want to go back in the light when it is a bit warmer and do the same route.
From there the rest of the trip felt long….It felt like it would never end. But, we finally got home around 10:30PM on Tuesday night.
P.S. I conveniently left out the part where Shannon and I missed a freeway exit in Virginia. By the time Shannon noticed that our freeway sign said South on it we had traveled a little over 50 miles! So, we added 100 miles to our trip on the way up. We ran into the problem in Wyethville, Virginia where I77 hits I81. Instead of exiting to stay on I77 we managed to end up in I81 south going towards Marion Virginia. We almost made it to the Tennesee border as well. We stopped in a K-Mart which didn’t look like it had changed since 1975 and bought a Rand McNally map. There we figured we were in Bristol, Viginia. Ouch.
Julia’s first movie and I think she liked it. I was surprised that she was as restless as she was – she probably lasted about 40 minutes before she was ready to be done. John got a little restless at times but I think it was more about him being used to standing up and moving around the house then being bored with the movie itself. Shannon and I both liked the movie a lot. The colors were magnificent! Story was simple and nice as a kids movie should be. It seems like there is plenty of room in the market for great movies like The Incredibles and Shrek as well as 2-D low tech but high art, well storied movies like George. Good on ya George.
