We're at Sarahs!

Hmm, well for some reason I can't seem to get the maps posted so I'll just continue with the text.

So yesterday we got a later start and left around 10:30 from New Port Richey to head back up to Grandad's. We had a nice brunch with Grandad, Mattie and Linda, then went back to their condo. We took a nice walk around the grounds and saw their beach. I didn't realize they live right on the river! Now we'll have to stop by again to head upstream. (: Quite a nice little community there. Then we chatted for a while, and then they pulled out some videos from about 15-18 years ago and it was quite neat to see some things that triggered memories I'd forgotten I had! (:
But then we needed to get headed over to Sarah's so we could meet her for dinner. Got a little late start sometime after 4, and made it here around 6 I think. Trip wasn't TOO bad, but it seemed like we were heading in the wrong direction for a bit, and then once we got to St. Petersburg one of the streets was mislabeled so it took a little backtracking again.
But once we got here we got to go to Moe's and got some good Mexican food! And of course we had to stop at the marble slab creamery next door for some desert.
Then we came back to Sarah's apartment and sat down with her and Maggie and we watched Moxie and Shadow entertain us while they tried to get next to each other. Interesting because Shadow wants to stick her nose in Moxie's face, and Moxie seems to want to get up close, but hisses and slashes Shadow's nose when she sticks it too close. It's hard to say who is the bigger instigator. (: So, Moxie had to sleep in Sarah's room so that we didn't listen to fighting all night.

So now Sarah is at work, Sara has gown down to the pool and Shadow and I are about to join her. I think we're planning on waiting for Sarah to come home for lunch and then we'll head down to the Ruffino's condo in Naples.

OH! And I just found out we have a new cousin! GOOD MORNING VIVIAN!!!!!
Sounds like everyone is doing well! YAY!!!!!!!!!!

Made it to Grandads!

OK, so it's now Thursday morning. Where did we leave off?
Yesterday morning. Well I got to looking at the mileage and realized I wasn't going to have as short a driving day as I was hoping, but still a LOT shorter than it was on Tuesday. We slept in a little and got out of the Hotel around 9. The first couple hours flew right by and we stopped in Georgia's info center for a potty break. Started seeing the palm trees planted in the median in South Carolina just a hair before Georgia. We started getting a little bit of the slow-down traffic a little before lunch. I think we stopped a little after noon at a Dairy Queen in Georgia (Sara loves the south if for no other reason than the fact that there is a Dairy Queen at every exit). Then we hit more nasty stop and go traffic on 95. Then hit some really bad stopping traffic on route 301 in Florida (that was the only one that actually seemed like there might be an accident) So then we got to Spring Hill around 5pm (as the sun is shining directly in front of us into our eyes which means we can't read any signs unless we're stopped for about 15 seconds). But we found the road and Bam. That's where the trouble began. there was a gate on the road (back in the trees), and then none of the other roads seemed to be the right place. So we wandered around and saw a bunch of houses in the area but we weren't sure how to get there. We drove around a bit more and found a housing development and found more of the roads on our map that should lead to where we were going. But of course that didn't actually get to the right place either. By then Sarah had called and was trying to tell us where to go and figure out if we were going to meet her for dinner with Grandad, Mattie and Linda. So she told us where to turn off the main route and we drove around a bit more, got back out to the main route and found another community where Sarah had indicated and then it was quite easy to find their place. Well... Almost... We knew we were in front of their condo... We just didn't know which one was theirs. We had the number as 6437. Let me tell you. After about 20 minutes of cruising through the development we can tell you there is no 6437. (: So we stopped and asked a couple people and looked around (by this time it was completely dark) But we drove past about where it should be and I looked at all the cars. And I said "if Grandad still has the same car, I bet that's their place". Sure enough that's where they were. So we popped in there for a bit and then headed out to meet Sarah at our Hotel at New Port Richey. Found it, but of course they told me that someone had cancelled our reservations, and then that we had two rooms reserved before they were cancelled. I was afraid he was going to tell me that they didn't have any rooms, but we got one without issue. So we all headed down to the Olive Garden and had a nice dinner. It was after 7 before we got into the restaurant, and probably after 8 before we got food, and it was like 9:30 before we left so we were ready for bed when we got back to the Hotel. Of course we found out this morning that the high-speed internet is only available in the lobby and certain rooms(not ours) and they forgot to turn on our phone, but we got those straightened out and took Shadow for a walk out back and saw the harbor and such. Shortly we will be heading back up to Spring hill to go visit with Grandad, Mattie and Linda. Then this afternoon we will go meet up with Sarah at her place and we are going to eat at the much touted "Moe's" (at least Sarah touts it) (: So, finally a day NOT full of driving! (:

Florida-Day 1

OK...
So, I stayed up too late Monday night trying to get last minute things done. I think I made it to bed around 10:30. Got up around 4:30 this morning and made it out the door like 5:15 or so. Day went pretty good. It certainly is a LONG way down here.
Found out that there are NO rest stops from our house until you get on I95 into Maryland. Unfortunately I found I was intersted in finding a rest room within an hour into the trip. Also found out that EVERYONE stops there.
Overall I would say that's the biggest surprise. I don't think I've ever seen that many cars in that large an area. Not sure if it's the holiday times or what, but I95 is just PACKED with cars. We spent a lot of time in a 6 lane highway that was just come to a dead stop on all 3 lanes with no apparent accidents or any reason for there to be a holdup. LOTS of stop and go times. Though at various points we also got some good moving traffic where we could go about 85mph. Nice 70mph speed limits in the Carolinas.
So, we stopped for lunch in Stafford, VA at Popeyes. Just like KFC with a little Cajun/New Orleans flavor.
Then we made another rest stop around 4pm around mid North Carolina. By then we were really getting ready to stop for the day. Unfortunately our reservation was for the Super 8 in Manning, SC. So.. About 7:30pm we rolled in here, stopped over at Sonic to get some dinner (this was our first time trying out a Sonic as well, with the 50's drive-in atmosphere complete with the roller skates), got some food and got in here a little after 8.
Umm, I think the only thing I forgot was the acetone I was going to bring to try and get a little more mileage out of the Sube, but it's doing well on it's own. We ran through 3 tanks today (about 750-800 miles) and started out around 24mpg, then 26mpg and ended with about 27mpg. (oh, wait that first tankful was used up for Christmas driving, not the Florida trip) So I'm quite pleased with that. Especially given the stop/go sections and spending most of the cruising time at close to 80mph or faster.
Well... I think that's about it for now... Tomorrow I think we get to sleep in a little bit and then we should be at Granddad and Matties for supper. Maybe with Sarah? We'll see!
Oh, and Shadow has been pretty much perfect. The hardest part is trying to get her to understand that she doesn't need to bark at people in the hall, and we're trying to keep her quiet after we've kept her locked up in the car for 14 hours. Hard to play without making noise.

Time for bed!

Florida!

Well, we are on our way out the door as I write this.

I hope we make it!!!!

The milkhouse with a roof!

Hey, look there's our view from the house and the milkhouse has a roof on it and doors in front! Much nicer!

Automotive mania

Well, what's been up so far?  Not a whole lot. 
Went over to Dr.'s yesterday to monkey with some computer stuff and change the van to some winter tires.  First time dealing with run flat tires.  I used to think they were good.  Now I'm more of the opinion that if you have the money to not worry about it they might be.  But if it were my van I'd have normal tires and maybe a spare in the back.  Problem is that the run flats are at least $120 a piece from the tirerack.  If you have a blowout somewhere else and you're probably looking at $300-350 a piece.  And from what I can tell you're not supposed to repair them.  If it actually goes flat it's supposed to be replaced.  And of course if there's much of any difference in the tread you should replace at least the two on the same axle.  Now we're talking about an AWD vehicle so you really should replace all 4.  So a flat tire could conceivably cost you $1500...
But anyway, as far as I was concerned it just meant I couldn't get them the "good" Blizzaks with the multicell compound (microscopic suction cups are as near as I've come to figuring out what that means), but they still have a good winter tire compound and much better tread on them so it should be a huge improvement.
It also meant that I needed to read the manual for the van a bit so that I could figure out how to reset the tire pressure monitoring system.  Oh the interesting things I learn at the dentists office!  Up until about a week ago I thought the tire pressure monitoring systems all used sensors in the wheels.  Well apparently the ones like on the Sienna are a bit cheaper and easier to deal with different wheels as they just check how fast the wheel is turning.  If it gets flat, it gets smaller and therefore turns more than it would normally.  So you're supposed to reset the system any time you change anything.  Otherwise it might not notice when a tire is flat, and with the run flat tires YOU might not notice it's flat and then you might shred your tire and cause an accident or something.  Neat stuff.  (:

Also had a nice little chat with Mrs. Meyer afterwards about homeschooling and things.  It certainly seems like a lot of work.  And yet there seems to be a fair amount of people out there who seem to be homeschooling and don't want to put in the effort.  I'm not really sure I understand why they're doing it then?  Why would you bother to say "yes I want my child home with me so I can teach them" and then just act like you don't care and give them the minimum to do and just have them do it on their own?  If that's your attitude then why don't you just let them go to school so that the teachers can take care of your kids and you won't have to bother with it?
There was also mention of stupid males.  I just don't get it.  I know I'm a weird one myself but come on...  As I recall the situation was something to the effect of in a large group of people, a woman stood up to speak and this guy says "Miss, apparently you don't realize that when there's a man in the room a woman has no place to stand up and speak".  What the heck is up with that?  I am just completely baffled.  I mean I know that's the "old school" way of thinking(though I still can't fathom how I could possibly have believed it even back then).  I JUST DON'T GET IT...  I mean how can you possibly not put value on someone?  How can you possibly just think of yourself (or a race or gender or whatever) so high above others that you don't consider them worthy or that they can't do the same things?  It's probably better I not think about it cause I'd just want to smack those people.  I'm a rather strong believer in the thought that anyone can do anything.  Due to circumstances some might get there easier than others, but it's all possible.  Ahh, I suppose it's time to get off that rant.  (:

Oh yeah, then I get home to the farm and hear that there's been all sorts of excitement on the hill.  When Dad finally gets in I hear there's been even more excitement.  OK, maybe not that EXCITING, but interesting if nothing else.  Apparently dad went shopping in Rochester and on the way back as he's about on the thruway his truck starts acting like it's going lock up the rear end.  Which is just after Dick calls to say that the tractor died in the middle of the road.  So Dick's supposed to try and get the tractor started and Dad has to figure out what to do with his truck.  Luckily it's not QUITE been 3 years and only 20K miles on it so it's under warranty still.  So he calls up Maple City Dodge (I think that was it) and asks them and sure enough there is still some customer satisfaction left in places and they sent up a rolloff to pick up the truck and brought him back at no charge.  Of course, he JUST made it back about in time to start milking the cows.  And by then Dick had gotten the tractor to the top of the hill, but that was about it.  And apparently by then everyone else was coming home and trying to help get it started.  But by the time I got home about 7, everything had settled down. 

So, OK, not much happened, but I can still write a lot of words about it it seems!