"Russ, please don't eat the Truckster." ~ Clark W. Griswold
Backing the van out of the lake house driveway at 5:05 AM, the driveway behind me seemed unusually dark. Upon exiting the van to open the gate (which had blown closed during the overnight storm) I discovered that our tail lights were not functioning. Back up the driveway we went. We checked all of our lights, and found that we had no tail lights, license plate lights or front parking lights, however we did have headlights, daytime running lights, backup lights and brake lights. I checked the fuse box, hoping for an easy fix. Fuses checked out OK. I figured they would since many of these lighting systems, working and nonworking, share a circuit. At this point, I had reached my level of mechanical expertise. We can't drive the van this way; it is unsafe and it is illegal. So...we unloaded the van and packed up the trusty ole Crown Vic and departed on our journey an hour later than planned.
Crown Vic is my car. A 2003 model in police car white with tan leather interior, it rides like a dream and has been reliable as any car could be - a nice, big American car with a powerful V8 under the hood. As we departed the lake house, the odometer showed just over 164,000 miles. Quite impressive!
For us, no vacation is really a vacation without at least one breakfast at Cracker Barrel. This was accomplished in Shreveport, and after filling the gas tank we headed southeast in Interstate 49. The kids promptly went to sleep, I surfed classic country radio stations - as one would fade away another would take its place - and four hours later we stopped for restroom, lunch and refuel in Hampton, LA. Lunch was sandwiches fixed out of the cooler, chips for the kids, grape tomatoes for De'Lisa and me, and bottled water. We were making great time. Crown Vic got just over 25 miles per gallon with AC running between Shreveport and Hampton (just over 300 miles). We're cruising Interstate 10 towards Mobile in Alabama when everything comes to a stop. Thinking there must be an accident (after all, it's a Saturday afternoon for Pete's sake!) I launch into my usual litany about idiot drivers causing havoc for the rest of us. Then we realized the freeway was narrowing so we could go through the Mobile tunnel. So this is normal!? One hour later we emerged from the other side and made a bee line to Florida.
After fueling the car at WalMart and the kids at Sonic, we embarked on our final leg of the day. I was happy to see exit 203 finally come into view. Although Mapquest didn't know where our hotel is located, our iPhones helped us find it and we pulled into the Hilton Garden Inn parking lot just after 9PM.
So here we sit; tired, but most importantly - safe and sound. Tomorrow's drive to Naples is much shorter - only about 6 1/2 hours. God willing, we'll have our fannies planted on the beach by late tomorrow afternoon. As for now, it's time for some serious shuteye.
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