We drove back down (this is getting to be a LOT of Florida-Texas driving) to Florida for the holiday to spend it with my (Katy’s) side of the family. I have a huge family and almost everyone was planning on getting together this year so I really wanted to be there. Plus, you know, we don’t have an oven and how would I make a Thanksgiving feast without an oven?!
We had originally planned on taking the bus and driving to my oldest sister’s house in Georgia but after an expected change of plans that started with my youngest sister it was decided that everyone would meet up in Florida instead. Which is great for us-we have a free place (with power!) to park the bus while we’re in Florida.
Well, we have been dragging our feet on doing the bus maintenance that needs to be done and the end of the year is always a little tight for us financially so we decided to leave the bus in Texas and just hop down to Florida in the Honda. Again. 3 weeks after our last drive to Florida.
I miss the bus more every time we drive somewhere without it. It is just so much more comfortable to be in the bus than it is the car. Sleeping on the road is so hard in the Honda. You’re cramped and half sitting up, there’s no ventilation, it was really cold at night and I couldn’t get warm enough. But in the bus, bed is right there. With all your blankets, and pajamas, and it’s so high off the ground that it feels very private since people can’t look in the windows. We can keep the windows open and you still can’t see or reach into the bus from the ground. It feels like a tiny fort. I love it.
This time around, out of our deep DEEP desire to not drive through Louisiana again, we took a different route. We headed north into Oklahoma, hit Oklahoma City, went east through Arkansas, hit Memphis, turned south, hit Birmingham, went east, hit Atlanta, and turned south to Florida. It took us 36 hours. Our fastest route takes about 22-24 hours with alllll of our stops. It was brutal.
I think that it could have been a really cool drive had we been in the bus. We drove straight through the Ozarks but it was dark. I bet it was beautiful though. We drove through several big cities that we would have liked to have stopped in, maybe gotten something to eat that wasn’t fast food but leaving Finn in the car is dicey. We don’t like doing it and other people tend to not like seeing dogs locked up in cars. It’s just uncomfortable for any party involved. But the bus is home and it’s no biggie to leave him there while we explore somewhere.
We did listen to two very good audiobooks on the drive. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (one of my all time favorite nonfiction writers) and Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card. I would really recommend both of them. If you’ve read Ender’s Game, Earth Unaware (and the 2 books that follow it) set up the whole world that Ender’s Game takes place in. It’s intense. I cried. Bryson is just amazing- I am a huge fan of his more memoir-y books but his straight nonfiction is great too. He weaves everything together so well and keeps it from being dry. Plus, I love his voice and he reads his books in the audio versions (and I LOVE when authors read their own work). We also attempted to listen to a book by Anne McCaffrey and it was terrible. I’ve read some of her stuff (although it was long ago) and it was fine but this was a “performance” instead of a reading and I can’t stand listening to those. Please, just read the book to me. I don’t need someone making sound effects and very bad impersonations of a baby crying to help capture the spirit of the book.
But we made it to Florida, Thanksgiving was lovely, and we just have 2 weeks left until the end of the Fall semester and we are free to go wherever we want/do some big bus projects (dinette!).
I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving! Happy late Thanksgiving from me and mine.
PS. We all know that Finn got the best seat in the house. Like a little doggie prince. We rented a hall (?) for the day and this was, quite literally, the only plushy and comfortable chair there.
