Departure Day - March 11, 2022 .......

On March 11, 2022, we packed the car, made the final arrangements needed and set off to cross

the border and start our road trip to Florida. We had a few stops along the way before reaching the CANADA/USA border. We cleared the border effortlessly and headed to Buffalo to get our rental car. A snazzy Grand Caravan that had a mind of it's own. It loved to turn the hazard lights on every time the ignition was turned off. Logistically, we couldn't drive our car to Florida and leave it there while we piled into Holy Cow and headed northward so the Caravan was our new ride.

Our travel south consisted of dodging winter storms, high winds, freezing rain turning to thunderstorms and heavy rain. Weather warnings were alerting our iPhones constantly. We were in a groove and were pacing the storms behind us and ahead of us, missing the worst of all of them.

A family discussion took place around 10:00pm and it was decided we'd push through and do the whole drive in one 24 hour period. It seemed like a good idea.....it was a good idea. However, the team in the back seat started to come unglued around 1:00am when reality hit as to what driving straight through actually meant. Eventually, everyone had a nap enroute (the drivers took turns) and the night passed. Everyone was cheerier when we saw the sun rise and saw how much progress was made on our journey south through the night.

Our travels through Florida state were carefully planned. We stopped for breakfast to allow for the storm to move East so we were not driving through the worst of it our entire trip West. Driving through Ocala we learned we missed a tornado by approximately 40 minutes. Traffic headed into town from the other direction was at a standstill for miles. We hoped no one was hurt and were thankful for decision to stop in Jacksonville for breakfast.

We arrived in Marco Island around 4:00pm on Saturday, March 12 and unloaded a few things. We put our feet up, had a glass of wine, ordered in dinner and were glad to be safe and sound and cozy in our comfy beds for the night. An early night for all.