Fall has arrived!

December was a very eventful month for us. Chris made the decision that since he was unemployed that it would be a good time for us to do a family vacation. The place we picked was of course Florida! He had earned a little bit of money helping out on a farm that he was trying to get a full time job at so we were going to use that money for our travel money to get down there and back. Gas prices had dropped so the issue of gas money wasn't that big of an issue anymore. Next we had to find us a house sitter as I have a dog, cat, fish and gerbils.
I sent a message off to my niece and asked her if she wouldn't mind house sitting for us and taking care of the animals. I figured it would give her a break from being at home with her parents. She is all out of school and has been for a couple of years now so I figured she was responsible enough.

We had made plans to leave on the 19th. We figured we would leave Friday after the kids got out of school. On the 18th our plans changed however as there was a storm coming in and it was suppose to hit New York, Connecticut and Massachuetts really hard. So we called Gina and told her that we were leaving that night. So we left instuctions with her on what to do. We left the house at 8:30pm. We stopped down to Waterville to grab some food for the ride.

We were making pretty good time as we headed out through Maine, New Hampshire and into Massachuetts. In Mass we stopped to top the tank off. We had one of our first bad encounters. A tractor trailer was beside us and he was moving along pretty good. He came up on a car and decided to come into our lane. He either didn't look or he just didn't see us. We had to lock the brakes up and go into the break down lane so he wouldn't run us over. That started a series of events of something or someone not wanting us to make it to Florida. At least that is how I feel. The next time we had another experience was again with a trator trailer in either Mass or New York and this time it was huge chunks of ice coming off his trailor as he was beside us. One chunk that I will say was at least 5 feet in length came down and hit us in the windshield. It's a miracle that the windshield didn't break. Then no soon as that one hit us another two came off his trailor and hit us on the cars roof. I could have sworn that it sounded like it was caving my roof in. Luckily there was no damage.
The next event came when we were on the New Jersey turnpike. We were driving and heard this bang noise. It almost sounded like some of the soda we had brought with us falling over in the trunk. We didn't think to much of this. Well about 15 minutes later we could hear this weird noise. Kind of like when tires run over bridges and it gives that thumping noise. It kept getting louder and louder. Chris felt the steering wheel and it didn't feel any different. With a flat tire you usually can feel the vibration and pull and there was none of that. We were coming up on an exit and Chris asked me if we should get off and take a look at the car or if we should continue on. I saw that the next exit was 22 miles so I told him to pull over. We went to pull off the turnpike and Chris stopped the car on the exit ramp. Got out and looked and the back left tire he said felt like mush. There was very little air in it. And just standing there talking the tire went totally flat. It was a miracle that we didn't ruin the rim. So we commenced to taking the flat tire off and putting on the spare dummy tire. What a pain in the ass as we had to unpack the trunk and put all our food, clothes, and other items on the side of the exit ramp. NOT FUN!! Let me just add too that it is 4:25 am!
So of course no tire place is going to be opened this early. And since we have the little dummy tire we can't continue to travel on.

Well the first thing is never get off on exit 10 and expect to get help. First of all no one spoke good english. Second they didn't know where any walmarts where. Now you would think that this being New Jersey that there was be actual New Jersey people there. NOPE! Everyone that we saw were either Labenese or Muslim. We ended up driving around and finally found a girl who thought she knew of a walmart and how to get to it. Problem is was that no one knew when this walmart opened either. So we set out to find this walmart with very shitty directions. We finally see it and start to go towards it but are in the wrong lane. We go to what we think will bring us around and it ends up putting us back on the turnpike. GREAT!! Here we are with a dummy tire and now we are back on a 65mph road. NOT GOOD! So we finally find a place to get off. Mind you we have to pay another toll as every exit is a toll. So we had to pay to get off the turnpike for the flat then pay to get on it cause were lost then pay to get back off of it cause we need to try and make our way back to the walmart.
Well that was a joke! We are so far out of the way no we have no clue. This one person tells us that a business down the road can do it. So we pull in to this business around 6am. The place doesn't open till 8. We sit for a half hour and realize that this place is a brake place and doesn't do tires. GREAT AGAIN! So we leave and try to find a gas station to ask someone if they know of a walmart or a tire place. Once again no one speaks english! HELLO PEOPLE!!!!! If your going to live in my country then learn to speak MY language!!! UNREAL! So at this point Chris has had enough. Everytime he ask someone the question no one knows anything and he is getting more and more discouraged. So he tells me to do the next place. I get out and sure enough you could tell that they weren't americans. Another set of Lebanese. I tried my best to explain that we needed to find a walmart or a tire place. He just couldn't seem to understand me. I told him that I had a "Little" tire and needed a "big" tire. Hoping that perhaps he might understand that. Well he wanted to see the car so we walked out and he's like "ohhhh you have little tire... need big tire...can't run on little one." I was like DUH!!!!!! LMAO!!! So he had to talk to his boss. His boss came over and more talk started about the little tire. Then his boss said that we could stay there in the parking lot till the garage across the street opened and then he could probably help us over there. These people were nice enough so don't get me wrong on that. But to understand what I was trying to say was just unreal.
So we went over to the garage and decided to wait over there. Well 8am came and nobody showed up. Another 15 minutes went by and still no-one. We couldn't continue to sit there and to tell ya the truth I had to pee!!! VERY badly! So I looked at Chris and said this is stupid. We are losing time here. So we decided to try yet again and headed out and down the road. We came upon another gas station and this one had an actual american working at it! LOL! We asked the guy for a walmart or a tire place and he told us that there was a pep boys up the road about 6 lights up. THANK YOU!!! So we headed up the road and sure enough there it was.

So we take the tire in and tell the guy we need it replaced. He ask us if we want a used tire. We are like NO as we are traveling and have more to do. He says ok and gets the tires measurements and starts to look up the info on the computer. This man cannot tye. He is a one finger on this key then the same finger on another key while he trys to find the next key. I can tell we are going to be here for awhile. So he finally after 5 minutes finds the tires. He tells us that he was a 60,000 mile tire and it cost blah blah blah and with the New Jersey tax that is blah blah blah and to mount and balance that is blah blah blah... he goes on and on. Chris then makes the mistake of asking him what the other tire is... BIG MISTAKE! he has to put the info in all again and that one is an 80,000 mile tire and cost blah blah and with the new jersey tax cost blah blah and with the blah blah blah... OMG!!! So finally after 15 minutes of that we tell him we'll take the 80,000 one. SO then he has to get all our information. Well that takes another 10 minutes. They finally come and get the tire and go to put the new one on. We are thinking Sweet! 5 minute job then balance it and we can be out of here in 10 minutes. WRONG!!! The guy brings it in and pops the old tire off. He comes out and gets the new tire and brings it back in there. Sprays it down and pops it on. He then walks away leaving it. 10 minutes later he finally comes back. Then starts to shoot the shit with one of his co workers. COME ON PEOPLE! Finally 20 minutes has gone by and he takes the tire to spin balance it. Well we go to the checkout to pay and it's the same man who types with one finger. He has to enter all our information again. So we stand there for another 10 minutes waiting to check out. Finally 9:30am we are in the road again. We just start back out on the turnpike and the weather has turned shitty. We are driving into freezing rain. The traffic has slowed right down and it's very slick and scary watching these people pile up on one anothers back bumpers. We stay back somewhat as we don't want to get in the middle of a smash up. We lost some serious time now. So we finally enter into Delaware and are getting out of the freezing rain as it's changing over to normal rain.
So things go pretty good until we get into Virgina. It's still misting somewhat. This car in front of us suddenly decides to spit it's radiator. This sets off a white cloud of steam in front of us kind of like being in a white out. We have to lock the brakes up as there is no visability now. Finally we come out of the white steam cloud. Things start to turn around and go pretty good from there on. Yes, we had the usual back up of traffic cause people get in the left lane and decide to take their time and do at least 10 to 15 mph under the speed limit. Well we finally get into North Carolina around 7:45pm. We are exhausted. We pick up a coupon book at the welcome center and decide to stay at this motel a little distance down the road. Well it's now 8:30 and we can't drive anymore as Chris's back is killing him. So we stop at our motel and check in. We get into our room and it's not bad looking. Upon going into the bathroom well that is another story. Half of the ceiling above the tub is covered in mold. NASTY mold! We are so exhausted at this point having been up for over 36 hours with no sleep that we decide to stay there and just keep the bathroom door shut. Chris and Ashley decide to venture out to get food as there is a burger king down the road. Let me give you all a warning. In the southern states do not expect to go and get your food quickly. NOPE try more like 20 minutes waiting for your order. So needless to say we finally ate then went to bed. We decided to leave around 6am. Upon leaving we noticed that there was no fire hose either in the fire hose case. NO WAY WILL I EVER stay in a hotel again run by these people. Stay away from SUPER 9's.

So we get going on the road and about South Carolina Chris notices what looks like snow on the side of the road. Upon looking at it closer it's chicken feathers. It isn't just a few but like someone filled a pillow up with them and just decided to shake it up and down the side of the road. Upon traveling a few miles it didn't let up at all. That's when we noticed our first dead chicken on the side of the road. This was followed by at least 8 more. We figured someone had a chicken truck and these guys must have gotten out of the cage and sadly flew to their deaths.

We finally arrived in Florida. Hooray was I happy to be back!! Around 5pm we were only a few miles from my brothers house. Talk about changes in the area. Holy cow!! I couldn't believe how much everything had grown up. Now I am not a big fan of change so it was hard for me to see what this new Clermont looked like. I felt lost somewhat.
Needless to say I was happy to see my brothers house. It looked the same as when we left minus a few palm trees.

We ended up going inside and my brother wanted to take us out to eat. I had enough of traveling and wanted to just sit and relax so we settled on Pizza being delivered. The one good thing about where he lives is that just about everything can be delivered to you.

To be continued......