Traveling North/Matkaa pohjoiseen

I'd say the Captain is extremely lucky. And blessed. Why?

A) My sister and her family live in Virginia, and he knows how much I miss them. B) My sister had her fourth baby early November I couldn't wait to hold and love on. C) My mom had just flown to my sister's house, and I was looking forward to all the Finnish chocolate seeing my mom.

Because if it wasn't for our Virginia stop, I'm sure I'd still be in Florida, trying to talk our Maine family into joining us for a Florida campground Christmas. After all, last year was magical and amazing. Truly. And Florida was so warm. Next year??? Next door campsites, Grandpa?

Sadly we even had to cut our Fort Desoto stay a night short after having some motorhome repairs (even stayed in a hotel for a night), but after the Mothership was fixed, all our errands taken care of, we started driving north on November 30th. Stayed at a Walmart parking lot somewhere near Jacksonville, then drove the rest of the way to Virginia on Saturday.


We had a wonderful few days at my sister's house, and on Sunday we visited Busch Gardens Christmas Town. We went twice last year (read here), and really enjoyed our visit this year, too. Kids had fun on the rides, and we all enjoyed the beautiful Christmas lights, decorations, and the lovely Christmas music. Christmas Town is not afraid to celebrate our Savior's birth!


When it was time to leave Virginia, we took my mom with us, too! This part of the trip is already starting to be a little fuzzy to me, it was a pretty complicated stretch of traveling. We even started the morning out with a dead battery. Then had a business meeting near Philadelphia to work into our schedule. A full grey/black water tank to empty (emergency!!). Missy came down with a violent migraine during our drive. We were picking up some wood for our Maine house remodeling from Scranton. We finally pulled into our friends' driveway at midnight, and crashed.

The next day wasn't much better. We needed to get organized, packed and the Mothership cleaned up. We were leaving it behind to be stored for winter months. The Captain found some more wood for remodeling purposes, and filled our Suburban to the point of no family fitting in. Hmmmm...
 
It all worked out. On Saturday, December 8th, we left our friends' (thank you so much for your hospitality, M family!!) early in the morning. Picked up antifreeze on our way from Walmart, dropped off our Suburban at the RV storage place, drove to a service plaza to dump all liquids, picked up a rental minivan from the airport, got the Mothership ready for winter, and dropped it off at the storage facility, then drove off. The Captain driving our Suburban, filled with wood, me driving a snazzy nice minivan with the kids watching movies in the back seat, and my mom next to me keeping company.

Saturday night we made it to the Captain's parents' and sister's houses where we crashed for the night (thanks again!!!), and on Sunday we made it back to our Maine house.

Not a trip for the faint of heart.

And yes, I miss Florida.

And yes, the wood looks fantastic here!

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Meillä oli ihan järkyttävän monimutkainen ja pitkä matka takaisin pohjoiseen Floridasta, mutta onneksi kohokohtana oli vierailu siskon luona Virginiassa. Jätimme asuntoauton Pennsylvaniaan talvikuukausiksi (nyyh), aiomme viettää nämä talvikuukaudet Mainen kodissamme. Kotimatkalla piti jopa vuokrata auto, kun Kapteeni toi antiikkipuuta remonttia varten niin ettei autoomme jäänyt tilaa:) Kollaaseissa kuvia matkalta, sekä yksi kollaasi Busch Gardens'in Joulukylästä, jonne menimme siskon perheen ja äidin kanssa.