Lifestyle of Wandering: Reflections of a Wanderer

Well, it’s Day 2 of our trip. We got as far as the Florida State Line EARLY this morning and then had to stop for a few hours for a nap in one of the the always safe Florida Rest Areas. I awoke to the gentle (Haa!) snoring of my eldest child. The sun had just risen, and it was a beautiful sunny morning. We’ve made great time despite leaving home so late. We had a yummy breakfast of Krystals and are getting ready to get back on the road.

Kickin’ back, chillin’ in the van. It’s noon right now and really hot.(Yeah, I know I just said I was chillin’. That was figuratively.) Remember that old saying that starts out, “The best laid plans of mice and men…”? Things were going REAL good, TOO GOOD, up until aout an hour ago. We were driving along the dirt “road” that is called NFR 51 (you’ll have to check out the pictures!) dodging tree limbs, tree trunks, fallen trees, biting deer flies, and so forth. You know..the usual Bird Outing type of things. We came out of the woods and into the sandy part of the road through Hopkins Prairie. Just as we hit a really soft, sandy spot in the road, Troy thought to ask me if I remembered how to drive in the sand…wish he’d asked me that a couple minutes earlier–before I buried the rear tires in the sand! Oh, did I mention that there’s no cellphone or Wireless signal out here? Yeah…and no people either. For a long way away! So what do you do in the middle of nowhere when your van is stuck in the sand? Throw up a tarp for shade, let the kids play with their bucket and shovel in the sand…(Maybe they can dig us out?) and do some writing for the blog. Sure, I can’t upload it right now, but it’s a great time to put my thoughts down while they’re still fresh! Aside from that, our trips are always an adventure, so there’s no telling what might happen next! I wouldn’t want to get behind in writing!

The guys have set out to try to find help. We’re hoping that there is someone at the campground (a very PRIMITIVE campground) that might be able to pull us out. Until then…we just wait! It’s actually comical…and we’ve had vehicles stuck in much worse places in the past! Hope you enjoy the pics when we finally get back to civilization to upload! Things could be a whole lot worse. :0)

Addendum: Well, we’re sitting at a campground right now. The boys’ entries will fill you in on the rest of the story from earlier.