The Departure

Well, folks, we made it to Orlando. My mom, dad, and I made it to Orlando, a 22 hour, 1200 mile drive.... and did I mention we drove my itty bitty Fiat 500? Yeah, we drove that. And actually it was quite a pleasant jaunt. We jammed out to Disney tunes the entire way (thanks for bearing that, guys). I mean, it just helped me get in the mood, you know?

Around 10:00 at night on the 31st, I took over the steering wheel for Dad. We were nearing Birmingham, Alabama at that point. Mom and I were chatting away while Dad tried to sleep in the back. To tell you the truth, you have to be some sort of a contortionist to sleep in the back; I slept with my feet above my head.. literally. Anyways, Mom and I were singing to "Spoonful of Sugar" when I noticed the gasoline was pretty low. Like we-had-46-miles-left-and-we-were-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-low. Ever been there? Yeah. So I casually mentioned it to Mom. And... well needless to say she immediately woke Dad. He was clueless as to where we were, and soon we were all politely panicking. (We had made a solemn vow to be nice to each other before we started the journey) 

I took the next exit available, and headed down the creepiest back road I have ever seen in my life. Not to mention the fact that Mom and I have been binging on horror movies lately; don't ask me why because I have no answer. So my instincts were on fire, screaming "RUN YOU FOOLS THIS IS WHERE MURDERS HAPPEN". But we continued to drive. Then we came upon a forest fire. Let me repeat, a forest fire. But wait.. the fire happened to be in a perfect circle. And not too far from the circle fire was a dead deer. Now I'm not sayin' anything... but I'm pretty darn sure we drove past some sort of Satanic ritual. Not that the horror movies were clouding my judgement or anything. We kept driving anyways. 

We drove until we came upon this rinky dink gas station with semi trucks parked all around it , along with a few abandoned cars. Just your typical Alabama gas station... My knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel so tightly. 

We high-tailed it out of there quicker than your typical blonde in a horror film dies. We drove past the Satanic, circle fire, past the dead deer (the sacrifice in my opinion, but what do I know?), shot back on the high way with 34 miles left until we were stranded on the road. Fun! 

To wrap this up, we found a well- lit gas station and filled up. Then we drove to Birmingham, Alabama and crashed at a disgusting, $70 per night room. The mattresses had no mattress pads. But we were so exhausted we didn't care. But I was elated because, hey! We survived a horror film! That's one for the books! 

So now we are in Orlanda, staying at a beautiful, not $70 per night hotel with sleep number beds. So stinkin' awesome. 

Nighty night, all! I'll keep y'all posted!