Saturday, December 5, 2009
9:45 PM
Now that I've recovered from this past weekend, I feel its time to let everyone know how our Thanksgiving went! Welcome to the re-telling of Mister and Missy's Third Annual Thanksgiving Road Trip! Since 2007, Mister and I have made the long trip down to Central Florida to share the Thanksgiving meal with his family in Micanopy (pronounced "mick-a-no-pee " not "My-canopy" as any resident will promptly tell you); this year we extended the trip farther south to my family, too. In short, Mister and I spent more hours together on the road then seeing family members, and slept in five different places in five nights; but lets not get ahead of ourselves! Below is a map of our travels that should be interactive (i.e. its a Google Map that you should be able to zoom in and out of!) so you can see all 1,340 miles in all their glory!
Before Taking Off
Our Wednesday started real early in the morning, when Mister and I packed up the cats for boarding at the vet. I needed Mister's help since we only have two carriers for three cats, which means someone would have to carry over 15 pounds of cat! Why bother boarding the cats you might ask? After all, they are the most independent of domesticated animals; just leave extra food and water, right? WRONG! While other cat owners we know can do that, we learned the hard way, if the box isn't cleaned, the cats won't use it. So, we left them in the care of the wonderful vet. After dropping the babies off, I went to work in the kitchen. Last year, I wowed the Shockey's with my ability to make Challah bread, so I volunteered to bake them again. This year, there was a bigger significance to challah making since we were continuing our trip down to Ft. Lauderdale to have Shabbat dinner with my family and see my Great-Aunt Miriam and Great-Uncle Booney, in town from Israel. I had all ready made two of the four loaves for the trip and had to bang out another two before we left, as well as pack!
From A to B (205 Miles)
Once Mister got home and got the car packed up, we started our trip from home, with ease. Barely any traffic heading down southward, unlike earlier in the day. One of Mister's co-workers said it took over an hour to drive 7 miles that afternoon! The first year we road tripped to Micanopy, Mister and I did the whole 5-6 hour trip in one night! We rolled into town somewhere around midnight and had to inconvenience someone to stay awake to let us into the house. After that trip, we decided the next time we'd start out the night before, stop over somewhere along the way, and continue the trip the next morning. That's where the city of Adel, GA fits in. Adel is right off Interstate 75 exit 39 and has an IHOP, open on Thanksgiving morning! Every time we drive south now, we make sure to pit stop in there.
From B to C (138 Miles)
Mister and I rolled into Micanopy Thursday, just in time to help Aunt Anne with giving the dogs a bath. The first time I went with Mister to his Aunt and Uncle's house, there were two dogs: Hopper, a Jack Russel and Collete, a miniature Poodle that loved belly rubs! If she was in your lap, your hand better be belly rubbing or she'll give you the sad puppy eyes! Last year there was a new addition to the brood, Chloe the chocolate miniature Poodle, who didn't have to walk anywhere. She was so cute and cuddly, everyone wanted to hold her. This year the new addition was Lily, a miniature Australian Shepherd puppy that came from a litter of nine girls and one boy. She had amazing bi-colored eyes that were brown on top and blue on bottom. Her father, who lives with another sister at Joesph's next door, has one brown eye and one blue!
From top left clockwise: Lily, Leah with Chloe, Collete on my lap, and Jessica with Chloe.
Before Taking Off
Our Wednesday started real early in the morning, when Mister and I packed up the cats for boarding at the vet. I needed Mister's help since we only have two carriers for three cats, which means someone would have to carry over 15 pounds of cat! Why bother boarding the cats you might ask? After all, they are the most independent of domesticated animals; just leave extra food and water, right? WRONG! While other cat owners we know can do that, we learned the hard way, if the box isn't cleaned, the cats won't use it. So, we left them in the care of the wonderful vet. After dropping the babies off, I went to work in the kitchen. Last year, I wowed the Shockey's with my ability to make Challah bread, so I volunteered to bake them again. This year, there was a bigger significance to challah making since we were continuing our trip down to Ft. Lauderdale to have Shabbat dinner with my family and see my Great-Aunt Miriam and Great-Uncle Booney, in town from Israel. I had all ready made two of the four loaves for the trip and had to bang out another two before we left, as well as pack!
From A to B (205 Miles)
Once Mister got home and got the car packed up, we started our trip from home, with ease. Barely any traffic heading down southward, unlike earlier in the day. One of Mister's co-workers said it took over an hour to drive 7 miles that afternoon! The first year we road tripped to Micanopy, Mister and I did the whole 5-6 hour trip in one night! We rolled into town somewhere around midnight and had to inconvenience someone to stay awake to let us into the house. After that trip, we decided the next time we'd start out the night before, stop over somewhere along the way, and continue the trip the next morning. That's where the city of Adel, GA fits in. Adel is right off Interstate 75 exit 39 and has an IHOP, open on Thanksgiving morning! Every time we drive south now, we make sure to pit stop in there.
From B to C (138 Miles)
Mister and I rolled into Micanopy Thursday, just in time to help Aunt Anne with giving the dogs a bath. The first time I went with Mister to his Aunt and Uncle's house, there were two dogs: Hopper, a Jack Russel and Collete, a miniature Poodle that loved belly rubs! If she was in your lap, your hand better be belly rubbing or she'll give you the sad puppy eyes! Last year there was a new addition to the brood, Chloe the chocolate miniature Poodle, who didn't have to walk anywhere. She was so cute and cuddly, everyone wanted to hold her. This year the new addition was Lily, a miniature Australian Shepherd puppy that came from a litter of nine girls and one boy. She had amazing bi-colored eyes that were brown on top and blue on bottom. Her father, who lives with another sister at Joesph's next door, has one brown eye and one blue!
From top left clockwise: Lily, Leah with Chloe, Collete on my lap, and Jessica with Chloe.
What I enjoy most about being in Micanopy, is the beauty and history of the area. One of the first towns in Florida, the area has played host to several movies, ("Doc Hollywood" being one) and has a historic city lined with antique shops.
Up and down the street in front of Aunt Anne and Uncle Phil's house.
Up and down the street in front of Aunt Anne and Uncle Phil's house.
From C to D (308 Miles)
After a lovely night with family, great turkey, potatoes, and bread, we stayed just long enough on Friday to see Drew's brother, sister-in-law, and two-year-old niece one last time. "The Blur" thoroughly enjoyed the beanbag in the living room as well as the new puppy, while the adults enjoyed a little conversation. Don't Mister and his brother look alike!?
After a lovely night with family, great turkey, potatoes, and bread, we stayed just long enough on Friday to see Drew's brother, sister-in-law, and two-year-old niece one last time. "The Blur" thoroughly enjoyed the beanbag in the living room as well as the new puppy, while the adults enjoyed a little conversation. Don't Mister and his brother look alike!?
As much as we'd have liked to stay another day, Mister and I needed to hit the road for one of the longer drives of the weekend. On Friday, we arrived at my parents' house just before six, where we saw two really excited puppies! Perfect timing since Shabbat dinner was at my grandparents at 6:30pm. As a kid, I always assumed Thanksgiving was a two night holiday, since schools had two days off and my family always had two dinners. It wasn't until I asked a friend in high school what they were doing for the second night, did I realize the second dinner was always a Shabbat dinner! Anyways, this dinner was special because I had family from all over in town!
My Great-Aunt Miriam and Great-Uncle Booney came to Florida a few weeks earlier and went on a fabulous cruise with my parents and grandparents.
They also brought with them books and other articles about Moshav Benaya's 60th anniversary, full of pictures of my grandmother and her family. Miriam told us that with her grandsons, five generations have lived and grew up on the same Moshav, starting with Booney's grandfather; an amazing fact for someone who lost almost everyone in the Holocaust. When they first arrived at the Moshav in 1949, there was nothing but desert and a row of tiny houses, and there was one cow and one goat for every two families. Now, the Moshav flourishes and the tiny houses have been replaced or used as sheds and barns for families with their own farms and dairy farms. (From left to right: cousins Hannah and Zach, Uncle Gary, and Coby)
The other guests at Chez Gayer were my Uncle Ted, Aunt Rachel, Zach and Coby. Zach is 6 and one-quarter, no more and no less and his brother is three, and a real big klutz too! As it turns out, the ER is open on Thanksgiving; Coby decided to accidentally bang his head, real hard on my grandmother's bed frame, twice! The first time required three staples and the second left a small gash above his eye. When Mister and I came into my grandparents' house, all the tables had towels rubber-banded around their corners. Needless to say, everyone was watching him like a hawk! (Picture of my Dad and Coby)
My Great-Aunt Miriam and Great-Uncle Booney came to Florida a few weeks earlier and went on a fabulous cruise with my parents and grandparents.
They also brought with them books and other articles about Moshav Benaya's 60th anniversary, full of pictures of my grandmother and her family. Miriam told us that with her grandsons, five generations have lived and grew up on the same Moshav, starting with Booney's grandfather; an amazing fact for someone who lost almost everyone in the Holocaust. When they first arrived at the Moshav in 1949, there was nothing but desert and a row of tiny houses, and there was one cow and one goat for every two families. Now, the Moshav flourishes and the tiny houses have been replaced or used as sheds and barns for families with their own farms and dairy farms. (From left to right: cousins Hannah and Zach, Uncle Gary, and Coby)
The other guests at Chez Gayer were my Uncle Ted, Aunt Rachel, Zach and Coby. Zach is 6 and one-quarter, no more and no less and his brother is three, and a real big klutz too! As it turns out, the ER is open on Thanksgiving; Coby decided to accidentally bang his head, real hard on my grandmother's bed frame, twice! The first time required three staples and the second left a small gash above his eye. When Mister and I came into my grandparents' house, all the tables had towels rubber-banded around their corners. Needless to say, everyone was watching him like a hawk! (Picture of my Dad and Coby)
From left to right: My brother Eric, Cousin Steve, Great-Uncle Booney, Great-Aunt Miriam, Bubby, Zayde, cousin Sarah
From D to E (275 Miles)
Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day in South Florida! The weather was cool in the shade and warm with a breeze in the sun. At Bubby and Zayde's house, Coby was having fun playing in the dirt while Mister was having fun with his camera. In my grandmother's back yard, along the backside of the lake, there use to be really tall pine trees where these really strange birds used to come and sun themselves in the branches. Unfortunately, the last couple of hurricane seasons have taken their toll on the trees, but "Bubby's Birds" still come for the sun!
No visit home is complete without a visit to Tate's Comics. I started going there, with my father, in 1993 when the store was no bigger then a walk-in closet (OK, it wasn't that small, just 1,000 sq. ft); now the franchise takes up an entire section of a shopping center, including a gaming satellite and a lofted art gallery, over 4,000 sq. ft! After that guilty indulgence, it was time to get on the road again this time heading for Flagler Beach! Mister and I figured it was a nice halfway point.
While on the road, we talked about how nice it was to see everyone, and how cute the all children were. For Friday night dinner, my mother had made some wonderful mushrooms that turned out to be really spicy! I was worried because Zach had a huge heaping pile of them on his plate. My mother came over and said "So Zachy, do you like the mushrooms?!" In between the gasps for air, he responds "Yeah, they are really really good... I like really spicy foods!" Then on Saturday, during pizza lunch, Rachel was cutting up a slice for a very hungry Cobester, who informed his mother "You didn't make the pizza Mama, you are just getting it ready!" I love it! We breezed into Flagler just in time to have dinner at High Jackers, a nice little restaurant next to the airport.
From E to Home, with an important pit-stop at F (422 Miles... the home stretch)
Our last leg of the trip started with an early wake up, so Mister and I could enjoy the fishermen on Flagler Pier before hitting the road to hopefully get back in time to pick up the kitties. On the way to the pier, I caught something out of the corner of my eye, jumping in the ocean. Two beautiful dolphins were jumping around enjoying the morning surf! The pictures that Mister took look like Nessy, so I'm putting up the video instead.
I said to Mister, "Quick! Let's jump back in the car and head them off at the peir!" We high tailed it over just in time for the most amazing fishing smorgasbord I've ever seen! A school of Jacks were hunting a large school of Blues, it was AMAZING; and Mister caught it all on camera!
From D to E (275 Miles)
Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day in South Florida! The weather was cool in the shade and warm with a breeze in the sun. At Bubby and Zayde's house, Coby was having fun playing in the dirt while Mister was having fun with his camera. In my grandmother's back yard, along the backside of the lake, there use to be really tall pine trees where these really strange birds used to come and sun themselves in the branches. Unfortunately, the last couple of hurricane seasons have taken their toll on the trees, but "Bubby's Birds" still come for the sun!
No visit home is complete without a visit to Tate's Comics. I started going there, with my father, in 1993 when the store was no bigger then a walk-in closet (OK, it wasn't that small, just 1,000 sq. ft); now the franchise takes up an entire section of a shopping center, including a gaming satellite and a lofted art gallery, over 4,000 sq. ft! After that guilty indulgence, it was time to get on the road again this time heading for Flagler Beach! Mister and I figured it was a nice halfway point.
While on the road, we talked about how nice it was to see everyone, and how cute the all children were. For Friday night dinner, my mother had made some wonderful mushrooms that turned out to be really spicy! I was worried because Zach had a huge heaping pile of them on his plate. My mother came over and said "So Zachy, do you like the mushrooms?!" In between the gasps for air, he responds "Yeah, they are really really good... I like really spicy foods!" Then on Saturday, during pizza lunch, Rachel was cutting up a slice for a very hungry Cobester, who informed his mother "You didn't make the pizza Mama, you are just getting it ready!" I love it! We breezed into Flagler just in time to have dinner at High Jackers, a nice little restaurant next to the airport.
From E to Home, with an important pit-stop at F (422 Miles... the home stretch)
Our last leg of the trip started with an early wake up, so Mister and I could enjoy the fishermen on Flagler Pier before hitting the road to hopefully get back in time to pick up the kitties. On the way to the pier, I caught something out of the corner of my eye, jumping in the ocean. Two beautiful dolphins were jumping around enjoying the morning surf! The pictures that Mister took look like Nessy, so I'm putting up the video instead.
I said to Mister, "Quick! Let's jump back in the car and head them off at the peir!" We high tailed it over just in time for the most amazing fishing smorgasbord I've ever seen! A school of Jacks were hunting a large school of Blues, it was AMAZING; and Mister caught it all on camera!
It was kinda hard to get back in the car after that amazing show! I almost wanted to blow off the world and stay in Flagler for the rest of the week! Unfortunately, we couldn't afford to do that and it was on the road again, for the final time. Unlike heading south, once we crossed the Florida/Georgia border we hit traffic. Right after the Adel exit was a wonderful flashing sign that said "Next 8 miles, Trip time 1 hour;" so we looked at Google Maps on Mister's phone and found a side road that ran parallel to I-75. The detour was a nice break from highways and big cities, and showed us a little bit of rural America. There were acres and acres of cotton fields, ripe for the picking! Even the old men sitting in rocking chairs out front of their stores watching the traffic go by. While the detour worked for those traffic jammed eight miles on I-75, that wasn't the only slow down we had, and there were no enjoyable detours.
After traveling though traffic and about 279 miles into our trip home, Mister needed to stop for a stretch. We decided to pit stop one exit past Cordele, going North on I-75. As we were making the turn onto the service bridge to go over the highway, a little white and black patch-colored kitten that couldn’t have been more than three months old popped out from the drain on the right side of the street! Both Mister and I saw it and slammed the brakes (thank God no one was behind us!) and rushed out to find it; Mister got down on his hands and knees and found that there were at least two kittens in there. Since we couldn’t leave the car in the middle of the two lane bridge, we got back in and parked at the closest gas station. After learning from the attendant the closest vet was 9 miles away, through stand-still traffic, in the opposite direction, we came to the conclusion we’d have to take them ourselves to Perry, GA and hope there was an open vet to take these kittens. We crossed the two lanes of the service road, crossed in front of the daunting semi-truck, fresh off the highway, and made our way to the drain. As Mister was searching for these poor kittens, I was the one making sure people knew he was there; not a single one stopped to roll the window down and ask what we were doing. I could even read some of their expressions as these people were thinking, “What are these two crazy people doing on the side of the road?” Mister looked up at me and shook his head. If they were there, they were certainly gone now. Mister even climbed down the embankment to see if maybe they came out the drain at the other end. Wherever those kittens wound up, I hope they are safe and together. I hope that someone just as caring and courteous as us finds them and has the heart to keep them or bring them to someplace that would find them homes. We then spent forty-five minutes going back and forth over what we did wrong, what we did right, what we could have done better, or what would have happened to them if we just left them well enough alone. Finally, 10 hours after leaving Flagler Beach, we dragged everything out of the car and into the house and passed out!
I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving weekends as much as we did, despite the long hours on the road!
After traveling though traffic and about 279 miles into our trip home, Mister needed to stop for a stretch. We decided to pit stop one exit past Cordele, going North on I-75. As we were making the turn onto the service bridge to go over the highway, a little white and black patch-colored kitten that couldn’t have been more than three months old popped out from the drain on the right side of the street! Both Mister and I saw it and slammed the brakes (thank God no one was behind us!) and rushed out to find it; Mister got down on his hands and knees and found that there were at least two kittens in there. Since we couldn’t leave the car in the middle of the two lane bridge, we got back in and parked at the closest gas station. After learning from the attendant the closest vet was 9 miles away, through stand-still traffic, in the opposite direction, we came to the conclusion we’d have to take them ourselves to Perry, GA and hope there was an open vet to take these kittens. We crossed the two lanes of the service road, crossed in front of the daunting semi-truck, fresh off the highway, and made our way to the drain. As Mister was searching for these poor kittens, I was the one making sure people knew he was there; not a single one stopped to roll the window down and ask what we were doing. I could even read some of their expressions as these people were thinking, “What are these two crazy people doing on the side of the road?” Mister looked up at me and shook his head. If they were there, they were certainly gone now. Mister even climbed down the embankment to see if maybe they came out the drain at the other end. Wherever those kittens wound up, I hope they are safe and together. I hope that someone just as caring and courteous as us finds them and has the heart to keep them or bring them to someplace that would find them homes. We then spent forty-five minutes going back and forth over what we did wrong, what we did right, what we could have done better, or what would have happened to them if we just left them well enough alone. Finally, 10 hours after leaving Flagler Beach, we dragged everything out of the car and into the house and passed out!
I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving weekends as much as we did, despite the long hours on the road!
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