Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Mom woke me up at two ‘til 4:00 a.m. She said Dad’s alarm clock had gone off and she was afraid I’d missed the meeting time for the team at the church. When more awake I came to understand that Dad usually sets his alarm for 5:30 but he set it for 4:00 so he and Mom could tell me good-bye before I left! My family was so good to me. Monica had stayed for dinner the night before, and Robert had called to wish me well and let me know he was praying. I gave Mom and Dad hugs and headed for the church. I arrived at o’dark-thirty (4:40) to find Hilary and her family, and Dorene already there. Stan Inman, Ross Hall and David DeMasters were also there because they had come to see us off. Pam Holdeman came with Marty as well. Hannah and Bethany arrived with their dad and Josiah who would be our chauffeurs to the airport. After a prayer we left at 5:00. On the drive to the airport a few people slept, but I couldn’t. Someone asked me if I was excited. I think I was, but I wasn’t feeling it like I normally do. Mostly I felt ready and like I was beginning a journey and was just waiting for what would come. In a way I was, and not just physically. When we arrived at KCI we had a long wait so we got Starbucks for breakfast. And as a side note I got a Café Latte, but wasn’t big on it. When we checked our carry-on luggage Marty got stopped. His suntan lotion got taken away- not sure what he was trying to bring in =) The first flight was a thrill for me because I haven’t flown in about ten years. It was so cool to watch the take-off and watch the land go by underneath us. We flew over Springfield, just cool for me since Robert lives there. Hilary, Logan and Hannah all slept at points, and the ‘grown up’ folks read most of the flight. It was kinda fun ‘cause the airplane had Owl CityAtlanta we ate lunch at the airport and went to wait at the terminal for our next flight. We’d been sitting there for awhile when Marty left and then came over to tell us that our flight had changed terminals. The girls got over to the new terminal just in time to discover that our names were being called and they were about to cancel our seats on the plane! Marty went to fetch Logan, who’d gone to the restroom, and we couldn’t see them anywhere. It was quite stressful for a bit, but they did make it in time. And then we sat in the plane at the terminal for fifteen minutes…what a case of ‘hurry-up-and-wait’. Upon arriving in Florida and getting our baggage we took the shuttle to get our rental cars. There was a corvette in the lot…wish it had been for us =( Since we had flown into West Palm Beach we had to drive to Fort Pierce where our hotel was for the night. We went to Golden Corral for dinner. I tell you it cost so much that most of us ate too much food just so we could feel like we got our money’s worth. Now on the way to Ft. Pierce we decided to name Marty’s Garmin. Hannah said it should be Darla, which later switched to Delilah. But Logan decided Kamdoneesha would be good (the child character in a friend’s short story!)…Marty proceeded to refer to it as Veneesha. So Kamdoneesha took us to the airport in Ft. Pierce (MFI) after dinner, because we wanted to make the drive before doing it in the dark the next morning. For there we decided to wander around and see if we could get to the beach, which was really close. We went through some lovely land, found a public beach access…and no parking. =( We did drive over to a little island playing during boarding and departing. During our layover in before heading back to the hotel though. I think the thing I found the most strange about Florida was the palm trees mixed in with others. They grew like any old, ordinary tree, which they are down there, but not in Missouri! So that was my first hot and humid taste of Florida. At the hotel there were the five girls in one room and the two guys in the other. We managed fine, but we might do better if our next team is more evenly balanced =P We went to bed after watching some America’s Got Talent while people rotated through the shower. It was about 10:30.