US Vacation: The Itinerary

On June 25, which also happens to be Brandon's birthday, we packed our bags, loaded into the car and drove to Ramstein Air Base (136 mi).  We were unable to get a flight that day, so we stayed the night and caught a flight to Charleston South Carolina on Saturday (about 4433 mi, as the crow flies).  We flew in a C-17 cargo plane, which looked like this:

photo found here

We landed in Charleston just after midnight (EST) on the 27th.  Bran's dad managed to get a room for us at the Aloft Charleston,  and we called a cab to take us there.  We waited more than three hours for him to get there, so it was around 4:00 by the time that we checked in to the hotel and fell into bed.  We were up and out by 10:00, and headed to Charleston International to try to get a flight down to Orlando.  They were ridiculously expensive, though, so instead we headed over to Enterprise and rented a car.  For less money that we would have spent on 2 one way plane tickets, we rented a new Dodge Charger that we could drive around as much as we wanted for the next 15 days, with no mileage limit.

photo from here

It was a nice car, and so much roomier than ours BMW.  It was much better for all the traveling we did.  So anyway, we were on the road by 11 or so, and made it from Charleston to Titusville in about 7 hours, including an hour or so for lunch (373 mi).  On Monday the 28th, we went to see my Dad and grandmother in Orlando (77 miles round trip).  We goofed off in and around Titusville for the next day or so, and then drove up to Tallahassee on the 30th to spend the night with James and Carrie, Brandon's brother and sister-in-law, respectively (295 mi).  We continued to Alabama the next day, following behind James and Carrie, convoy style (363 mi).

Elora at the Lucky B Farm

We got there late in the day on July 1st.  Mommom's party on the evening of July 4 was the focus of the trip.  We spent the first few days getting ready for it, and the last few days cleaning up and recovering after it. When it was all over, we got back in the car and drove back to James & Carrie's on the 7th (another 363 mi), and back to Florida on the 8th.  Instead of going straight back to Titusville, though, we went to my dad's on Orlando to see him for his birthday (311 mi) and then on to Titusville from there (38 mi).

We spent another few days in Titusville, during which time I got to see my newborn "neice", Cecelia, and I got to spend some more time with my side of the family.  We drove back to Charleston Monday July 8th, and stayed another night at the Aloft.  When we went to the air terminal the next morning, we learned that it was highly unlikely that we could get back to Germany from there, so we took a flight up to Dover DE (505 mi), where we hoped to have more luck.  Thankfully, we did.  We stayed a single night in Dover, and got on a flight to Spangdahlem on the 14th (3905 mi).  We then took a shuttle from the base at Spangdahlem to Ramstein (85 mi), picked up our car, and drove home (136 mi).  We got there around 6 on the 15th.

So, all totaled, we traveled 8,843 miles in the air and 2,177 miles in the car, not counting the in-town running we did between destinations.  Ho-ly-cow, I'm exhausted.

By the by, today is our 5th anniversary.  All we did to celebrate was to sleep in, and go to the commissary to restock our bare fridge and pantry.  It felt sooo good to just take it easy.  Happy anniversary, baby!  I love you more now that I did 5 years ago.  We'll have to celebrate it another day--Sunday maybe?  Or next weekend when we are both well rested?  Here's to 50, my love.