The adventure began with an early departure to avoid weather that was going to hinder our original departure plans. A "quick" jaunt down 95 got us just north of Richmond and a good head start on our journey to Florida. We stopped at a cute little campground off 95 that we've driven by many times before but never had reason to stop as it was just a little too close to home to make sense. Adam loved the park and Harper loved getting to really explore the camper for the first time as a "mobile" baby.
The next day it was up with the sun so we could get moving towards our next destination, one of our favorite "off the highway" campgrounds, Raleigh Oaks in North Carolina. We were excited to get there so we could hit the pool and because of our early departure we were only looking at about a 4 hour drive....or so we thought. As luck would have it, about 20 miles from our exit Andy watched in the side view mirror as our back right camper tire flew off...ummm...ok. So it was on to the side of the road for a good 5 hours as we waited first for a flatbed tow truck to get us and then once our roadside assistance folks realized that was hard to find it was on to plan B which was a roadside repair by two local yocals (sp?). Needless to say it was a pretty tense time as trucks and cars flew past us non-stop and before we knew if we'd be able to get it repaired (did I mention when the tire flew off it stripped the lugg nuts out making it so we couldn't simply just put the spare on?) we had to have the chat with Adam that our Disney trip was in jeopardy - yeah, that was a fun conversation. In the end it all worked out and Andy and one of the repair guys were even able to find our tire - in perfect condition - after walking up and down the side of the highway in search of it saving us money, of course, and lost travel time the next day buying a new tire - so there's the silver lining you like to find in a situation like that. Alas, after our 4 hour drive turned into an almost 10 hour journey we finally made it to Raleigh Oaks - Adam immediately made a friend, Harper got some much needed play time, and Andy and I got some much needed adult beverages and our journey was back on track.
The drive from Savannah to Orlando was about 6 hours (towing the camper means max speeds of about 60 mph - not to mention plenty of stops to feed the kiddos, change diapers, gas fill-ups, etc. etc.) Once we hit downtown Orlando I turned on the Disney channel on Pandora and the whole family started to get excited - yes, even Andy had a "goofy" grin on his face - maybe that was just him looking forward to the driving being over. Before we knew it we were pulling into Walt Disney World and to the Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground.
Let the magical vacation begin!
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