Whirlwind – St Augustine, Florida to Columbus, Ohio, April 9, 2022

Three Daughter’s, two sisters, and a set of parents in a pear tree later, we drove 3,000+ miles this week as we made our rounds to visit.  It was nice and we were both ready to see everyone and take a week off from the boat after our hellish crossing.  So off we went to Clearwater, Florida to see Daughter #3.  We had a nice dinner with her and met the boyfriend.  He was very nice and we were happy we liked him, Hubby forgot his gun after all.  It’s always a hard thing for a dad.  Sadly, it was spring break week and every hotel was $400+ per night so we started driving until we came to at least the first stop which was reasonable…two hours later.

We had decided to stop for a day to see my parents at Jekyll Island, GA which was only a 5 hour trip but after our two hours of driving, decided to stop and get some shut eye.  We had a great visit and we were glad we didn’t have to make a full day run from Clearwater to Columbus as that drive was more than we wanted in one day.  After a day’s visit we started out again.

The next morning, we made the long stretch to Columbus, OH and after a quick stop to see my sister, crashed in a hotel nearby.  We had a busy day planned to start at the BMV.  Ah, the smell of bureaucracy with a large cup of coffee.  Sailing (or is it now Driving?) Hubby waited the hour required to replace his license and I walked over to the nearby pharmacy where I had a prescription refilled to see if I can get it transferred to Florida.  We were both successful and had checked off items 1 & 2. 

Now onto see daughter #4 for lunch.  She is doing great at school, and we miss the girls terribly.  That night we had planned dinner with my sister.  I swear we did nothing this week but drive and eat.  But all was fun and hitting our favorite Mexican place didn’t hurt either! 

Ohio wasn’t finished yet, so we drove to Cleveland to see Daughter #2.  It was also my birthday, so it was nice to celebrate with her.  Her apartment looked great and the adulting process seems to be really taking hold!  The funny part of that trip was our lunch.  It was on the brink of rain and the place we walked to was closed so we ducked into the closest next option which was a Lebanese place.  Yeah, my meat-eating husband was less than happy (lamb is not his thing).  I was the only one happy there with my falafel and hummus, but we got a good laugh anyway.  That evening after dinner, we drove south outside of the city to avoid rush hour the following morning.  

The next day we drove to West Virginia to see Ron’s sister.  Bonus we got to stay in her camper next to her house.  Sadly, we woke up to a very chilly 27 degrees and even had to scrape the windshield.  I am glad we avoided the worst of this winter thing, and it is the closest I hope we get to snow this year.  We enjoyed our time visiting and we headed back to Jekyll.

The traffic could not have been worse getting to Mom & Dad’s.  What should have been an 8-hour drive was a 14-hour drive.  Spring break travelers were everywhere!!  We finally arrived and spent the weekend at Mom and Dad’s, resting and psyching ourselves up for the next several weeks of non-stop boat work.  They say the best two days to own a boat are the day you buy and the day you sell.  I guess we will see.  

We checked into our Airbnb that Ron had found through a cruiser’s forum, and we were pleasantly surprised at how great it was.  Two-bedroom, nice kitchen, washer/dryer, and 2.5 bath!  It was clean and the people seemed great.  They were spending 2 months in Europe, and I am glad they decided to rent out their space to us.  Nothing left now but to hit the hay and go to see our beauty tomorrow.