Road Trip

Friday after school Sparky and I left Bloomington to head to Florida. Of course, on Thursday I went to Target and got a new bathing suit and the bottoms didn't fit so I had to exchange the bathing suit bottoms before we left. My dad insisted that I did not have time for that because it was supposed to snow in Kentucky and Tennessee so I needed to leave immediately. I ignored him and exchanged my bathing suit bottoms. It took approximately 2 minutes. Here is my new suit:

In real life you can see more purple and less green. Here you can hardly see any purple. Hmmm....

Anyway, we were finally off on our adventure at about 4:30pm. Here is my chauffeur:

Sparky and I generally really tired after teaching all week. We were a little concerned about how far we would get. Then we hit the "huge snowstorm" my dad warned us about. It really wasn't even worth mentioning. Had we come across it on our own, and we were the only drivers on the road, there wouldn't have been an issue.
However, there are some really horrible drivers out there that apparently don't know how to drive in snow. They were riding each others bumpers and going really slow. We were stuck behind the slow traffic so we were held up a little.

I fell asleep around 11:00 and Sparky kept driving. Around 12:30 or 1:00 Sparky decided we needed to stop for the night. We checked the normal places, Hampton Inn Express, Holiday Inn, etc. but Sparky decided he did not want to spend more than $50 for a hotel. This was a first for me. We stopped at the Super 8 Motel. Wow. He even got a $10 discount for being a member of NEA.

(Sparky says, "stop taking pictures Sarah. You are blinding me.")

It looked okay when we first walked in. Clean carpet, newish looking bedding, new TV. But the bathroom was horrible. The shower curtain was stuck to itself. I should have taken pictures. I slept in my clothing with my blanket wrapped around my head so it didn't have to touch the pillow. I was only okay with this situation because I knew what was waiting for me when we arrived in FL.
We didn't leave the hotel until after 10:30am. This was a new experience for me also. Growing up my parents always left the hotel bright and early in the morning to hit the road. We drove with the lunch traffic instead.

The only thing that happened on our way down was that Reverend Shook, who will be officiating the wedding, called my cell phone. We were someplace in the Appalachian Mountains in Georgia so I lost the call. He called back and I told him we were driving down and the reception wasn't good. He asked if there was another number he could call. Um... no. Any other phone I may have will be in the same cell reception area as the current phone. We are in a car. On our way to Florida. I told him I would call him when we got to our hotel.

We finally arrive at our lovely hotel on Anna Maria Island, Florida. You can see great photos here. I am going to attempt to post my version of these same photos because when I print off my blog I cannot print the photos in the link... here goes nothing.
This is the front entry. Nice.

This is looking toward the room from the front door.

To the right you can see a little bit into the kitchen. Here is what you see when you go into the kitchen.

At the end of the kitchen you can see a closed door. The door goes into the laundry room. Yes, my hotel room has a free laundry room. I love it.

Coming back out from the kitchen looking toward the front door you see this:

If you turn around you come to the dining room. I like the little airplane clock, but I don't think I would put one in my house over the dining room table. The dining room opens into the kitchen via a bar with stools where one could potentially sit and dine.

 

Past the dining room is the living room. The first photo is in the living room looking back toward the dining room, kitchen, and front door.

 

 This is a view of the living room from the bedroom door. You can see Sparky hiding.

 

 This is a view of the living room from the couch. You can see the large door/wall that opens completly into the screened in porch, which also opens completely into the bedroom. 

From here we move into the bedroom.

In the corner you can see into the bathroom. To the right is the double vanity. Beyond the vanity is the closet. On the right side of the closet is space for long hanging, such as my wedding dress. On the left side of the closet there are shelves for my shoes and towels. The door in the back of the closet opens to reveal another closet with double hanging across the entire wall.

Inside the bathroom to the left is the whirlpool tub and the doorway into the water closet where the toilet and amazing shower are located.

 

From this point in our tour we turn around and head back into the bedroom. You can see the huge glass wall that opens to reveal the screened in porch.

 Here is the view onto the screened in porch from laying on the bed.

Here are some alternate views of the porch. You cannot see the water beyond because it was dark when these photos were taken.

We pretty much just got to the hotel and crashed.