Early Departure for Home!

   I guess you all thought we fell off the face of the earth.  Well, our plans changed rather quickly and we have been rather busy ever since we got home!!  Here's what happened...
   Because of the call from Heather late Thursday night, March 24th that her contractions felt "different" we talked about what our options were for getting home quickly if Heather's situation suddenly changed.  There really was only one, and that was for me to fly home.  John checked some flights out of Sarasota, Jacksonville and Tampa to Harrisburg and they were all close to $400 and would take 3-4 hours.  And John would have to drive Harvey home by himself.  John was OK with all of it, but I didn't like the price of the flights or the thought of John driving back from Florida alone.  So, we decided to just pack up and leave Fri, March 25th.  We had everything ready to go by about 12:30.  We hooked up the Jeep on our site and pulled out.  John put air in the tires of the Jeep and Harvey and we were on the road by 1:15!  We were traveling about 45 minutes just past Exit 10 by Lazy Days when it started to drizzle.  Heather called with the report from her Dr. appt.  She was 4 cm dilated and 70% effaced!!  My first thought was that we might not make it home on time.  But after checking out some posts on line regarding being "effaced", I found out that lots of women are 4 cm dilated and 80% effaced and don't have the baby for another 2 weeks.  I felt relieved, but still glad we had decided to go home!!  It just wasn't worth the stress of waiting for that call and rushing home!  Heather was relieved also and thankful that we were on our way.  The sky ahead started to look awful...we could see a nasty front rolling in real fast.

Here it comes!

 

John is "pursed" and ready for the storm!

 

It just keeps getting worse and worse...

 

...darker and darker.

 

We are driving right into it!

  It wasn't long before it started pouring and blowing.  We were just outside of Orlando when it started and it took us an hour to get to the other side of the city on Rte 4!!

It's here...with a vengeance!

  I was able to talk with Michele, TW and Sue Shaub during that time.  It never stopped raining until about 5:00.  We stopped at a Flying J off Exit 305 for gas and to get a sub at Subway to share for supper.   We also got 2 Crispy Crème donuts for the morning.

Look what came with us from Palmetto, FL!!

Sorry this is so blurry.  I took it with my left hand.
Just after I took this picture the froggie jumped
on my shoulder and crawled down my back.  I wasn't
sure where it went after that!!

  We were back on the road at 6:30.  We hit a traffic back-up from 7:15 to 7:45 just outside of Jacksonville because of an accident.  We crossed into Georgia at 8:15.  I called Joyce from church in response to an email I had gotten from her a few days ago.  We talked for almost an hour!!   At 10:00 we crossed into South Carolina.  We originally were going to stop for the night about 30 miles into SC, but John was feeling pretty good so he decided to push on.  He figured the farther we went tonight the less time it would take to get home tomorrow!  We finally got off the highway at Exit 164 in Florence at 12:15.  We got gas at a TA and then drove just down the road to a Cracker Barrel to spend the night in their parking lot.  It was a long day on the road!!!  John did a great job!  Neither one of us slept very well, so it was a pretty short night. 

We got up at 6:15, had a good breakfast at Cracker Barrel and hit the road at 7:30.  Bonnie called to see how far we had gotten.  By 8:00 we were crossing into North Carolina.  At 10:30 we crossed into Virginia.  We stopped at a Pilot off Exit 58 at 11:30 to potty, get gas and have lunch, but we there was no place to park an RV that was towing a vehicle...no pull-thrus :(.  So back on the road at 12:00 and off at Exit 104 at 12:45 for Mickey D's.  Haven't eaten there for a long time!

Yea...Richmond...We're getting closer and closer to home!

   At 1:20 we were back on I-95 nearing Washington DC.  It took us 2 hrs to go from exit 104 to 170...UGH!!!  We considered taking a different route thru DC, but it was 60 miles longer and John just couldn't face an extra 60 miles!  We finally crossed into Maryland at 3:30 and were on the home stretch, I-83 at 4:45.  We crossed into PA at 5:05, got on Rte 30 at 5:30 and were home at 6:00. WHEW, what a day!

Hooray...Home Sweet Home!!!!

  We pulled up across the street from the house, unloaded the fridge and all the perishables, put in a load of wash,  and decided the rest could wait until tomorrow.  John parked Harvey in the overflow parking lot at the end of our road.  We were both hungry, so at 8:00 we decided to go to one of our favorite restaurants in the area...Sal's Pizza in Etown.  Needless to say, I DROVE!!  John went back up to Harvey when we got home to wipe out the water in the fridge from defrosting it.  I continued putting some things away.  We went to bed when he got back.  It felt so good to sleep in our king sized bed. (we have a queen in Harvey). 

We didn't even get up for Church on Easter morning...we were just too drained.  We got busy unloading Harvey, putting things away, and doing more laundry.  We were pretty much done by 2:00 (except for the laundry).  My hips and foot may never be the same :(  I called Mom to let her know we had gotten home safely.  Alexandra came over as soon as she heard we were home.  She visited for a while and then went home to shower and change clothes and then joined us again for supper.  Heather and Cooper came over, too, after visiting with Mom and Dad at Masonic.  Our Easter supper was take out Chinese from Jade Garden.  It was delicious!  We all played a short game of Up and Down the River which John won handily.  Everyone left about 10:00.  John went to bed, but I stayed up to finish some laundry and go thru mail.  I finally turned in about 12:30.

Monday morning I went grocery shopping.  John, bless his heart, did most of the cleaning while I was gone.  Things sure do get dusty in 3 months!!  While going thru last weeks Merchandiser I saw that the Donegal HS FBLA group was having a craft show at the HS this Saturday.  I sent an email to ask if there was still room, and there was.  I called Bonnie to see if she wanted to participate also, but it didn't work for her.  But after thinking about the situation with Heather, I could just imagine setting up Friday night and then getting "the call" and not being able to go Saturday.  Besides, we have to take Harvey to Camping world in Hanover Friday or Saturday to have some work done.  So. I decided not to do the show.  TW came over at 6:30 with the mail and to have supper with us.  Arlena and Bennett are in Wisconsin with her parents until Saturday.  I watched The Voice and we both went to bed fairly early.

Tuesday I went out to visit with Mom and Dad in the morning while John finished up some things in Harvey.  Then I went to York to take Heather to her "high risk" Dr appt.  No exam, just stress test US and heart monitoring.  Everything looks great!  John got a haircut and took the Jeep for a tire rotation.  I brought Cooper home to spend the night with us, so Heather could get some rest and some work done.  John went to Costco and then to the Rockvale Outlet Mall to get some new sneakers at the New Balance Outlet store.  We had supper, I watched The Voice and played "cars and trucks" with Cooper while John watched a Phillies spring training game.  Cooper was in bed by 9:30 and John and I went in shortly after. 

It's now Wed, March 30.  I'm pretty sure you don't need our play by play mundane daily activities now that we're home.  thanks to all of you who followed our blog while we were gone.  There's no baby yet, but I will make the announcement and post some pictures on here.  So you can check every now and then the next 2 wks.  Bye for now.