Family Vacation 2011 – Day 1

We joined the masses of Americans getting up in the early hours of Black Friday as we hit the road for our family vacation to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  Even Andrew was wide awake at 2:30am as we loaded the last items into the car (including not ONE hunting bow, but TWO!) and set out. Julie had gone to bed early the night before in order to take the first leg of the trip while I set out on 2 missions which would ultimately fail: a charger for the pump to an air mattress which ended being the wrong kind and nearly catching fire and a trip to Walmart which would NOT open at 10pm as advertised; By 10:15 I got the drift and went home for a nap.

The way was sure (with some help from Toby Levesque) and the gas tank was full.  First stop: Lynchburg, Virginia!

The first 14 hours were pretty uneventful, and we made it to the Murphy’s home just in time to eat dinner together and greet Kyle (the “daughter-stealer” as Toby likes to call him) and Jeremy as they returned, dejected from a full day of deer-hunting in which no deer received the memo.

While still early in our adventure, our primary reason for traveling South in the first place was everything I could have wanted. The kids played with Sparrow while Julie and I sat with Care, Kyle and Jeremy just to talk, laugh,to share an evening and a pot of coffee (and apple pie!) together. After the usual negotiations to determine sleeping arrangements, we turned in for the night, only marginally aware that it was only 8:30pm.