Day 3 - 2010 Christmas Escape

Little Talbot Island, Florida.

I didn’t have school today! And I won’t have school tomorrow either! I think it’s about time I catch up with my reporting and post this here Day 3 of our Christmas adventure. We are in Little Talbot Island, Florida. The part of getting to Florida was achieved as quickly as desired!!!

Here back home in Chapel Hill the world outside today has been quite crazy. 2,000 flights cancelled in Atlanta last night, RDU completely closed this morning. All because of snow and ice that has shut down the entire triangle school system. I’m being told that it all goes back to a very bad experience for teachers and parents about 6 years ago (2003?) when thousands of kids got stranded at their schools as panicked parents tried to get to the schools and pick them up because of early closings. This resulted in total Mayhem as the entire area had turned into an ice rink because of freezing rain.

What I struggle to understand though, is why Daddy is the only one that went to work this morning, and all the other kids had their Dads at home today? Was it the 19 operators that were at the plant working the 12-hour night shift that needed to go home, or was it the 28 employees that showed up this morning and kept the plant going? Maybe it was the visitor from Germany that also showed up at 8:00 in the morning? This guy brought us some German coffee for my favorite German pediatrician and some Haferflocken for Lya. Mmmm, I think I’ll go with that. That’s a long way for such a delivery. He probably would have been disappointed if he had shown up to a shut down plant this morning.

Ok! It’s time to move back in time, because: WOW!!! We are in the jungle!!!!!!

This campsite is amazing. Granted it was a little freaky last night, but once we started the fire and making s’mores, it was all good. Daddy and I had checked out the bathrooms on another little night walk, and we decided to skip the shortcuts through the woods – it just seemed a little spooky at night – who knew where we would have ended up........

Everything was much better this morning. We played hide and seek and the best part was when I was hiding with Lya and she peeked up like a mouse, standing on her tippi toes to look over a big bush, just as Daddy comes walking by. The expression on my sister’s face was priceless. It was so hard to stop laughing as Daddy kept making the same expression on his face over and over again. Daddy!!! What did Lya look like???? Do it again!!! Please!!!!! Do it again, Daddy!!!

But now it was time for a bike ride! Yeah!!! The first of many on this trip. So happy we brought the bikes!

There was supposed to be a nature trail that we could go on. So we started out looking for it. Len was with Mom on her bike, Lya on the hook-up bike with Dad, and me on my own bike. The sandy roads on the campground were a little tricky to navigate, but soon we were on a path that took us back to the Ranger Station. We all had agreed to stay a second night in this cool place – after all we had done quite a bit of driving over the last two days. So we checked with the Rangers and they happily accommodated us with our wishes. Then one of the Rangers pointed out the path we could continue on to make it to the beach.

At the thought of getting to the beach it only took us a minute to remount and off we are riding through quite an elaborate network of sand dunes. We stop at one of the rest areas and realize that we essentially have the entire park to ourselves. THERE IS NOBODY ELSE HERE!!! A little bit surprising on such a nice day…

We continue further on until we get to the end of the road from where a wooden deck takes us through the dunes and onto the beach!!! T H E B E A C H ! ! ! We jump of our bikes and start digging and building a little sand castle. Oh, what joy! Especially Len just can’t stop digging. Mommy and Daddy stand on the beach, soaking in the beautiful scenery and sound from the ocean. We have taken possession of the first beach on our trip. This beach is now unofficially ours!!!

Eventually we decide to ride our bikes on the beach on our way back to the campground. When we take a short break Lya forgets about the cold and starts chasing her shadow. But it turns out impossible to catch up with it. But it sure looked like fun trying.

When we make it back to the campground we start hanging out at the small fishing dock. It’s low tide and we start building yet another castle right below the fishing dock. We keep calling it the mud castle although it is just a mixture of wet and sand. Since the material is excellent for building this turns into an afternoon filling activity.

While we are there Daddy starts eyeing another campsite, that he would prefer for the evening. When we later leave to go grocery shopping we stop at the Ranger Station once more and again, they happily agree to have us stay on site 24 tonight. Daddy is all smiles!!! Nicely done. These guys are our best friends by now.

We head north to make our way to the nearest grocery store. To everyone’s excitement it’s a Harris Teeter and my sister’s and mine eyes start seeing free sugar cookies and balloons! We were not disappointed. Mommy and Daddy stock up on supplies, and we’re back on the road to move in to our new campsite.

Mommy’s on the phone when there is a loud bump! KATCHUNK!!! Only Daddy gets some wrinkles on his forehead. In the beginning I’m not so sure why he keeps looking into the rearview mirrors, but then I see it, too. One of the storage doors is open!!! One quick look back and forth between me and my Dad, and it’s clear. THE TOOLBOX!!! THAT’S WHERE WE KEEP THE TOOLBOX!!! Emergency breaks and Daddy pulls off to the side into the middle of a construction site. Mommy is still on the phone and is beginning to get some wrinkles on her forehead, too. Daddy is already out the door and starts jogging north. It was probably only 30 seconds since we heard the loud KATCHUNK!!! – but pay attention next time how far you can drive in 30 seconds. Really. Daddy disappears out of our field of vision and is gone behind the last traffic circle that we just had come through. He keeps on running, wondering what he will find? He starts smiling as he gets to the next traffic circle and sees car after car go around a tool box on the side of the road with half its tools spread all over the road. And what’s that man doing? He’s picking everything up! Wow!!! That’s mighty nice of him. Not sure if he was expecting my Dad, but they continue to pick up all the pieces together and then Daddy makes his way back to us! Guess we will lock the storage doors next time before we start driving again. Good thing we didn’t loose anything. The hatchet for cutting up the firewood is also kept in the toolbox. That would have been a major disappointment later in the evening. But no loss besides a broken latch on the toolbox! That could have been much much worse!!! Thank God, the Toolbox didn’t fall on top of a squirrel. Who knows what would have happened then???

We get back to the campground and park on our new site as the sun is already setting again. Not much time elapses until dinner is ready. Veggie Burgers!!! And we are back around the campfire making s’mores again for the second time on our trip!!!

Can’t wait to wake up tomorrow morning. Our journey will continue. We are not in the Keys yet!!!