Road Trip with the Dale Girls! Part Two.

Step one of our marathon road trip is finished. Our plans are in place.

We have our Trip-Tik (a turn by turn map, kind of the ancient equivalent of a Garmin but without the British accent). We have our Tour Books with the pages bent down and the swimming pools circled and the Tourist Highlights listed on a separate piece of paper so Dad can pull off the highway in plenty of time (fat chance). And we have our schedule.

Speaking of the schedule, this may be a good time to explain why it took us a whole week to drive from Connecticut to Florida. It's simple, really. Mom and Dad could only stand to be in the car with us for 4 hours a day, max. Why, you ask? Silly you. Read on.

The daily schedule looked something like this:

8 a.m. - Breakfast at the hotel. Tell the girls not to eat that huge stack of pancakes.

8:30 a.m. - Hit the road.

9:00 a.m. - Pull over so one of the girls can throw up the huge stack of pancakes she ate.

9:05 a.m. to noon - Drive as fast as possible while trying to ignore the ruckus in the back seat. Not to mention the smell.

Noon to 8:00 p.m. - Swim in the pool, get snacks from the vending machine, run up and down the stairs as fast as you can, play hide and seek in the elevators, beg mom and dad to order room service so we can be like Eloise at the Plaza Hotel which is one of our FAVORITE books and we just want a roll and some milk and maybe some spaghetti and OH WHY NOT, WE NEVER GET ANYTHING WE WANT!!!!!

8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. - Peace and quiet. If you're lucky.

To be continued.