14 hours

Well, I spent some time writing over 2 pages of information on this trip from hell. Then decided not to post it. I will give highlights so those in NW Florida understand why I did not call when I got there...

Got up at 4am Thursday morning after only 2 hours sleep with #2 Son. Husband got up at 7am with #1 Son. Spent whole day preparing to leave and was pretty pissed the whole time because I do not like last minute things like this. Husband and in-laws stayed outside most of the time trying to get the yard ready and the shutters up. Thank God for in-laws. We finally left at 6:30pm (EST).

We were also blessed in that we had no problems finding and getting gas. There was a point were it took 2 hours to go 10 miles. We tried 4 times to get a hotel and not one of them had a room. Even the reststops were packed. By the time we got to one and actually found a parking spot, the kids were too wound up to sleep. When they did sleep, only one would sleep at a time. The one that was awake was fussy. The only one that didn't complain the whole trip was #1 DogSon. And he got stepped on, toys thrown on him and who knows what else.

We arrived in NW Florida at 8:30am (EST). The kids had had enough sleep to want to be awake and eat breakfast. So needless to say, Husband and I took turns trying to get some sleep. I let him go first since he was in the hot sun most of the day before and drove all but 1 hour of the trip. He didn't want to deal with the kids - I did offer to drive. GRIN.

Ok, enough said. It was not fun and I never ever want to do that again.