Journey Home

And here we are, back at Port Canaveral.  Looking outside, you can see the port is filled with cruise ships, ready to take off on Mother's Day.  Yes, that's right, it's Mother's Day.  Most of our luggage is gone at this point, packed up and put outside the cabin the night before.  All that remains is to clean up, get our stuff together, enjoy a quick breakfast at the Enchanted Garden, and then it's time to disembark.  Kind of bittersweet, really.

Then off to the Enchanted Garden for one final meal aboard the Fantasy!

It was short and sweet.  It's sort of melancholy watching the big room gradually empty, the passengers leaving the room and eventually the boat.  Next, it was our turn to say "see you real soon."

It was a much easier process than it ever had been before, thanks to all kinds of facial recognition and so forth.  Convenient, and terrifying!  Anyway, we went down the gangplank and back on dry land.  Fun fact:  for the past four days, Mom and I only got off the boat for a total of maybe an hour and a half.

Anyway, we got back to the parking deck and said our goodbyes to Uncle George and Thip.  They were heading up to the cemetery, and then down to Miami.  We had a bit of a longer drive:  home.  It was time for the long drive home, and it wasn't so bad.  To help, we made a few stops along the way.

Oh goodness, first a rest stop not far away.  I already had to use the rest room!  Okay, let's try again.  Next stop!

We visited the Buc-ee's in Daytona, which was a big mistake in that the cars were lined up outside and it took a while just to get to the Buc-ee's.  The exit and turning lane was just so crowded, and it was like this last time too.  Okay, so next time we'll do the Jacksonville Buc-ee's and skip this one.  Just too many people!  But we needed gas, so I got there and filled up and we all went in to get some drinks and a snack or two.  We weren't in there for two long, we felt like molecules in some science experiment about an area being heated up.  So we drove out of there, no problems going around Jacksonville and across I-10.  We were listening to some Discworld radio dramas that Mom got me for Christmas.  Through the course of the day we listened to "Mort" and "Guards!  Guards!"  And soon enough, we found ourselves crossing the Georgia State Line again.

The Georgia Welcome Center!  They had a neat little semiquincentennial display there, a nice one.  We always pick up a few brochures while there, stretching our legs and walking along.  But now it was time to head up another eighty miles or so to... 

The Great Peanut of Ashburn, the World's Largest Peanut.  Wow, I remember when the hurricane knocked this down for a while a few years ago.  It's been restored and looking nicer than ever.  It's somewhat of a landmark here in South Georgia, this massive peanut.  But it's also nearby a store called "Carroll's Sausage and Country Store," which we enjoyed stopping at.  While there, we even got a few things to drink before moving on to get more pictures with the giant peanut.

Moving right along!  We had just one more stop, and I think you know what that probably was.  

We got a few drinks from the next Buc-ee's, filled the car up with gas, walked around a bit, and then just drove straight home.  This time, no traffic in Henry Country.  But still some traffic in Atlanta this time.  I had in all this old-school Disney music to keep me awake - I didn't sleep as well last night.  But it was fun listening to Mary Poppins in the car again!  

So we arrived home without any incidents, and Mom saw some new gifts for her birthday there - some potted ferns.  We'll order some stands for those and they'll look nice on the front porch there.

But we made it.  Always a wild thing at the end of these days when you look around at the house and all the ordinariness of it and then think back on the fact that this very morning we were having breakfast in the Enchanted Garden on the Fantasy.  

Tonight we managed to stay awake and watch the replay of the Braves game today - they defeated the Dodgers again, 7-2.  The Braves are having a really great start to the year, and that's been fun to watch.  Anyway, it's time for bed.  We read tonight, and we said our prayers, and it was quite easy to get some sleep tonight.