Ocean Trip Day 3 – Safe and Sound

First and foremost, we made it!!!!!

8 tanks of gas and 1507 miles

We got an early start this morning, sadly, it wasn’t early enough (see that little bit of foreshadowing). I would like to give a shoutout to the Starbucks in Daphne, AL, that opens at 6 am on Sunday; we would not have been able to function this morning.

We had to park in a shopping center parking lot last night and walk to our hotel, big boat problems. You can’t tell, but Dave is smiling because no one broke into the truck or boat.

Real smiles today, last day, and a good night of sleep.

Our time on the road today was pretty uneventful. The traffic in Northern Florida was horrible. We were so glad to finally get on the turnpike. I won’t even tell you the cost of taking a multi-axle truck and trailer on the turnpike across the entire state of Florida. Let’s just say it will make you sick. The food at truck stops would also make you sick. I now have so much sympathy for truck drivers. There is nothing fresh, just gross fried food and hot dogs. I finally found some pineapple, but it was rotten.

Dave and I hanging out with the big boys.

My view for 1500 miles. I stopped looking after a while, freaked me out too much.

Somewhere around mile 1000, I found my breaking point and took a nap. I know that wasn’t fair, but hey, someone has to be the Captain, and someone has to be Gilligan.

Nap time

There were also some extreme boredom Snapchat stories.

As usual, the trip took longer than expected. There was also a missed exit in Ft Lauderdale; the one place you do not want to miss an exit with a 40-foot trailer and boat.

Later than expected meant we did not even start putting the boat in the water until 730pm, and sunset was at 815pm! I turned into a sunset alarm clock. “Babe, it is now 29 minutes to sunset”. I was getting very anxious!

This doesn’t look like much, but if you saw how hard it was to park this trailer, you would be so impressed.

We got on the water just as the sun was setting, which meant a long trip across unknown waters in our boat that was also dangerously low on gas.

On the water and ready to high tail it to our slip.

The trip across the water was beautiful. The houses all lit up are stunning to see (I took pictures, and they all sucked; I promise to get better ones). We also got to ogle some multi-million dollar yachts. Thank goodness for navigation!

Passing through Port Everglades

We made it to the Bahia Mar hotel and marina at about 930PM. Gliding in next to these behemoth boats was daunting and jealousy-inducing. Dave parked in our slip like a true captain.

We have officially made it! I can’t say all my anxieties are gone (there is still that trip to the Bahamas), but a lot of my worries were blown out of proportion. Dave is always level-headed and takes care of us. I couldn’t ask for a better travel partner, best friend, or husband.