You maybe wondering why I'm writing from Gate A31 at Atlanta airport. The short story is that I got into a fight with a dump truck on I-85 in Montgomery, AL and I lost. Thankfully everybody is OK. Thank GOD! Needless to say the last 24 hours have probably been one of the toughest for me. Mom's van has quite a bit of damage on the passenger side but hopefully it isn't totaled. The people in Montgomery are the best in the world. They made the whole ordeal easy to deal with. The problem is we are 1050 miles away from home and there is no way we can drive mom's car back to WI. After the accident, I was able to drive the van to a gas station that the police officer suggested we go to figure out what to do next and that is were we sat for 4 hours. It was so hot! It took us that long to get the plan. The police officer that responded to our accident even came by at like 8pm to check up on us. Isn't that amazing?? 3 hours after the incident he came and checked on us! After tons of phone calls, we eventually had the van towed to a hotel near the airport. I got mom and Bev a flight home from Montgomery for this morning. Fortunately, Grace was able to go for free since Doug works for Delta. I just got off the phone and they have landed safely in MSP and are on their way home. After a sleepless night and a morning filled with phone calls and tears, Mike and I came up with a plan that thankfully got me out of Montgomery sooner than later. The tow truck drive the night before, Benny, was a sweetheart. We actually did what he suggested. So the van is currently at the towing company's storage lot. Steve, a family friend is driving down on Monday to pick it up. So by 1pm today the car was towed to the storage lot and I was booking on a flight home. I'm so happy! That was probably the happiest moment in this whole ordeal...I was getting home tonight. I'm still tearing up. I am just so thankfully that everybody is ok. Anyways, I have a 3 hour layover in ATL. I'm not sure if I really want to do anything so I'm just chilling in the seats and watching the planes take off. I have an awesome view of the planes going up and I get to see the landing gear go up. I love planes! The only bright side is I get home from vacation a day early. I have to think of something positive. Ok so before this whole ordeal we drove to Tuskegee to visit Eric's Uncle Dennis and Aunt Beverly. IT was such a nice time. They took us on campus and we had lunch. We spent over 4 hours with them. Overall the trip was awesome outside of this little bleap. Hopefully in the future I will look upon this trip as a lot of fun. I hope everybody can forgive me for the stress I have put everybody through the last 24 hours. It will take me a while to get over this.

I was up at 5:25 am for a sunrise that was non-existent. :-( I went back to bed and actually slept in...until 8 am. We are staying at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Orange Beach. It is amazing! It just opened a few weeks ago and the whole hotel is awesome. They upgraded us to a corner suite so our balcony wraps around the building...very cool...we have a lounge area with a couple chairs, couch, and a table for playing cards. These sisters...all they want to do is play cards. I've been very successful, I don't think I've lost yet. After the awesome complimentary hot breakfast, I went in for a dip in the bath temperature gulf waters. The waves were at least 3-4 feet high so it made for fun swimming. I see they have taken the red flag down so I'm sure the waves aren't as great. I also went in the hotel's pool. My mom even went into the pool!!!! SHOCKING!!!! Around noon we went for a drive to Pensacola Beach, FL. It was such a pretty drive over many large bridges! After driving around Florida aimlessly we returned to Alabama and stopped at Moe's BBQ. Really good food...pulled pork sandwich...YUM! Now we are relaxing in the hotel room. The sisters are playing cards (AGAIN!). I'm going to back out the beach for some more swimming.

Sugar sand beaches

After breakfast, I finally won some money on those evil machines. $64 on pull on the Wizard of Oz penny machine, Woo Hoo! We checked out of the hotel and made our way to Alabama. Here is my gripe, who puts the "welcome sign" behind a tree? Seriously Alabama, get with the program! How stupid! So I didn't get the sign, I was a bit mad...I even said f-you Alabama on Twitter. My words to Eric in a text were not as nice. We made our way down to the Dalphin Island Ferry to Fort Morgan, AL. It was a nice 45 minute ride across the Mobile Bay. There was this baby that absolutely loved my mom. Mom said that baby was being held by grandma and the baby reached out for my mom so the grandma handed her to my mom and the baby girl just cuddle up to my mom and wouldn't let go. How bizarre. Apparently my mom looks just like her babysitter and must have thought it was her. Very cute! We got to Orange Beach, AL at 1pm which was too early for check in so we ventured to Florida. Grace was asking for Denny's so I found a Denny's for late lunch. Then we drove down to the Naval Air Station in Pensacola to see the Pensacola Lighthouse. I climbed up the 177 steps to the top for some great views for the Gulf Coast. Awesome! We made our way back to Orange Beach for some swimming and walked around the beach. Very nice day!

Good morning!!! What a sun-shiny day. My mom and I have been up since 6 am. And since the pool isn't open, really nothing is open yet, we had no choice but to go down to the casino. I lost my fortune and now we are waiting for the other sisters to wake up. I lost $30 of my own money and $20 that mom gave me to play. Is that a sign of a gambling problem when you give other people your money to play? I'm joking! But the machines are not very nice, they are evil really. This reminds me why I hate casinos. My $30 could have bought 5 gallons of gas, some sunscreen for my already burnt skin and an A&W Rootbeer. But, alas, I gave it to the Harrah people. Atleast with the casinos in Minnesota I'm giving the Native American cause. Here is the already rich people. Argh! We leave for Orange Beach, AL today. From what I hear the beaches are really nice there. I guess we will see.