Tikkabik

We're back from Florida -- pulled into the driveway in the wee hours of Sunday morning, after a much-needed pit stop to recharge our batteries at Sue and Quinn's in Virginia.

We're all happy to be home, and happy to see Max, and he seems happy to see us. Grandma Marcia did a terrific job taking care of him -- in fact, he seems a bit bitter that we were slow with opening the windowshades and giving him fresh food and water this morning. I think she's spoiled him.

Florida was great, we had a great time -- I still have lots of photos to upload when I get the chance.

Our return trip was mostly uneventful, with a few notable exceptions. Somewhere around Georgia the Frickin' Van's rear driver-side tire developed a slow leak, so I've had to keep an eye on it since then -- it's been taking five or ten PSI of air at almost every fill-up, so I'll have to replace it as soon as possible. Those are the same tires we bought with the van when we picked it up a couple of years ago, so I suppose I should have expected them to go sooner or later.

After leaving Portsmouth around noon, we had driving, sometimes pounding, rain, all the way back from Virginia to about Lyme, Conn., which got progressively colder and more uncomfortable the farther north we were. We also had really bad traffic almost continuously from Richmond, Va., to about Baltimore, Md. or so -- enough so that by about 7 PM we'd decided we'd had enough and pulled over for dinner. As a result, we were about four hours later getting home than I anticipated -- it took us a good 12 1/2 hours or so to get from Mashpee to Portsmouth, and a good 16 1/2 to get back.

Driving from Mass. to Florida and back again certainly isn't for the faint-hearted, but I'd recommend doing it at least once if you ever get the chance -- it gives you a sense of scale of country, which is both larger and smaller than you expect. If I did it again, I'd like to take more time to show the kids the sights and sounds of the mid-Atlantic states -- two weeks, perhaps, with some time spent in D.C., exploring some of the historic sights on the Virginia and North Carolina coasts, and perhaps a night in Savannah, Ga.

Of course, finding the time to do that with all three of them in school is tough. So we'll see.