Fact: Day Four

Well, we made it from Arizona to almost-the-very-end of I-10.

We're in Florida!!!!

As we were leaving New Orleans, Rachel won the "best off-the-cuff Office quote of the day" when she spontaneously came up with:
Michael: In some cultures, when somebody leaves, like New Orleans culture, they have a parade and they have a band and people party in the streets...
Pam: Do you mean, leaves as in dies? You want us to throw Toby a New Orleans' funeral?

We drove today from New Orleans through Mississippi and Alabama and all the way to Orlando. We thought maybe we should stop halfway here (like Tallahassee-ish) but decided to press onward (the kids heard that our hotel here had two sets of bunkbeds and a movie theater in the lobby and they voted to keep going).

And now we're here for the next 3 days. Whew!

Total number of miles driven today: 675 (that's approximate because I am not the clocker of miles or gallons or dollars and the guy who is has already fallen asleep)
Total number of people who slept in the car today: one (just me--the kids and Jim stayed awake the entire day...which might explain why I'm still up and everyone else has been asleep for at least an hour and a half.)
Total number of forts in our hotel room: one (but isn't that enough? Will asked if we could buy this room)
Total number of years this hotel room has probably been in existence: 65 (it's old...REALLY old...like classic 1950s Disney-era old--we love it!)

I'll have pictures of our room later--but here's our proof that we drove through a bunch of states today.

The usual progression of a Parker Family photo shot...Rachel is front and center and ready immediately. She has her shoes on, knows where Dwight is, and is asking me to frame the shot.
Matt finally gives up looking for his shoes and joins in barefooted.
Will says that he doesn't want to be in a picture, I say that's fine, he decides at the last second that what he really wants is to take his own picture so he scrounges around for his flip flops, rummages for his camera, trips over thousands of things on his way out of the van, and makes it to the right spot just as everyone else is all done and wants to get back in the van because it's muggy, dang it.
Jim reminds me be patient--this little guy is having a blast. And it's all good. We're not in a hurry, after all. And this welcome sign is the only place we stop and touch our feet to the dirt in Mississippi.
Dwight stopping to smell the...magnolias?...in Alabama with Jourdan.


While we're taking a picture on one side of the tree, here's what's happening on the other side...

Will found this spider (huge) on his web (enormous) near a shrub (average-sized). We're impressed with the bug and lizards we've seen so far in the south. And with our macro skills.
My mom talked to Rachel on the phone on Day Four's afternoon. She asked Rachel to blog about what her job is on our trip. Rach will probably be ready to blog something mid-Day Five. I have to say that I think her job is to be our documentarian for Dwight's adventures. When we get to a stop, she's been the one who keeps track of Dwight and gives him awesome poses like this.
Dwight on Jim's lap.
Matt & Dwight feeling welcomed to Alabama. A funny side note--every time we have mentioned that we're going through Alabama, Matt IMMEDIATELY starts singing the 50 states in alphabetical order. Trouble is, his knowledge gets fuzzy after "Indiana" and he trails off hoping someone will get him to the end. We've had fun singing it together until today when we accidentally mentioned Alabama about 20 times in an hour (we were IN Alabama, for heavens' sake) and lost interest in hearing the song and got smart and started referring to it as "Mobile's home".

Once again, she's the first one ready for a picture.


Rachel's picture of Dwight at the Florida Welcome Center.
And this was all her doing, also. Easily my favorite photo of the day!
Busted!
She also got this gem (Matt wants to be with Jourdan for every possible event--including the waiting-our-turn-for-a-bathroom dance)

Another Rachel shot. I think she would insert the following: Excuse me, everyone, could I have your attention please. I just wanted to say that the women in this office are terrible. Especially the ones who wrote that stuff about Michael on the bathroom wall. Having a bathroom is a privilege. It is called a ladies room for a reason. And if you cannot behave like ladies, well then you are not going to have a bathroom.Rachel told my mom that driving through Florida was like driving in "a tunnel with no top". Then when she got off the phone, she told me to quick, take Dwight and shoot a picture of the freeway in front of us. So Mom, here's the topless tunnel Rach was telling you about...