Day two on the road. Today we travelled from Jackson, MS to our arrival at Celebration, FL. Our day started out with a great warm breakfast at the hotel.

We packed up, did a few extra sweeps of both rooms and got on the road just before 8am. Today was our long day on the road, estimated at 10 and a half hours. We returned to the same scenery of tall trees towering on each side of the road.

I turned on Imagine Dragons once more while the kids got settled into their electronics. Pretty soon we were out of Mississippi and into Alabama. Here around Mobile, we caught our first glimpse of the Gulf. Hit some traffic and had a quick detour through town and across a pretty cool bridge. My kids snapped pics of the bridge and a very cool Alabama battleship (will add visual when they wake up).

At the three and a half hour mark, we crossed the border into Florida and noticed a few taller palm trees along our route. We saw and nearly missed darker storm clouds with lightning to our north.

Traffic slowed some during the downpour of rain. My son put away his laptop and paid attention. I remember being a kid and always paying close attention when my parents would drive through heavy rain, like my watching was making them see better. Thankfully, my car faired well in the first real test of heavy rain.

It was wild to go from sunshine to pounding rain and back to sunshine. I noticed this rain didn’t have much wind to it like in Oklahoma, and fell straight down in buckets. A few times sun shone on the road from the west as clouds and rain were directly over us.

The rain cleared up and we decided unanimously to delay our journey for the opportunity to walk in the ocean at Pensacola. The tide was high but the sand was white and not scorching to our feet.

Returning to the car with sand covered feet and weighed down by pockets of interesting shells and rocks (Ada’s doing of course), we cleaned off with one of our beach towels and made a quick pit stop before being back on our way.

The kids made a great discovery at this gas station of 10 feet long charger cords, one for the iPad and one for the jet pack. Taking some souvenir money, we spent $20 and added comfort to the rest of our trip.

The rest of our journey was eventful with construction delays and one truck wreck that delayed our trip about an hour altogether. Building boredom and anticipation prompted putting on a movie around 4 and a half hours left to go.

We watched The Amazing Spider-Man from my phone mounted on the dash. I listened along while focusing on the heavy traffic. It certainly did the trick and made time go by quickly. With and hour and a half left, we started Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Both happen to be related to Universal as there is a Spider-Man ride and the Chocolate Emporium just outside the park. We plan to try and stop by for some Wonka bars.

Our movie ended with five minutes left to go. Nightfall had set in and with the time change, it was now 9:15pm. The town of Celebration is a destination to itself, with quirky and quaint sites to see. We walked up to the condo located just above Celebration Tavern and successfully gained entry. Got everything from the car in a single trip and set the thermostat to cool.

Quickly, I found out nearly all good places had closed or were soon closing. I switched my search to fast food and found a McDonald’s a couple miles away. I left and had a very silent drive to pick up much needed food. It really hit the spot for all of us.

We turned on Raya and the Last Dragon on Disney+ in our Disney themed condo while we ate and decided on our sleeping arrangements. As kids went to take showers and baths, the rain returned as though it was following us. It was torrential downpour and had me questioning the flimsy emergency ponchos I bought for the trip.

We pulled out the hide-a-bed downstairs for Noah, prayed, and I left all organization of things to take to the next day. We were wiped out. Surreal feeling being here already even though it was such a long journey. Feeling absolutely blessed to be having this experience with my kids.