Start: COS, Monday, November 19th, 6:00am

After an early wake-up in COS, my Dad and I were in the Xterra and on the road a little after 6am. Luckily, we passed by the temporary cafeteria on the way out the door and noticed that the breakfast spread was already laid out. We helped ourselves to some cereal, milk, fruit and snacks that were easily portable and eatable on the road. (When food is free, take it when you can get it:) Instead of heading directly East, I made a detour over to The Garden of the Gods as the sun was rising to show my Dad the beautiful area. We drove around the loop and took some commemorative photos of the red rocks and blue skies to mark the start of the trip.
By noon we were somewhere in the middle of Kansas...since its all looks exactly the same, I have nothing exciting to mention. Dad and I were switching off in the drivers seat every half-tank of gas...about 2-3 hours. We would exit the interstate, gas up, go to the bathroom, grab a snack, and 10 minutes later we would be back on the road.

Unlike our drive fro FL to COS, we had a goal ETA of 5pm in Gainesville that we were trying to make...that's when Dustin's swim meet versus FSU started. We always knew exactly when we were going to arrive (and it wasn't going to be in time for the start) because Dad brought his new GPS on the trip and it calculated our average speed and computed when we were going to pull into the University.
Oh well, we needed to pee, eat, and sleep...so we just proceeded carefully and safely along the interstates and enjoyed the trip. Like I mentioned already, Kansas was boring so that's when Dad and I did a lot of talking and laughing. It was dark through Missouri so we focused on the roads and the traffic. I think we spent the night on the east side of St. Louis...we could have slept for 5 hours and almost made the swim meet, but we enjoyed a whole 6 hours of shut-eye before climbing back in and taking to the roads again.

We drove through the corners of Indiana and Kentucky on Tuesday morning before driving through the middle of Tennessee and south through Georgia. WOW...that was, by far, the most beautiful 10 hours of driving I have ever done! The trees were every shade of red, orange, yellow, browns, with the occasional green! We found the camera to snap a few photos of the beautiful countryside as we zipped along I-75 (no time to stop, just roll down the window and click the button)!
It was around mid-day on Tuesday that I got a phone call from my credit card company to verify my last five purchases. I guess they wanted to make sure that it really was ME driving across the country! Other than our expensive six hours of sleep in the Holiday Inn ($15 and hour), we were stopped for less than 90 minutes for the rest of the trip...you can thank the GPS for giving us more information than we could possibly need:).
We happily arrived at the UF Pool during the last two events of the meet...Dustin had already swam a fast 200 IM and 200 fly earlier in the evening. I reunited and chatted with a bunch of friends that I only see on special occasions (like UF meets) and then headed out to dinner with the family (Mom had driven up from DeLand) and a few of Dustin's teammates.
At 10pm, Dad was back in the Xterra...now with Mom as a passenger...and I was a passenger in Dustin's Escape. Coach Troy demands that all UF swimmers attend a ridiculously early practice on Wednesday morning before going home for the holidays...so I spent the night in Gainesville to drive Dustin home after the practice and his classes. I know how easy it is to fall asleep at the wheel on the drive from UF to DeLand and I was happy to help!
End: DeLand, Wednesday, November 21st, noon. I pulled into the Ol'McLarty's Farm and officially finished my trip...now, it's time to enjoy the Florida winter and get back to training for the 2008 Olympic Trials!