We made it back. It took twenty-four straight hours on the road, but we did indeed make it back. Man, that’s a lot of driving. We never stop into hotels or anything, what with having several drivers to switch out, we can just catch up on sleep a couple at a time while the others are pulling shifts. We even let the kids drive for a while when we all got too tired to carry on. The closest we came to actual stopping down was this morning around 04:30, we pulled into a rest stop and just leaned the seats back for a few hours. Tampa Bay to North Dallas is just under 1200 miles though. And like I say every year, next year we’re flying.

We had a great time. We got rained out the first few days, so a lot of our time was spent up on the deck at mom and dad’s, or at Ka’Tiki Bar, where you’re basically outside, just covered with palm fronds. It’s nice, the Ones are Cold and there’s always live music. Not all of it is great, but it’s all at least tolerable. Not like the guy who plays the keytar at Caddy’s.

This year, Heather, my ex-wife, went with us, so it was Step, Stout, Heather, the three kids and me. That’s a lot of people. So we had to take two cars. And they picked me up from work Friday, I changed in the bathroom, then we headed right out. So it was nice arriving this afternoon, as it was the first time I’d been home in ten days. Everything looked so foreign and out of place. Siege took good care of the SpaceHouse for us. All the cats are still dead, the floors are still clean and there are no major stains on the couches.

After a week of watching hot women play Twister on the beach, Chug of War, throwing Frisbee, dodging stingrays (one girl did get stung though), Pirate Cruises, Dolphin Watches, drinking beer, sitting at Ka’Tiki, and drinking lots of beer on the beach, it’s nice to be home where we can kick back, relax and just drink a little beer. You know?

I am working on a video for all of you; it should be ready here by Friday. It’s a nice compilation of some of the fun stuff we did while in Treasure Island. You should enjoy it. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any video of the Twister game, but I did get a ton of pictures, and I will be posting some of those as well. And I only managed to get third-degree sunburns on my upper body this year. So all is well.

Here are the images I promised: (hover to see a caption)