What does a family of six say to one another 72 hours after arriving home from a two week, 4,200 mile western adventure? Just about the time that feeling of motion ends even though you’ve been on solid land for several days?

Hey, what’s 4,200 miles without another 2,000 to round it out? Let’s get going!

We decided we couldn’t get quite enough togetherness and the space in our home was just too much compared to the confines of our minivan. What better way to celebrate ALL of our incredibly mild personalities than to pack back up and head 1,000 miles south?

Had it been anywhere other than Sanibel Island, one of my favorite places on earth, I would’ve said sayonara, suckers! But I love Sanibel (so much so I wrote a blog about why you should visit here) and was excited to spend a low key week doing nothing.

Nothing.

I knew this week would be the opposite of our go, go, go western trip and a chance to unwind and spend a few more precious moments together.

Matt suggested we do something we’ve never done before. Pre plan, you ask? Make a logical decision, you say?

Nope. He wanted to drive through the night.

As someone who can’t sleep in a car (control freak) I felt the idea was horrid and awful and terrible. Overall, just bad. He kept bringing it up so I finally gave up the fight. I will say it was the MOST quiet drive we’ve EVER had to Sanibel. So quiet. I hate driving at night but the risks and worry were overwhelmed by the silence. Sweet, sweet silence.

I did end up falling asleep for around 2.5 minutes somewhere around Chatanooga. I grabbed some coffee and finished out the second half of the 14 hour drive. We were exhausted when we arrived but one island sunset washed away any thoughts of the long drive.

We’re soaking up too much sun and salt air (is there such a thing as too much?) and relishing in no agenda, no plans and no items to cross off our must see list. Just some lazy days before football ramps up and school begins. If we can continue the niceties, Summer 2019 may go down as our best ever.

Okay, friends who drives to their vacation destination? Do you take on night driving or save it for daytime hours? What are your best long driving tips?