Jacksonville
Jacksonville is usually a huge distance when I think of traveling to Jacksonville, because it’s nowhere near my grandparents place in Melbourne, so it was always kind of a drag to make the long haul to see my aunt, but it was worth it because I got to see my aunt. So I was doubly excited when I realized that I was no longer a couple hundred miles away from Jacksonville, but just a measly 40 miles away. I called my aunt and let her know that it shouldn’t take more than an hour for me to arrive at her place and she seemed to be excited to host me for the evening. I was not only excited to see my aunt and uncle, but I was doubly excited that I didn’t have to pay for a night of lodging. I had somehow managed not to pay for a room or bed for the past week by staying with friends and family, and I no longer felt as if I was putting a huge dent in my checking account. (This fallacy was soon destroyed when I checked my bank account in Georgia….)
When I got close to my aunt’s house my navigation system let me down because it didn’t have a direct route to their house, but I was able to call my aunt and she gave me directions that were clear but somehow I managed to make a wrong turn which extended the trip by five minutes. I arrived in their development shortly afterwards and was welcomed by hugs and kisses from my aunt and uncle as well as a hot dinner and I felt that life couldn’t get much better than seeing family.
We had Italian for dinner, spaghetti and chicken parmesan, and it was incredible. My aunt and uncle wanted to know what I had been up to as well as some information about my college relationship that was still going on (way to go me!) so I gave them a couple hours of stories and anectdotes from college and from my road trip that had the three of us hootin’ and hollerin’ until the wine was empty and laying down seemed like a much better option than talking. It was actually a lot of fun re-hashing my memories from Kenyon with my girlfriend as well as the adventures I had experienced on my road trip and other travels of the summer, and I was in a rather cheery mode after it was all said and done. I was complimented by my uncle on how I was a talented story-teller, as I thought to myself, that it wasn’t that I was a talented story-teller, I just seem to experience a lot of weird things in my life/travels and usually they’re story-worthy.
After my uncle went to bed because he had to wake up at 5 AM for work the next day I talked for a few hours with my aunt about women, college, the post-graduate life, what was bothering me, what I was excited about, basically whatever was on my mind. It was a really enjoyable and easy-going conversation and I wished that I had more opportunities to talk so freely with more people in my life. I learned at college that it wasn’t always the wisest thing to share my personal thoughts with everyone, because of the negative consequences, so for my Senior year I decided not to be as verbal as I had been during my freshman and sophomore years. It was a relief to be able to talk freely to someone.
I crashed that night, woke up with my aunt the next morning, had breakfast, was instructed on how to lock the garage door and said good bye to my aunt. My uncle had already left for work, but I thanked my aunt for letting me stay for the night, and a few minutes after she left, and a few more minutes of trying to successfully drop the garage door and at the same time sneak under the garage I headed back to my car and made my way up to Savannah, Georgia.
Tags: Summer 2007 Road Trip, Travel
