The Weather is Here I Wish You Were Beautiful

LDL wrote a blog post earlier about our awesome trip back to the great Sunshine State. The whole thing was Planes, Trains and Automobiles and in typical D family travel fashion, very few things went smoothly. Thankfully, one thing that did was P sitting quietly in his seat entertaining me and the people behind us with his love of waving on the plane. That was pretty phenomenal.

It's HOT in Florida and being life-long Gator fans, there is no real love for anything remotely related to Tallahassee (especially given the current governor but that's not worth mentioning). 102 degrees. Car A/C appears to stop working. LDL in backseat while P sleeps, watching sweat beads form on his head. FTD in front seat with giant plastic ball at her feet desperately moving air vents to get the flow starting again. LTD driving in quiet desperation, knowing that things are about to get, well, heated.

LDL - Can you guys send some air back this way? It's boiling back here.

FTD - I know! All the air vents are pointed back there but we're hot too.

LTD - Winces in silence, flashing back to days spent traveling in a station wagon.

5 minutes later. . .

LDL - Seriously, if we don't get some air here P is going wake up screaming hot.

LTD - We're doing the best we can. The car reads 102 degrees and no air is circulating.

LDL - FTD, why don't you look in the manual to see how to fix it.

FTD - reading manual on all climate control options and follows directions to reset AC. Put AC back on Auto. Wait for it to re-set itself, just like the manual says. Nothing happens.

2 minutes later. . .

LDL - Will you let me see the manual?

FTD - scowling

LDL - praying fervently

LDL - I KNOW you're going to be irritated but P can't regulate his body temperature like you can and he is on fire. I know you don't really care about anything but you're own comfort but I have to look out for both of us.

FTD - Yeah, because clearly I forgot how to READ in this heat and you're going to be able to figure out the climate controls from the backseat even though I've already followed the outlined instructions and you have to give it time to cool. The air is 102 degrees after all, its not going to happen in 2 seconds.

LDL - Whatever. Just give me the book.

FTD - throws book toward LDL without looking.

LTD - Maybe we should just pull over and head inside for a little while. . . .

1 minute later. . .

LDL - Great. P is awake and sweating and breathing hard already.

FTD - This giant plastic ball is melting my skin off.

LTD - Thinks to herself, please, dear Jesus, please let there be an exit soon. Look! Publix!

The whole clan practically jumps out of the car and races for the Publix and it's ice cold, air conditioned aisles of goodness. P laughs as I run through the store with him in the cart. LDL and LTD head straight for the freezers. We all load the cart with frozen goodies, extra water and I grab some frozen lemonade mix and put it on P's legs to cool him down. The boy is going to need anti-perspirant before he turns 5.

A few king sized ice cream sandwiches and a game of kick ball in parking lot later we braced ourselves for the rest of the ride. Thankfully, God was laughing at us because things started working again. P and I made up over Kung Fu Panda on the ipad and LDL put up with that plastic ball at her feet.

Road trips build character.