Chapter 2: Road Trip!
Thursday rolled around pretty quickly; much too quickly for the ones in charge of packing. Thankfully, Sadusky had already informed my and Abigail's boss about the situation, and got us Thursday off in the process. So, because of this, we had all of Thursday to get the last minute packing done.
I had finally finished packing everything by later that afternoon. Upon me completing the packing, Riley helped me load everything into my SUV, which was a daunting task; considering we had our stuff, plus Chloe's and the dogs'. Luckily, we had it complete right before Ben and Abigail pulled up; with Ms. Emily and Mr. Patrick in tow. Once they arrived, we simply chatted while waiting anxiously for news from Sadusky.
Then, at around 7:30 that night, we got the call. Sadusky ordered us to head down to Florida. Without a second thought, I called Hannah, we loaded ourselves into our respective vehicles (with the dogs and Chloe joining Riley and I), and we headed out for the 12 hour drive to my parents' house.
As with any trip involving multiple people, children, and dogs; it took longer than expected. There were rest stops for both canine and human, along with stopping for food. However, while Riley and I (and even Ben and Abigail) were perfectly fine with fast food, Ben's parents were not. And since Riley and I couldn't eat at a restaurant because of the dogs, and we had to stick together so Ben wouldn't get lost; Riley and I would go through a drive thru and then drive to the nearest rest stop to eat and wait for everyone to meet us. This got confusing and annoying pretty quickly, and it wasn't long before Riley decided that he would teach Ben how to use a GPS when we got to my parents' house.
Finally, at around 1:00pm the following day, over five and a half hours after we were supposed to arrive, we finally made it to my parents' house. They welcomed us with open arms, and upon showing everyone where they would be staying, helped unload both cars. We each took time to get our things settled; which was not an easy feat for Riley and I, as we had dog kennels, dog beds, and a small bed for Chloe to cram into my old bedroom (which luckily had been expanded in my absence). We still had one room open for Hannah when she got there; which we didn't expect to be until the next day. Once we finally had everything settled, we decided to take a nice long nap; planning to awake and plan many adventures during our stay in Florida.