Day 17 - Florida to Illinois

Packed up and said goodbye to the Boardwalk resort, and strolled along the Boardwalk one last time to the bakery for some pastries before going to Downtown Disney to have one last Earl of Sandwich lunch with the family.

Bev, Beth, Pam, and kids will be doing the next phase of their Disney adventures in the form of camping, and we begin the long drive home.  My least favorite part of today's drive was the long trek through Georgia.  At one gas station stop, a college gal was going car door to car door selling books, while a man in a truck on one side of us was peddling his melons.  The man in the van on the other side of us was talking on a walkie talkie, and the clerk inside the store told me the charge for my scone and coffee was going to be $318!!!  I began to wonder if we were on TV--Lifestyles of the Insane in Georgia!  After a quick break for supper at a Cracker Barrel, we made our way to stop for the night about 11 hours from home in Metropolis, Illinois.

My favorite part of this leg of the trip was the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee.  With the sunset and some distant storm clouds creating some majestic colors, it was like a page right out of a vacation magazine.