I apologize in advance for my trip reports. I tend to get a little long winded about things I enjoy so bear with me everyone.
Marty/Jesse - The first part of my trip was inland, so please let me know if I need to start putting these in the 'About Other Parts of Belize' Section.
Got up at 6:00am and was out of the house by 6:30am to take Bandit to his Dranma’s house. Hubby is still asleep when I leave. He has to go to work today but plans on getting off early. Bandit gets in the car and goes right back to sleep. I’m wired though. Today is my first official day of vacation! It takes us about an hour and 15 minutes to get to my Mom’s house. As soon as we turn onto the dirt road Bandit begins to jump all around the car. He knows exactly where we are. Mom meets us outside. Bandit jumps out of the car and begins to run around at full speed, finally crashing into my Mom’s arms. We all go inside but I have to carry Bandit in because Mom has recently gotten a new cat, Tobe, and he and Bandit haven’t met yet. We set up Bandit’s doggie gates so he has half of the house while Tobe has the other half. As soon as Tobe sees Bandit he makes a beeline for the back porch and isn’t seen again. Mom says they’ll be OK once they get use to each other. I have all intentions of hitting the road by 9:00am. 10:00am at the latest. But then Mom and Dad insist that I have breakfast with them. After breakfast we talk about my trip for a minute and then Dad wants us to all go for a walk, so a-walkin’ we go. We walk, talk, laugh, and have a great time. We venture into the woods so Dad can show me the remnants of an old club/hang out from their childhood days. It’s really neat and I get a chance to peer into the windows to see the bar and dance floor. I wish I could have seen it as it was in it’s hey day. An hour and a half later we’re back at the house. Well wishes are given for a safe and happy trip and I’m finally on my way home. It’s now 1:30pm and I still have lots to do.
I stop to get snacks and last minute items for the trip. Thanks a million to those who suggested energy bars, bottled water, chips, and trail mix. These seemingly small things came in
SO handy. Everytime we had some, I thought about those of you who suggested this idea. I highly recommend taking these items, escpecially if you're spending any time inland. They are excellent for those long travel times, late night munchies, or on tours that don’t provide refreshments. We even shared some of our trail mix and water with our driver to Tikal. It was much appreciated as he said it had been a busy day and he hadn’t had time to stop to get a bite to eat.
Back at home I started to get Hubby packed. As I’ve said he was the one having trouble packing. I realized it’s the WAY he was trying to pack everything. Ladies know there is a way to packing that will help you maximize your space
. As I’m getting us packed, I receive a call from work. There’s a serious issue. No one can access any of my stuff that’s needed while I’m on vacation. Packing comes to a halt and before I know it, I’m in full blown work mode. I keep my eye on the time because Hubby and I are supposed to leave for Charlotte at 6:00pm. All of a sudden I receive a call from Hubby. He has to work a full day and not only that, he will be late. I issue a sigh of relief. More time for me to tackle my work issues and get us packed. I get the work issues stabilized but there is still more to do before I leave. I decide to hold off on that and concentrate on packing. We end up with two wheeled backpacks and two medium sized shoulder bags. I finish a little last minute cleaning of the house so it’s presentable when Mom and Dad come by to check on the house and then back to work I go. Hubby makes it home around 7:00pm and starts loading stuff into the car. Meanwhile, I’m still working. Finally around 8:15pm we’re off to Charlotte. We take one last look around the house and off we go.
Hubby has burned a CD of 70s, 80s, and 90s rock music which promptly goes into the CD player. As we drive out of the subdivision we look at each other and smile. Vacation has officially begun. The drive to Charlotte was pretty uneventful. We did run into a bit of construction traffic once but it only cost us about 15-20 minutes. We ended up staying at the Fairfield Inn Charlotte Airport. Hubby didn’t like it because of the location and the fact that the rooms were outside and the lighting wasn’t very good. He doesn’t like outside rooms especially when the hotel is right on the main highway. Other than that, the staff was nice and the room was clean. The total for the room came to $63.05 with our AAA discount.
Coming soon: Friday, October 29th – Day 1: Getting to Belize
AmbergrisCaye.com 
