The first vacation for our new family commenced on Friday, June 8, 2001. Carolyn, Ashleigh, Briana, and I borrowed my Mom’s white van and headed south for a week of humid merriment. Naturally we made our first pit stop in Forsyth, George – continental breakfast capital of the world, before rolling on to our final destination on Saturday, the microscopic town of Howey-in-the-Hills. The reason for our stay in this dusty little town was for the traditional annual Gelm family reunion at Carolyn’s Aunt Carole and Uncle Jim’s house.
Early morning, June 8. Briana struggles desperately to comprehend what is going on. “What do you want me to do??”
In fact, nearly Carolyn’s entire family had traveled en masse to stay in this region. When the four of us arrived on Saturday afternoon, the first thing that I remember was that Briana was scared to get out of the van for fear of rattlesnakes, this of course after Carolyn had regaled her of tales of sightings of our slithery little friends. For our entire stay, Briana refused to take her shoes off while the other kids ran around with naked feet.
Carolyn’s family: Michael, April, me, Carolyn, Chuck, Janet, Charles, Susan, Brett, Melanie, Dustin, Jeanette (the ghost between Melanie and Dustin I’ve never been able to resolve)
The Gelm cousins
The young ‘uns on the bridge
A great shot of Yaht, Madi, Briana, Alex, and Emma. Briana was the only one wearing shoes…snakes, ya’ know
We visited for a bit with Carole and Jim before deciding to go off to the beach for a while. I had the bright idea to travel all the way over to Daytona Beach, thinking that our home base the Americano would provide a nice place to park so that we could walk the beach – even though it was seventy miles away and far from the closest beach we could get to. So we made the nearly two-hour drive there only to arrive as the monsoon began. It poured so rough that it wouldn’t have surprised me to see dents in the top of the van. So we drove back, having stepped nary a foot on the beach.
We stayed in a hotel nearby in Howey, but for some reason not in the same HoJo that the rest of Carolyn’s family stayed. We swam that night before retiring and the next day we headed back to Carole’s for the all-day family get-together. I had a fun time playing with water balloons, watching Dustin and Michael mount the family steeds, smoking cigarettes and bonding with the family, capturing a snake in the garage, watching Carolyn discipline one of her cousins’ kids, posing for a million pictures on the little bridge, and of course chowing down on the picnic food.
Dustin and Michael on their suicidal quest for adventure
Ashleigh and Briana behaving for once
An ironic thing of which Ashleigh recently reminded me about this trip is that she was in a huge push for us to take photos. I didn’t want to carry a camera so she had to carry it in order to get any photos taken. At the time, she was into scrapbooking and wanted to have some photos to systematically cut up and put into her scrapbook. That’s why we ended up with some of these shots. What comes around goes around.
Charles assists Ashleigh and Briana on the swings
Another photo for Ashleigh’s scrapbook
Next up: we head to Disney World…
I do remember now going to Daytona! I was thinking that your mom was there but she wasn’t. We just went to go. And I was mad because it rained and we couldn’t park anywhere and we couldn’t even really shop. I don’t think we even set foot on the beach. That was the day of the “what do you want me to do?” incident, wasn’t it? The cousins picture is Andrea, Billy, and one of my second cousins. Also, I remember that to their best efforts once Michael & Dustin got on the horses they wouldn’t budge. I had to go in there and lead them to get them to go anywhere.
Carolyn Gelm
March 3rd, 2008
I’m with Briana, I would have worn shoes the whole week too. I probably wouldn’t even go outside. She was very brave.
Ashleigh always did a great job scrapbooking, so I can see why she wanted to get alot of pictures.
Bev
March 3rd, 2008
I wonder if the ‘ghost’ between Mel and Dustin could be Mitch? I enlarged the photo to discover dark hair and receding hairline (sorry, Mitch), and he has been known to be a prankster now and then. Brad, your recall of details is impressive! Thanks for the trip down memory lane. That’s the first picture I’ve seen of the cowboys.
Aunt Carole
March 4th, 2008
What’s up with Briana’s hair???
Barb/Mom
March 4th, 2008