The girls had to take a bucket of the unwanted shells back to the beach before we left, so they said “Goodbye” to the ocean and took pictures of the sunrise and got a few more bug bites to take with them to Connecticut. 

We hugged Mom and Dad “Goodbye,” and Dad prayed over our journey. Mom and Dad always stand on the porch and wave as we drive away. Dwayne always gets tears in his eyes. Always. He did even at the end of the visits we made when it was just us, before kids, back when we were the kids. 

We stopped at Buccees for the first time. Wow! 

We stopped for the night in Statesville, North Carolina for the night. A local place, Twisted Oak, has some of the best food we’ve ever eaten and that is without exaggeration. We all ordered something different and shared everything.