Hurricane season threats turned into a vacation to remember for our family.

We were getting settled into our new home in Jacksonville, Florida in late July of 2017. I can remember it being one fairly hot summer. We had just gotten married and moved into our house that we purchased a couple months before. As we were getting things together and situated we were bombarded by the hurricane scares.

It was early September, and our children were just getting situated into their new schools when hurricane season strikes. On every news station, they aired the meteorologist reports that Hurricane Irma was heading towards Florida. Not knowing what to do and not knowing how to respond, my husband and I tried not to panic. We listened to what they told us on the news and went out to the stores for our supply list. Sadly, to realize that places like Home Depot, Lowes, and Walmart were sold out of the water, shop vacs, flashlights, and generators. We originally made the decision to stay. However, after hearing more news about the hurricane, my husband and I made the executive decision to head out of Florida for safety precautions.

With the hurricane approaching, we didn’t know where to go and our closest relatives were around 1200 miles away in New York, we started to panic!

We began to feel hopeless. Until we literally contacted our timeshare company at the time and asked if they had any exchanges available due to our situation. They informed us that they actually did have availability in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. They were able to reserve us a week in a two-bedroom two-bath condo. With a reservation in place, we begin packing our bags to head out of Florida. We packed our clothing bags with the most important stuff and also included documentation, identification cards, passports, birth certificate, and all those other important documentation that’s really hard to get if we lost it all due to the hurricane. We took pictures of our current home and the state that we left it in, in case we need to file any claims when we returned home.

Late that night as we headed for the interstate, the roads we were fully packed. We ran into major traffic as all the other Floridians were trying to head out of Florida towards a safer area as well. Not only was 75 jam-pack but also 95 North as well. After 7 and 1/2 hours, we finally made it to South Carolina safe and sound. We checked into our booked resort that was mainly empty. We thought it was strange when we walked in that we were the only ones that were checked into the resort.

Due to the hurricane possibly striking the Coralines, the resort was actually evacuating the next morning.

There we were, in South Coralina really feeling stranded. Again, not knowing where to go, not willing to travel another 12 hours to get to New York we felt stranded and devasted. We then contacted our timeshare company back and explained the inconvenience we had experienced. At that time, inventory was made available and they were able to reserve us a condo in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Being that we didn’t have another place to go and haven’t been to Tennessee, we decided to make our way to TN. The next morning as they begin to evacuate the resort and we were ready to drive another seven hours to get to Tennessee.

During the hurricane threats, we tried not to panic in front of our children, knowing that our energy would have an effect on them.

Our children asked questions why we were leaving however, we stayed optimistic and told them that was headed for an adventure!

Unsure of what to expect we stayed optimistic and trusted in God. We prayed as a family and stayed confident in knowing that God was still in control.

Roughly around 7 hours later, we ended up in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We arrived at the beautiful MountainLoaf Resort by BlueGreen Vacations.

We stayed in a 2 bedroom, 2 baths, with a full kitchen, 2 full fireplaces, and a balcony condo. It was absolutely gorgeous. Over 1200 square feet of living space, for 9 days.

After we check into our resort, we went into the town, and immediately we realized that every car had Florida State tags. It was almost like a Florida reunion in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We had a great time. We went into Pigeon Forge and went sightseeing. We went grocery shopping knowing that we were going to be there for the week. We later learned that September is the time of the antique cars show. My kids truly enjoyed checking out all of the antique cars that they have never seen before.

After being there for a couple of days, we went on a timeshare presentation and in return, we were given tickets to the NASCAR Park in addition to a $150 MasterCard.

We were able to take our children to the NASCAR park for a day trip and enjoy all-day race cars activities. We were then able to use our MasterCard towards gas money on our way back to Florida. We also went to the reptile and petting zoo.

Our children absolutely loved this! They were able to feed the goats pellets.

Our children enjoyed seeing the reptiles at the zoo as well. There were different exhibits with various reptiles. However, our children were amazed by the snake. While, I was totally shocked, they were interested in how the snake ate his lunch and all!

However, I have to admit, although this trip was absolutely unplanned and turned out to be one of the best trips that we had thus far.

The memories that we were able to build during this time was unimaginable. The time spent together as a family during this crisis time was truly amazing.

We went through the national park where we were able to visit the mountains.

The takeaway from this trip was that we were able to utilize the resources that we had at the time. We were newlyweds and new homeowners in the state of Florida. We had very limited savings at the time and we were able to utilize our timeshare company to get away from the storm. While we were away in Tennessee, we were able to gain money by going to a timeshare presentation.

I know a lot of people dread going to the timeshare presentation but I am actually one that is for it.

Timeshare presentations not only consist of a resort trying to sell you a deeded ownership or a timeshare membership (there’s a difference), but it also consists of the exploration of valuable information.

We rathered looked at the timeshare presentations as an opportunity to gain information and experience. When going to presentations, we actually are given information that allows us to better assess the current timeshare that we have. We are then able to utilize our current timeshare by getting more information on what’s out there.

So I encourage you not to look at a timeshare presentation in a negative manner but look at it as a benefit of what you can potentially gain! Everything is a learning experience.

Tell me what you think of our crazy funny hurricane adventure? Until next time, remember that we love you guys!