WOW... could I possibly be more of a blog procrastinator??!! I've been home over 2 weeks now and have yet to make a single post about our trip! Good excuse though... these kids and their crazy schedules are running me ragged!
Unfortunately... due to the continues craziness... I can all but guarantee I won't finish a day by day report of our trip. ( ya know... just like last year lol). But I'll atleast give it a shot. :)
So off we go!! The journey down there....
Matt had to go into work for a few hours before we took off... big surprise there! I drove him up there at 5:30am so I could then just pick him up on our way out of town. I thought for sure I would get back home and have a few hours to myself to get things wrapped up. WRONG! Brooke and Drew were sitting on the front porch waiting for me.... at 5:45am! Okay... maybe since they got up so early they'll sleep some on the way down. ;) The plan is to leave the house at 9:30am and then pick up Matt. I'm moving right along getting things in the van when Matt calls and says he's ready to go... a whole hour early! Shit... I should've known I wouldn't have quite enough time! I throw everything else in the van and off we go. All sense of organization in that van has gone out the window!!
Now my intention is to not drive AT ALL on this trip! I really prefer to just play the ring leader with the kids and let Matt do the driving. But a I pick Matt up I see that my plan is quickly going to fail. He hops in the passenger side before I had a chance to slide my big butt over. Damn! He proceeds to tell me how many miles I must drive within so many minutes in order to "stay on track". Alrighty Clark Griswald. ;) We make it Mason ( by big butter Jesus for you non Ohio people) and we SIT! Yep.... 40 minutes into the trip and we already hit our 1st traffic jam. Oh joy! Matt recalculates again how many miles I must make up within the next few hours to keep on track. =P Make it through Cincy and then onto Kentucky. Kids are doing great and havent' even turned on a movie yet! Don't ask about the amount of snacks they've eaten so far though! Then we get my very 1st ding on my new van! A rock hits the windshield and cracks it!! I really hope this isn't an omen for how this trip is going to go. And just a few miles after that... we hit ANOTHER traffic jam!! This one is huge though. We inch our way along and after an hour or so we finally make it out of there! By this time we've spent 4 1/2 hours driving what shouldve taken no longer than 2 1/2! I am DONE driving! I've done my fair share ( fair in my book anyways).
We stop for gas and to get lunch. How the kids are hungry is beyond me though... the amount of snacks being consumed is quite alarming! The restaurant is super packed though so we decide to just get it to go.... and yes the kids are just fine with this! ( We've been known to push our kids without stopping a few times ;) ). Hop back in the car and I make sure my butt is firmly planed in the passenger seat!
The rest of the trip is fairly uneventful. We finally turned on a movie after 6 hours or so. We had about 40 movies with us and all Drew wanted to watch was Mamma Mia and HS3. Hannah was in pure hell. lol We thought for sure the kids would sleep... remember up at 5:45am! But we got about 20 minutes out of Drew and that was it!! Dinner was also eaten in the car... per the kids request. And we arrived in Valdosta about 13 hours after leaving Dayton. We had previously paid for a hotel there because we thought it would be too much to make the trip all in 1 day. Turns out we definitely should've just kept on going straight to Orlando... it's only another 3 hours.
So my van is TRASHED, my kids have eaten their way down to Florida and Matt and I have survived our first leg of a long road trip with the kids. We all agree ( yes even I ) that driving is MUCH easier with a big family than flying. No stress about overwight suitcases, delayed flights, etc. And it's a hell of alot cheaper!!
I had 2 bags packed just for the 1 night stop so we didn't have to unpack the whole van. We grabbed those, the cooler and both computers....Matt had to bring these because we're going to be gone so long that he needs to be able to get some work done daily. We booked a room with 2 king beds only to get in there and find that we have a fold out couch and a double bed. Oh joy. The girls bitch and moan about having to share a bed... but no way are either Matt or I going to sleep on that thing! Drew of course just sleeps inbetween us... as usual. =P
No comments:
Post a Comment