Pre-Trip Wisconsin

In just about a week, we are heading up to Wisconsin to see our girl!  Let the packing begin.  I finally convinced John that we are going to have to take 2 cars.  He's been adamantly against it, but Brenna has a lot of stuff we need to get to her.

Of course it's all "critical" and she can't live without it!

It was quite a puzzle test... but we managed to get it all into the cars, every bit of it!  Now it's all done by the driving.  I"m sort of relieved that we're taking separate cars, I find that I don't travel well anymore, at least not trapped in the car.  I don't mind driving by myself, but I get cranky with other people. Zack doesn't really bother me, because he's a lot like me, he just sleeps or plugs in and really doesn't interact except occasionally.  The perfect traveling partner. :o)

A sad happy day

Brenna and John left on their adventure to Wisconsin today.  I tried to be very brave, because I don't want Brenna to feel bad or not be excited... but I'm not feeling very brave!  I'm missing my girl.  2 days with her was just not enough and of course all I can imagine right now is her sitting lonely and crying in her hotel room!  I know John is going to take good care of her and make sure she gets settled, but I can't help myself. I don't know why it seems like I'm never going to see her, because actually when I really thought about it, it won't be that different from Radford.  While she was at school, we saw her Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring break and summer.  We'll probably see her the same times even when she's in WI, so it won't really be that different, I guess it just seems like it will be because she's so much farther away.  There was just the potential that she could come home on the weekend if she chose from Radford.  Anyway,  I couldn't even talk about her today.  A couple people asked about her at work today, and it was all I could do not to burst into tears every time someone mentioned her! :o)  They are stopping tonight in Chicago and staying with Colleen and seem to be enjoying their road trip.

The one thing I have going for me right now, is Zack and I leave for Stotesbury tomorrow, so I will have that as a distraction to keep me from dwelling on her being gone.

Road Tripping...

We are taking 2 cars, since we'll need to bring all Brenna's stuff home with us this weekend!  So Dad and I are road tripping together and John is on his own!

Junk food fest!  Slim Jims and Pepto-Bismol!  My gosh I love my Dad!  Radford here we come!

I wish it had been as easy as clicking our heels twice and wishing for home...

We woke up this morning and decided...12 hours... YES WE CAN!  So we piled into the car, buckled up and headed out!  We did it!  We made it!  No one cried, no one whined and the cranky pants stayed packed away!
The only issue was that since I've given up soda and caffeine, my only real "stay awake" crutch was food.  I pretty much ate to keep myself awake.  There was biscuits and gravy to start the day off, followed by pretty much anything I could get my hands on.  Jack in the Box tacos, beef jerky, chewy sprees, veggies and dip,  french fries... do I really need to go on.  I'm lucky I didn't eat myself into a food coma, but I sure tried!  My food baby should be ready to be delivered at a moment's notice!

The kids were great travelers!  Brenna even drove for a little bit for me.  Sadly riding in the back of the van made me car sick so she only got to drive for about an hour, but it still helped me out.

We're all so glad to be home - the puppies were hysterically happy to see us and if it didn't make John sound like a sissy I'd say he was hysterically happy to see us as well.  I am hysterically happy to be back with my own things, in my own bed and with my whole family.

Great Vacation and Great to be home.  Isn't that the way it should be!

The Never-Ending car trip...day eleventy-one!

We're back on the road and it went on forFREAKINGever today!  First of all, I was happy and sad and that's sort of a crappy way to start the day.  I was glad to be heading home, but I was very sad knowing I'm probably not going to see any part of my family for at least another year, and that's if we're lucky. :o(  I love visiting and hanging out because we all get along so well, but it just makes me realize how much I miss them.  I think on a day to day - live your life basis, you don't always think about not being with your family, especially if you grew up in a military family.  That was pretty much the status quo.  It's always so great to get together and see everyone, but it makes me miss them even more.

Pretty much the only "rest stop" in Arkansas

Anyway, we had to leave, it was time to go and so we did.  But then it became the never-ending road trip.  First of all let me say that I always believed that Texas had THE WORST rest stops.  All their rest stops consist of are a metal picnic table and a metal trashcan.  No shade, no bathroom - basically no nothing.  I always figured it was because it was Texas "a whole other country" and they didn't want you to rest long, they wanted you to get the hell out of their country.  But then I drove through Arkansas and they don't have ANY rest stops, they don't even want you to stop. Their motto must be "Just keep on driving and get the hell out of our state."  I kept promising everyone we would stop at the next rest stop, little did I know that it would be in Tennessee.  Then when we got to the 8 1/2 hour mark and stopped to get a hotel room - the ENTIRE town was sold out for the Softball World Series... but not just the whole town... the whole 3 MORE TOWNS down the road.  We had to drive another 90 minutes to find "room in the inn."  Almost 11 hours driving... that's too much even if you are having a Lord of the Rings marathon!

Although, we drove so far today and nobody really got too cranky (except me-and I held it in) that I'm considering pushing it tomorrow.  12 more hours and we'd be home!  I want to be home!  Stay tuned... for the continuing saga!

Road Trip Day #2

If yesterday was the honeymoon phase of our trip, today can only be described as the divorce proceedings!  There was good and bad.  It started out nasty, but as the day continued things smoothed out and ended on a good note.  We actually make it all the way to Fort Smith which is 2 hours past Little Rock!

Zack woke up in THE FOULEST mood I've ever seen him in. He woke up wearing the cranky pants and they were obviously tight and uncomfortable.  He didn't do anything but glower and ignore us.  Reacting rudely to the mildest request, so while nobody cried today... somebody certainly yelled.  Once we got on the road we relegated him to the far back of the van and followed the tried and true "No Touch, No Talk, No Eye Contact" rule!  He laid down and didn't resurface until about 2pm.  I'm not sure what he was doing back there, either sleeping or secretly eating as much candy as he could before anyone noticed.  I think his entire diet today consisted of pancakes, sunflower seeds, nerds and a grilled cheese sandwich.  Whatever... I didn't want to fight that fight today.

It was a quiet day in the car.  We all just did our own thing.  I listened to books on tape or my music.  Can I say that I officially LOVE. MY. IPhone4!  It's a phone, it's a music player and it has my books on tape.  One thing...does it all!  LOVE IT!   Brenna watched movies on her computer and listened to music.  It was a quiet day in the car, but that seemed to suit everyone.

The worst part of the ride was the rain! Oy Vey the rain!  It rained the entire time, except for the last hour.  But it wasn't regular rain... it was either "spit rain" which is too little for even the delay function on your windshield wipers, but too much to not use the wipers.  So you have to do it all manually or listen to the wipers scrap and skip across the windshield.  Or it rained so hard that even the highest speed couldn't keep up.  Oy Vey the rain!

We had two bits of very exciting happenstances.  #1 - I filled my car up for $2.99!  I couldn't believe it!  Less than 3 bucks... awesome!  And...We found the one and only JACK IN THE BOX in Tennessee!  Brenna and I were so excited we squealed like little school girls which woke Zack up and probably extended the cranky for a couple more hours!  Let me tell you we exited off the highway as fast as my little van would take us and raced through the drive through.  I gushed and gooed all over the drive through girl who probably thought I was all kinds of crazy.  I have loved Jack in the Box tacos since at least 5th grade.  Jack in the Box was the first place my BFF, Carol, and I were allowed to go by ourselves.  In the 5th grade, we would ride our bikes up to The Box and order our own food, pay by ourselves and eat.  We thought we were the shit!  And I think ever since then they've been my favorite. I can't tell you how many 2am "2 for 99cent tacos"  I ate on the way home from my boyfriends house to my dorm.  I know, I know, before anyone says anything... I realize they aren't "real" tacos, the probably don't have any "real" food actually in them. I understand that their whole texture is all the same... soft and mushy.   I. Don't. Care!  I LOVE them and I enjoyed the hell out of my 1030am tacos today.

So, while I did eat 1030am tacos and they aren't exactly part of my "Eating Awareness" program I didn't really care... I was totally AWARE of them while I was eating them.  The rest of the day, we actually ate out of the cooler I brought.  Brenna and I ate fruit, veggies, cheese and crackers and even a hard boiled egg (which didn't stink at all).   Go us!

Because we ate out of the cooler and Zack didn't resurface until 2pm we made great time.  We actually hit Little Rock about 330pm, which was where we were originally going to stop, but we all decide it was too early to stop so we pushed on to Fort Smith.  Found another Holiday Inn Express, my new favorite, and settled in.  The good news is we only have about a 3 hour drive tomorrow... seems easy enough, we should all be able to survive that....she said hopefully!

Road Trip Day #1

We've survived our first day on the Great Pilgrimage to Oklahoma!  The kids and I left this morning about 8am and stopped about 530pm in Knoxville, TN.  We're driving to Okla for a mini family reunion for Mimi's 70th birthday.  We're all (Ian + family, Pam + family) meeting up at Aunt Linda's house to hang out and celebrate Mimi. We had to leave John at home to save the world.  It's going to be a lot of fun especially considering my kids have never even met Pam's kids and Pam has never met Zack and believe it or not Aunt Linda and Uncle John have never met Brenna or Zack.  It's a shame that's what it is.  So we're going to make the most of the visit.

Today was good, we had a little bit of bad weather and one brief stoppage on 81S.  We sat for an hour at a dead stop, but then got moving again.  The kids were great,  they watched Zombieland, read, slept and generally entertained themselves.  I made them both travel fun bags and I think they really enjoyed them despite the fact that when they are 14 and 19 it's not real easy to find "cool" stuff to put in their bags.  So instead I pretended they were about 8 and I made "retro" bags.  They got sticker books, bubbles, activity books, markers, candy, new headphones and stuff like that.

We found a really nice hotel in Knoxville - Holiday Inn Express.  Came with 2 queen beds and a fold out couch, so NO ONE HAS TO SHARE A BED!  Best news ever!  It has a pool so they swam and played together.

It was a good day... no one fought, no one cried and no one even wore the cranky pants.  Let's hope my luck holds for 2 more days in the car!