You know you have been in the car driving for too long when...* Your kids watch the red box movie you rented twice in English and then decide to watch it again in French...
* and they think it's more funny in French
* Your 4 year old decides the stamp from her McDonalds Happy Meal is eyeshadow and rouge and the chalk from her activity kit is lip stick- and you don't care as long as she is happy (The kids were happy to have a new traveling activity kit to alleviate some of the boredom- thanks to Aunt Richelle. One of Kate's other favorite past times was strapping her baby doll into Rusty's Hat as a car seat- that's what she's holding in the picture if you can't tell.)
* You've passed so many time zones the clock in your car is totally irrelevant
* It takes an industrial size vacuum to clean all the crumbs out of the car
* You become skilled at passing items to the back of your van and changing the DVD in the player strapped behind you while still keeping your eyes on the road and steering.
*You can predict within 10 miles when your 5 year old will need to have a potty break (I'm not sure why, but Ben was the only child who required regular potty breaks- boredom?)
* Your children no longer ask "what's for dinner tonight", but "where's dinner tonight?"
* Where you stop for dinner is determined by who has a kid's eat free night on that day (Just a note that on Tuesday and Saturday at Denny's you can get 2 free kids meals per paying adult meal- for a family with 4 kids and 2 adults that drink water- you can eat a real meal for pretty cheap and for anyone traveling in the South Shoney's has kids meals for less than $2 SWEET!!)
* You find yourself excited to see what food options are available at the next exit (Our goal was to avoid McDonalds and other fast food as much as possible- We would typically eat breakfast at the hotel, snacks in the car, skip lunch, early dinner at a sit down restaurant. Over the two weeks of travel only 2 visits to McD)
* You spend more on gas in a day than you do on food and housing. (with 2 cars that wasn't so hard)
* In spite of having an oil change just before leaving, your due for another upon arrival.
* You begin to appreciate the diverse beauty of our amazing country as you pass through such varied terrain. As we drove through the country I often thought about what the land would have been like before it was "settled." How incredible it must have been to be some of the first people to set foot on land that had been preserved and prepared for our day. And how grateful I am that they built freeways and rest stops along the path for those of us less adventurous.
On that happy note I will leave the rest to your imagination. We had a great time on our trip to the East Coast, but it is nice to be done with the drive. We were very fortunate to have taken the southern route through Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma although it was rainy, we avoided the major snow storms passing through Colorado and such. We were blessed that we didn't have any trouble with the cars or the kids. In fact no one took Dramamine and no one threw up!!! It was a successful Road Trip!
2 comments:
That post cracked me up, it's like every road trip we've taken (times 10). I'm glad it was a success, it's so fun to read of all your adventures!!
That was hilarious! I truly don't think I could do it with Abby. But what an experience you have had! Glad to have you back on this side of the country, now if we can just get you back in our neighborhood.
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