Back again

Driving 30 hours to Missouri was not without its challenges, but there was always that simmering sense of excitement, at doing the unexpected, at the prospect of seeing our awesome far-off cousins, at two weeks of recreation and family time. The drive from Missouri back to Washington was quite a bit more daunting. Yes, we were excited to see Jeff again, but that thirty hours was stretching out in front of me in a worrisome way. Amber woke up multiple times most nights we were at the Broadbent house, so my collection of consecutive sleep hours was not conducive to long hours on the road--especially long hours on the road in Nebraska. A few days before our anticipated Monday departure from the Garden of Eden (ha), I started doing some recalculations. After a series of anxious text messages, I emerged with a new, gentler "back again" journey. It began Sunday afternoon rather than before sunrise on Monday.

1. Go to sacrament meeting with the Broadbents @10am.
2. Drive straight from the church up to Lincoln, Nebraska (GPS estimated drive time: 6.5 hours).
3. Stay with the big-hearted, welcoming Poulsen family Sunday night. 
4. Monday: drive from Lincoln, Nebraska to Salt Lake City, Utah. (GPS estimated drive time: 12.5 hours)
5. Monday night: stay with the wonderful, five-star Sullivan family in Salt Lake City.
6. Tuesday: drive from Salt Lake City, UT home to Grandview, WA (GPS estimated drive time: 10 hours)

That was the new and improved travel plan, and let me tell you, a 10 hour drive is MUCH shorter than 15 hours in the car. That's the outline. Now for the TRIP itself!

While we were getting ready for church and packing up on Sunday morning, I looked out the window and what did I see? NOT popcorn popping on the apricot tree--SNOW falling fast in huge white clumpy flakes! Happy first day of spring to us and our road trip.

 

Some pre-church Legos 

 Sneaky sacrament meeting sideshot

After sacrament meeting and a few last hugs, we were on the road, cold turkey sandwiches in hand. Thankfully by that time the snow had melted. Amber ate her lunch and then promptly passed out for a nap. She was in the cutest, most exhausted-looking positions! I kept sticking my phone back there and clicking the camera till I got some pictures with her face in them. We drove drove drove west across Missouri on 70, then caught 29 north up through a snippet of Iowa and on into Nebraska. I was very close to being certain that we would not need to stop for gas on our Sunday segment of the drive, but just outside of Lincoln, I decided to play it safe and filled up anyways. No prizes for running out of gas on my own with three kids in the middle of nowhere!

After minor confusion involving GPS discrepancies and one-way streets, we arrived at la casa de Poulsen. Remember my mostly virtual friend Jessie? I haven't seen her in person for nearly five years, but she responded warmly to my texted plea for accommodations. It was so FUN to see her again! She has had three kids since the last time I saw her! They were so sweet. We arrived and left at such odd hours that we never managed to get a picture of all of our kids together, sadly. But her sweet Natalie was all hugs and smiles. They had a tent in their basement with sleeping bags for Jay and Rose--genius. They fed us French toast for dinner and then we played in the back yard a bit before tackling bedtime. Once everyone was mostly settled, Jessie and I stayed up way too late (pre-roadtrip) talking and talking. There are some people that just FIT and Jessie is one of them! Around 11:15pm I reluctantly pulled myself away and went to bed. 

Sinclair gas stations were always a hit. The compulsion to climb every thing and jump off grew stronger with every hour on the road. Who was I to stop them? 

 Sleeping in the tent.

We were too caught up conversing at night to take our first-ever picture together, but I remembered in the nick of time...early the next morning. Haha, excuse our sleepy eyes but THERE! A picture. And then back on the road again.

The funny thing about GPS estimated drive time is, it doesn't factor in bathroom breaks and gas-fill-ups and leg-stretches. Our 12.5 hour journey on Monday slowly morphed into a 14-plus hour day. It's hard to be exactly certain on the time because we crossed a time zone somewhere in there and our van's old-school GPS kept trying to adjust the clock's time but it kept changing it the wrong way and then my phone didn't have service for about 7 hours. We experienced 11am for at least 3 hours that day. I was totally stressed about getting to the Sullivans' house at a not-too-late hour, but as the day wore on it became more and more evident that we would be drastically later than I had originally told them. The worst part was I had zero phone reception in the wilds of Wyoming so I could not TELL them about our probable tardiness!

Here's the story of one delay: Cheyenne, Wyoming is more or less the last outpost before the real wilderness hits. We arrived there in time for a late lunch, and I was determined to get Chick-fil-a. Thankfully my phone was still working at that point, and it took us straight to a nice big mecca of all things chickeny. And don't forget that lemonade! Cool sweet tangy bliss slipping down my throat. All of that went smoothly, although we did have to go about 10 miles out of our way to get to Chick-fil-a. We were able to cut through Cheyenne for a shorter route back to I-80. While we were driving through downtown, Rose said she had to go potty. Ok, no problem I said, we're downtown. There's got to be a public restroom around here somewhere. From that point on, every single gas station and other likely public restroom was on the opposite side of the street, across six lanes of traffic. I kept driving, thinking surely there will be at least ONE on our side of the street! But no! We hit 80 and even crossed to the other side with zero luck. 

So with an increasingly frantic Rose bouncing in the back seat, I zipped onto the interstate, determined to take the next exit. Thankfully it was only a minute or two down the road, and we whizzed into the nearest gas station. By that time Rose was at her breaking point. She still didn't have her shoes on, but she couldn't remove her hands from her bum long enough to pull them on. When she finally did, poo happened. Jay didn't even have a shirt on back there, much less shoes, and Rose was exploding before my very eyes. I grabbed Amber and a panicking, staggering Rose and made a dash for the gas station, calling back to Jay "close the door when you get out, and come find us at the bathroom!" [he often forgets to close the van door] Trying not to look as frazzled, exhausted, and desperate as I felt (and definitely failing miserably), I plunged through gas station door (that a patient policeman-looking guy held open for us) and did the practiced eye-sweep over the tops of all the merchandise for restroom signs. Rose was walking with her legs bent and apart, clutching her bum, and I was holding Amber and pulling Rose along. 

The women's restroom was locked with a little "occupied" sign. Without even pausing, I went straight into the door labeled Men. Don't get too nervous, they were one-room bathrooms so I wasn't totally intruding. Somehow Rose got onto the toilet and I threw her poopy Elsa undies into the trash can (no way was I about to drive another day and a half with poop smells wafting all over the van!). I did pause briefly to imagine what the next guy to toss his paper towel in there might think of the little girls' underwear in there--haha. Rose sat and sat and sat. All that time, I defended the grosser parts of the bathroom from Amber's curiosity and wondered where Jay had got to. I even peeked out of the bathroom door a few times, looking for him. He was nowhere in sight. My blood pressure started rising again. There just wasn't enough of me to go around and Jay was probably kidnapped by some creepy truck driver! Either that or I was about to be arrested for negligent parenting by that policeman who opened the door for us. Swallowing my rising panic, I hurried Rose along and at last we exited the men's restroom and started a nervous search for Jay. Sweet relief! There he was, standing next to the door to another bathroom! What kind of gas station has bathrooms on both sides of the room? I've visited a whole lot of gas stations and that was a first. Whew, we collected patient Jay and I herded commando Rose and wiggly baby back out to the van. 

I pulled around to fill up the gas tank (we did not have time to park that far from the door upon our arrival), opened the trunk, extracted a pair of clean underwear for Rose, and filled the van with gas. While Rose was struggling into her fresh undies, I decided to check Amber's diaper. Lo and behold, more poop. I changed her on the van floor, with Rose's bare booty wavering in my face. When I glanced at her, I noticed some...residual poo clinging. With a bare poopy baby bum at my knees and a bare poopy 5 year old bum at my eye level, I used wipes-a-plenty to clean them all up. At last everyone was put back together and all the poop was disposed of and the gas tank was full. We buckled back up and hit the road for the second half of the days' journey. Only 6.5 hours to go! Moan.

Rest stops were our friends on the way home! On the drive out, we mostly just stopped at gas stations and did the gas-potty-runaround all at once. We needed more stops on the way back, so we separated gas fill-ups and potty breaks as much as possible (minus the Cheyenne Poop Debacle). Rest stops are much more fun to dash around than gas station parking lots. Just ask Amber. 

 There seems to be some strange competition between rest stops: who can create the most abstract sculpture? The kids didn't care--more things to climb up and jump off!

 I thought an official "road trip" picture was in order--the kids thought otherwise. Must run! Must climb! Must jump!

 Ugh, I almost didn't post this blurry picture of Western Nebraska, but there you go. It was blank and bleak.

 Wyoming.

 Eventually on Monday afternoon, everyone fell asleep except Amber and me. So I turned on some Abba and we had a sing-along. One of the four words Amber can say is "mama", and when Mama Mia came on, she perked up and started saying "mama! mama!" during the chorus. It was the cutest thing I saw all day.

 Amber looked a whole lot more comfortable than Rose.

At long long LONG LONG last, we arrived at the Sullivan house, a mere 2.5 hours later than planned. Helen's homemade chicken pot pie was still hot and delicious, even at almost 9pm! When we emerged from the Wyoming cell phone death zone, I managed to inform our hosts of our late arrival, although by that point, they probably already figured it out since we were not there yet, haha! Did I mention that Helen is Jeff's cousin on the White side and she is a true kindred spirit in so many ways? She is. She and Casey were splendid hosts. Helen and I went running in the rain together on Tuesday morning--I can't even remember the last time someone asked me if I'd like to get up early and go on a run together, and not cancel, even in the rain! It was such a cleansing run--the rain was cool and fresh and my legs were glad to shake out all that driving. The Sullivan kids are just tons of fun--Jay and Rose did not want to leave! Neither did I, and not only because of the whipped cream flingin' waffle breakfast we enjoyed together. 

 These kids fell right into step together, playing a raucous game of hide and seek before we had to hit the road again. The Sullivans know how to treat company--the kids dashed to the end of the street and jumped and waved, giving us such a sendoff! We left feeling pretty good about ourselves. And then 10 minutes later we came back to retrieve Jay's yellow blanket. 

 The road was not too pretty on Tuesday, March 22nd in Salt Lake City. A winter storm hit just as we were leaving, pelting us in our second round of snow in two days.

 Nothing makes me revert to my high-school Tennessee girl self like driving in snow. SHUDDER. 

 We made it out alive and survived the next 9 hours with Harry Potter on CD, a couple of movies, naps, plenty of snacks, and music.

 Her FACE! hahaha

 More jumping...

 Our first sight of Washington--across the Columbia River!

 An hour and a half to go and Amber wasn't sure if she'd make it. I pulled out my last desperate trick: Go-Gurt. I got Go-Gurt for Jay and Rose on this trip because they rarely get it and they love it. I refrained from giving any to Amber because I hate the way it smells and I knew she'd get covered in it and I'd have to smell it for the rest of the drive. I was right, but thankfully it was only for the last hour or so, and it kept her wonderfully occupied for longer than I hoped.

WE MADE IT HOME!!! We pulled into our very own driveway at 6:30pm local time, after a grueling drive. Thank goodness for our dear friends and family along that route--it would've been 100 times worse without them! After all of that driving, the measly 3 hour drive to Seattle is going to feel like the blink of an eye. Let's go visit Grama Meri!

Road Trip Appendix

Amber's box of tricks, aka the junk box

A quick word on the how's of this massive road trip undertaking: there are three secrets to solo-roadtripping with kids.

1. Preparation!
2. Snacks!
3. Media! (books, movies, music, audiobooks)

FOOD: I kept a box of food on the front seat next to me, so I could access Amber's snacks and my own munchies. I put a cooler on the floor in front of the passenger seat, with milk, cheese, carrots, and other cold things in it. Before each day of driving, I packed Jay and Rose each their own lunchbox full of their snack allotment for the day. Along with the normal apples and crackers, I got a bunch of STUFF that we never get normally, so it was exciting and new: fruit snacks, chips, the aforementioned sickly-sweet-smelly GO-Gurt, those funny little drinkable applesauce pouches, granola bars, string cheese, popcorn, and probably some other things that I'm trying to block from my memory. The kids could eat their snacks any time they wanted, but once they were done, they were done. That way I didn't have to field requests for food and risk crashing into a guard rail every time someone got bored/peckish. We brought one meal to eat (like sandwiches) per day and we ate out once per day. That kept us in a nice trim budget while still keeping the trip new and exciting (since we hardly ever go out to eat at home). 

BOOK BOXES! Jay and Rose each had their own box of books next to their seat in the van. Jay was in the back seat, and Rose was in a captain seat with her book box wedged between the two captain seats. Her box had some books for Amber in it too, plus some art supplies. They had easy access to their own mobile library via their book boxes. Back in February, Amazon had a sale on its low-end Kindle Fire tablets, for $40 each. Jeff and I conferred and decided that they were a worthwhile investment, with pending travel and with the wide range of e-books available through the library. The night before we left for Missouri, we unveiled the Kindles, loaded with various games and books. Those little devices were gold for Jay and Rose on the road. Rose loved her Kaleidoscope app, where you can draw nifty mesmerizing kaleidoscope pictures. Jay loved Minecraft and Calvin and Hobbes comics.

As for Amber, my little wild card, I considered various plans of attack before settling on the junk box approach for her. I rummaged around the house and filled a small box full of items with as many different textures as possible. I tried to put things that she had never played with before in the box. It really was mostly a box of junk, but I did also add a small stack of Lego Duplos, a coupld of bristle blocks, and a few other real toys. Whenever Amber was fussy or bored back there, I reached into the box and handed her another item. Whenever we stopped for gas, I'd try to retrieve as many of the discarded items as possible and return them to the box to re-use. Of course at some point in each drive Amber was completely done with every single thing, even her beloved Wub, and at that point it was either time to sing her crazy songs, turn on a movie, or just grit my teeth and let her fuss herself into a long-drive stupor (you know, glazed eyes). She survived, as long as I let her run run run every time we stopped. 

We brought about 15 DVDs in the car. I am of the opinion (warning: Shaina opinion vs. ideal vs. reality) that kids don't NEED movies on road trips. That being said, the purpose of our road trip was to do something fun and exciting together, not to torture the poor kids! And watching movies in the car is fun and different (since I usually refuse to turn on a movie on any drive less than four hours--mean mama that I am, haha). So I kept an open mind to the number of movies they wanted to watch. I didn't set boundaries, I just let it play out. Jay and Rose ended up each choosing one movie per day on the road. Their other forms of entertainment were enough to fill in the intervening hours. And I managed to insert plenty of Harry Potter audiobook cds into the mix.