We generally like to leave about 2 a.m., that's our sweet spot. But with our move, right before the road trip, we weren't yet unpacked...which made packing nearly impossible. The kids were so excited they had a difficult time falling asleep; and the grown-ups just didn't end up sleeping
at all because by the time we were done packing up the rental car we realized we only had 15 minutes until it was time to leave! And then the kids woke up during the transfer from bed to car, and didn't really go back to sleep because of the anticipation of seeing their cousin Grant and Uncle Ralphie when we stopped in Corvallis for a bit of a rest...about 8 hours away. (Can you imagine how many "Are we there yet?"s that amounts to?)
Since our current place is quite a bit smaller than our last place, and it is not a place we plan to be in for all that long, we were taking some stuff to Oregon to store on the farm. Which meant packing the car to the gills. And that translated to a side mirror only situation, which T found stressful. Add in the lack of sleep. The awake children. And, well...this was the first time driving shifts have ever been instituted or enforced on one of our road trips, it was also the first time we had to pull over and attempt to sleep for 20 minutes at a rest area. We managed to stretch this drive out so long that it rivaled the snowy trip of Christmas 2008 when T had to stop to breastfeed a 2 month old C every two hours!
In the end, we made it to our destination and we were safe. We took no unneeded risks, and managed to laugh away even the most severe case of the grumps.
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| Cluny did well on his first road trip, but was happy to run free for a minute! |
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| This is how we do |
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| teamwork, little dogwalkers |
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| stalking his prey |
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| C found this "grove" of wild mushrooms |
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