Road Trip Gone Bad

I took the girls on a road trip to Nashville this weekend. It was a big deal for everyone. It was a big deal for me because it's been about 10 years since I've driven five hours by myself. Dave always drives when we're together and that's fine with me. It was a big deal for Dave because he hates for the girls to go anywhere in the car unnecessarily. (It's just safer to not.) It was a big deal for Solana and I because we would get to see her old Colorado friends. We've seen them once since we moved almost 3 years ago. Solana and the little girl have known each other since the mom and I began carpooling together 6 years ago. They were just babies at the time.

The girls did pretty well on the drive down. I left at 5am so they slept the first two hours. Chloe was a little fussy the last hour or so. I had a box full of toys up front with me and kept handing new ones back to Solana who would present them to Chloe. I didn't run out so that was good.

But the trip back was a different story. Chloe had just endured three hours awake in the van the day before and wasn't interested in doing it again just one day later. After an hour she started crying. Then screaming. It lasted a good hour, maybe longer, before we made it to our pit stop. I knew that she was fine and there was nothing I could do to console her so I just kept driving. But then I began to doubt myself. There are other mothers who couldn't bear to let their kids scream that long. I pulled over to check her and she immediately stopped crying. I opened her door and she greeted me with a smile and, "Hi!" She was fine. Not dirty. Not in pain. The only thing I accomplished was waking Solana from her nap and upsetting Chloe even more when we took off again. Dangit! I hate when I doubt myself!

When we finally made it to our pit stop I couldn't bear putting them back in right away so we went to McDonald's for dinner and I let them play in the playground (a first). We doddled there for quite a long time. Then we got gas and went to the grocery store. I bought 7 half gallons of Blue Bell ice cream! Hahaha! This is the BEST ice cream ever! It's made in Brenham, Texas and I can't get it in Ohio so I filled up the cooler with ice cream and ice.** After an hour and a half wasted we hit the road again. Dave was less than pleased that I'd be driving until 11:30pm but later understood why I needed to give the girls a break. We drove through Louisville at 9pm and Solana got to see fireworks from the van. She was very excited! I was happy to hear her oooh-ing and aaaah-ing. Then they both fell asleep. It was pouring rain for our drive and I was a little nervous. Kentucky is truly hilly and we were constantly driving on bridges. Thankfully, I was part of a long caravan going 50 in a 70mph zone and that gave my white knuckles some comfort. Plus, the rain kept me on my toes. No zoning out on that drive! We finally made it home at 11:40pm or so and I was exhausted.

Unfortunately, the visit did not go well. We ended up leaving a day early and didn't really have a good time but I don't care to get into that here. Solana and I will have an interesting memory to talk about in 10 years or so. Our big road trip and how it went wrong. It was nice to get back a day early, though! We enjoyed a lazy family Labor Day snuggled on the couch and doing pretty much nothing (except eat lots of ice cream!)

**When we got home Dave was shocked at the amount of ice cream I bought. "That stuff goes bad, you know. We going to have to give some away." "Nooooo! I can't bear the thought!" Hahaha!