One thing you should know about this blog is I’m going to tell it like it is. I’m not going to sugar coat things to make it sound like Mary Poppins and Mr. Rogers went on a road trip. Anyway, chances are you already know how these things go, especially if you have kids!
Today was a long day. It wasn’t a bad day at all it just felt incredibly long. That’s because like I said in my previous blog, we’re just trying to get to Georgia at the moment.
When we first left, everything was so neat and organized in the car. I was amazed and proud of us at how well we did with packing everything. It didn’t feel like we were bursting at the seams like in previous road trips. Everyone had plenty of leg room. Usually, as the Mom, I end up carrying a lot of stuff up front with me, but even I had a lot of leg room. We bought plenty of snacks and put them in the back, in an organized fashion. We have a big container of individual bags of chips that we bought at Sam’s. The plan is to use them to go with our lunches and we would just stop at different stores and get sandwich stuff. This way we have more money to eat at nice restaurants for dinner. We would have good weather and I even pictured traffic flowing along smoothly. Yay, go us!
Not so fast. Here is how today actually went:
The kids started eating the lunch chips shortly after breakfast. Somehow, things in the car slowly gravitated up towards me and not only that things apparently started reproducing because our car started feeling a lot more packed then before. It rained off and on between Longview and Jackson. We got in not one, not two but three traffic jams. I was tired all day because I was up late writing last night. We drove past a couple signs of things that looked interesting. Normally we love spontaneous little things like that, but today neither Anthony or I felt like stopping and the kids didn’t care. The organized snacks looked a lot different after two kids tearing through them all day. I started thinking I needed to go back and read some of my previous blog posts to get some advice from myself.
We finally got to the hotel, got checked in and went to go get some dinner. Then Joshua disappeared, which made me panic even though this kid is the size of a smallish adult and it’s not likely someone would grab him. We were parked in the back and he had decided to walk all the way around the building rather than going out the back door with us.
We got back from dinner and now we are settled in for the night. Our car needs to be cleaned out and reorganized in the morning before we head to Georgia. We will make it look like it did when we first left. Then we will see what it looks like by the time we get to Grandma’s in Georgia.
But like I said, it wasn’t a bad day. It was just a long day. And tomorrow is going to be an even longer drive, so I’m going to call it a night.
Things rarely go exactly as we plan do they? That’s okay too because life would get pretty boring that way. Share your stories with us in the comments below.
I had four small children myself who are now grown and I have two baby grandchildren. We took many road trips, and yes, they were exciting and fun, but oh were they sometimes very long and difficult. LOL. I wish, however, that I could go back in time and have those “difficulties,” how time does fly. Now, when my daughter or son talks about how hard it can be (and it really can be), I tell them to hold on tight to these days because they will fly by. I loved my life with my kids, but boy the road trips were exhausting. My main problem was that with four kids, close in age, there was a lot of fighting in the car, which totally got on our nerves. Once we got to the destination, the fighting stopped and the fun began. I understood, I hated being cooped up in the car for such a long period of time. I give you credit to record your journey. Your children will look back on your blog fondly some day as a record of the good times they had as children. Good luck, and I look forward to continuing your journey with you.
Hello, I read your post.
Thanks for keeping us informed with your travelogue. Well, like you said towards the end that things don’t always go as planned. I had made plans to go for an occasion today, I had dressed and was on my way to my car, just then I received a call that my kid got into a minor accident. I had to let everything else go to attend to her distress call. At the end of the day, she was okay and it was indeed minor shock resulting from the accident. I later had to communicate with my hosts concerning the reason I couldn’t make it to the occasion.
I know as a parent all our plans and everything take a backseat to making sure our kids are okay, safe and have everything they need. I’m glad your child is okay! Thanks for your comment.
Hi Barbara,
Great article! I myself don’t have kid but I have nieces and nephews I’m pretty close with so I can relate to things not going how you planned them. Snacks are always a big things with kids. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve fed my nieces and nephews and then 10 minutes later they’re asking for snacks. Lol
I look forward to reading more about your family trip.
Thanks Barbara for sharing your family’s road trip with us. It reminds me of the many road trips we had a few years ago. There was Philadelphia to Texas, Philadelphia to Mississippi, Philadelphia to Georgia and some other shorter ones. Those were good times that were sometimes stressful but it was fun to be with the family.
Road trips are a very good way to actually have time to interact with your family members. Enjoy them.
You are helping me remember. Just know that you will only remember the good times! Have fun. I’ll be watching!