23 August 2005

Rachmeg's trip

how many times did you threaten the kids to pull over and/or come back there?

Goe, trying to have a good day.

2 comments:

Jim said...

From home to Myrtle Beach is about an 8 and a half hour trip, meaning that if we can get there in anything less than 16 it is considered pretty good. Actually this year was pretty easy, the girls are old enough to entertain themselves, and the boys are still in diapers, strapped into seats they can’t get out of and sleep a lot.

The worst year for traveling, was the year we had just potty-trained my oldest girl, and my wife was 5 or 6 months pregnant. I don’t think we could go 40 miles without stopping for someone to pee, or get out to stretch. That, and bad traffic, created the year we set the record 16 hour trip.

We have had enough big-family traveling, that I think we have found the best method for us. Although we couldn’t get into our place until Saturday afternoon, we try and get there in time to hit the beach first thing Saturday morning.

We had tried the drive through the middle of the night while the kids sleep thing. You quickly realize the downside of that when you arrive ready to pass out, with a bunch of bouncy wide-awake kids.

Before we left I was pretty stressed about a hurricane that looked like it was going to hit here, there or both. We were also expecting some pretty bad traffic because they were cutting a main artery through D.C. from 8 lanes down to 2 for the weekend. Both turned out fine.

Basically, we left not too early Friday morning, stopped at playground about halfway down and let them out for an hour, drove some more until about 5 and ate at a Cracker Barrel, and then drove until about 9 when we got to a Holiday Inn Express in Shalope (Just outside the Beach, but where the prices start to come down.) After a good night’s sleep and a decent breakfast, we drove the last 20 minuets to the beach. It was a wonderful trip.

Since you didn’t ask about the actual trip, I’ll leave that part out.

However, the trip home was an entirely different matter, while recovering from a last night at the beach hangover, some idiot thought it would be a good idea to try and push it, and get home as quickly as possible. We ended up not getting out of the place until almost 10. Even though we packed bag lunches, we still needed to stop for a 45-min pee/diaper break (what in the hell are girls doing in there?) After some rain, and bad traffic, "get home early" became "just get the hell home". Although we were not going to stop for a real dinner, we promised the kids pizza when we got home. The batteries on the dvd player went dead, a favorite CD was scratched, and at some mysterious point a thin layer of breakfast cereal was spread throughout the entire passenger compartment of my Suburban. By the time we pulled in at 9pm we had spent at least the last 2 hours with someone (and usually more than one someone) constantly screaming, fighting, and crying. I am also pretty sure that I was one of the ones crying part of the time – but the memory is starting to blur… Then the Ravens lost terribly.

Rach – learning backwards.

Goemagog said...

ouch. rest up then.

Goe, glad he's not going on a road trip