1st trip for 4 – The Full Report - Part 11 – The long, long road ahead
So, we leave AKL and we are off. We have went through our entire 2 cases of water that we brought and don’t have any water in the car. So, I say we just stop at any store we see and buy a case for the drive home. Well, the first store sign we see is SuperTarget right off property.
As a side note, my notes from this point on are very sketchy. Between Chris and I switching off, exhaustion, the need to just get home, etc, I forgot to write down many things. So, I’m trying to piece together the incomplete notes, pictures I have taken and memory. I’m missing many odometer readings and temperature gages so, please forgive me!
3:19pm (8 minutes after we pull away from AKL) we stop for a case of water at Super Target. I buy a couple of bags of chips as well for the ride home. One of our last purchases at Johari just a few minutes ago was a 3 pack of rainbow colored suckers for the kids. So, each girl gets a sucker and they are working on those quietly in the car with Chris while I’m in Target.
3:40pm – Back on the road after some rearranging in the car. The kids have finished their monster suckers! The ramp to the freeway is right across the street from Target parking lot. $1 toll. We pray the rosary for a safe trip and during that time, we pay $1.25 toll on the Turnpike.
4:15pm – 42 odometer – pay toll $2.50
4:35pm – we stop at a service station for a potty break and to buy a bag of tangerines and grapefruit.
We break open the Funyuns for lack of something better to do. Isabel asks me to play stickerbooks with her so, we’re sticking away…
6:02pm – mm 413? – rest area. It’s my turn to drive as Chris is starting to get drowsy. What is it about the ride home that it ALWAYS SEEMS TO TAKE LONGER AND WE CAN’T STAY AWAKE!?!?!?
6:10pm – back on the road.
6:57pm – 204 odometer – 61 degrees - Enter GA. It’s colder, it’s getting dark. Sad, sad, sad.
7:34pm – mm 47 – Rest area #5 in Cook County, GA. While we are at this rest area, BFF texts us. They are 20 minutes behind us?!!! How is that when I thought that they left at 8am this morning? Turns out that they didn’t leave until about the same time we left! After they did laundry this morning and packed and checked out, they went shopping! So, they got a late start and will be driving through the night as well. We all decide that safety is in number so, we are all going to drive home together. All. Night. Long.
We wait a few minutes for them to get to reach us at the rest area. Then is a caravan of 3 cars. Now, it’s a party.
7:53pm - Back on the road. I’m still at the wheel. BTW, it’s 57 degrees. Not cool.
8:25pm – exit 82 – True truck stop kinda exit. McDs for dinner and gas stop. Gas station bathroom is mega gross btw.
8:40ish pm – Back on the road. As we pass by exit 102, we realize that we should have stopped at that exit instead. Note for next year.
11:51pm – exit 269 – kids are sleeping. Chris is sleeping next to me restless. I am feeling tired. My contacts are drying out and I need to take them out. Just trying to make it to this exit. This is the exit in Kennessaw that we stayed the night at on the way down. Boy that seems like forever ago. We are in DESPERATE need of starbucks. My back is hurting and I’m trying to adjust in my chair and apparently I’m swerving. My BFF’s husband behind calls me asking if I’m falling asleep. My back is just hurting. Haahaa… So, this was the best exit for us. Chris and I switch driving.
12:10am – It's now officially Sunday morning...back on the road after starbucks and gas stop. It’s 51 degrees. Yuck, we’ve still got our Florida internal temps on.
4:00am ish – 710.4 odometer – 35 degrees - Stop at Kentucky welcome center. I just slept through Tenessee. All the parents are sleepy. So, we all decide to park it here for a few hours and get some z’s. The kids are wide awake. And we make a bed on the floor for them to stretch out using their pillows, small blankets and coats. Chris and I recline the front seats all the way and drift off into uncomfortable dream land.
7:45am - We decide as a group that we’re going to start driving again. The sun has risen and traffic at the welcome center is starting to pick up. We decide to go to the bathroom and while we are going to the bathroom, BFF and their cousins decide that they need gas and will go to the next exit and gas up while we are going to the bathroom and getting the kids all situated.
8:15am – Back on the road. When Chris turns the car back on, the low tire pressure light came on. It looks like it’s the front passenger side tire is low. So, we drive carefully to the exit that BFF is at.
8:36am – exit 24 - Chris has to buy a tire gauge and it is the front passenger. He brought a bag of tools in case of emergency but, no tire gauge. We get air in the tire and the light goes off. Might as well gas up and go next door to McD’s for breakfast on the go. I’m really starting to hate McD’s. I put on my contacts during this tire emergency.
8:52am - we are back on the road.
9:51 am – KY mm88 – 51 degrees – First Meijers sighting. Anyone in the Midwest knows that when you start to see Meijers, it’s not too much longer anymore.
10:30am ish – mm127 – rest area stop.
10:47am - back on the road.
11:41am – Enter Ohio. Just a note that the last mm in KY was 189 I think. We couldn’t find it anywhere on the map or anything so, just wrote it down for next trip. About this time we split up from BFF. They need to stop for one of the kids that needs to go potty immediately. So, they pull over at the last second and we are already past the exit ramp. So, they bid us farewell and we’ll just see each other back home.
12:05pm – mm 27 – Rest area. Kids are animals and need to run and stretch. So, we let them do it here.
12:20pm – back on the road. BTW, there are premium outlets at exit 29 to stop at for a stretch and a meal if needed for the next road trip. I take the wheel.
12:23pm – mm32 – we hit construction. There are still 3 lanes and it’s moving fairly well. Traffic moving at posted construction speeds.
1:30pm – mm92 – we stop at KFC for lunch. Area is not anything special. Food is just OK. I think we are all sick of fast food and want home cooked meals.
2:06pm – back on the road. 62 degrees
3:50pm – 1108 odometer – 65 degrees - Welcome to Michigan!!! WE ARE ALMOST THERE! It feels like we aren’t “on the road” anymore but, just driving home. Don’t know if any road warriors can relate but, we aren’t really counting miles anymore because we are home. Sometime before here, Chris and I switch and he’s driving again but, I don’t remember when we switched and I didn’t write it down. Opps.
4:26pm – I see the RenCen and Ambassador Bridge. We really are home. We pass the train station (where movie Transformers was filmed). There is a Lions game going on as we pass Ford Field. Tons of people are out and walking over the freeway.
My parents are at our house already with food. Thank goodness.
4:44pm – How did we get 10 miles away from home without a drop of gas? With 19 miles to E, we stop at Costco and gas up. At least that’s one less thing we need to do tomorrow. This really is the last stop before we get home.
5:06pm - We pull into the driveway – it’s 65 degrees the odometer is about 1200 miles ( I dropped my pen somewhere in the car and took a picture of the time and odometer but, now, I can’t find the picture!)
I’ve got 2 sleeping kids, my parents are waiting w/ dinner on the table and as soon as I open the car door, the kids shoot up and run in the house never missing a beat. They are talking (more like screaming) over each other trying to tell my parents what happened and what they did and who they saw.
Chris and I unload the car. I get started on some laundry before being buried alive in the mud room w/ clothes and “stuff”. I’m so glad Chris and I have the day off tomorrow. I love this vacation.
But, back to life. Back to reality.
