1200 miles in 4 days...

This past week we took a long road trip to Ohio.  We traveled 1200 miles over 4 days.

We rented a van, as my van has two missing seats to accommodate Nesiah's wheelchair.

We rented this van from our neighbors. A chevy 15 passenger van. We picked it up and loaded all our bags on Thursday afternoon. The kids were hanging out in it from the moment I picked it up! They were sooooo excited! 

6 pm Thursday evening we left my house, we picked up 2 families and one friend's brother. We had 2 couples, one young guy, 2 infants, 2 toddlers, 2 - 8 yr olds and 2 - 9 yr olds. I was the one and only driver for this long drive! 

 

We drove all night, through heavy rain and traffic. Finally around midnight traffic and rain eased and traveling went much faster! The kids did really well. The big kids slept, the little kids slept and ate, the men sat in the back talking about land shopping or cows or something,  while us ladies chatted up front! We made one stop for gas and a potty break at about the 5 hr mark!! The kids thought it was great fun to have a midnight snack! We finally  arrived at our destination at 2:30 am!

We stayed at my friend's aunt's house... We walked into the house at 2:30 am, snuck upstairs into the reserved bedrooms. #plaincommunityhospitality
 The big kids went right to sleep, so quickly in fact that my boys missed the fact that they were "GASP" sleeping. IN. A. GIRL. BEDROOM with PINK FLOWERS!
However "someone" wanted to play and because of the "needed playtime". I did not go to sleep until 5:30 am. Thankfully "playtime" did not involve screaming and everyone else was able to sleep! Thankfully that 25 ounces of syrupy strong coffee keep me fully functioning!

Elizabeth who was sleeping with me, woke me up at 7 am to tell me she was itchy... sigh. No more sleep for the momma. Now the dreaded part. I had to go downstairs and meet our hostess! I was grungy and tired. I had slept in my clothes for those few hours I had slept. Not exactly the most pleasant way to meet new friends!

Thankfully my friend (who had slept at another relative's home across the street from us) had stopped over to talk to Mrs. L, so she was able to do introductions.
But what a fascinating family!!!  This family is conservative, they dress a lot like the horse and buggy Mennonites but they have no electricity. The house was immaculately clean and very beautiful, but simple.
Mrs. L had prepared a breakfast casserole, cereal and milk along with fruit and yogurt for us, the table was set and everything was set out for us. There was no one around when I opened the door to the main floor. I hesitated until I heard voices around the corner...

I peeked around the corner into  a small room filled with medical supplies, 2 wheelchairs, a hospital  bed, a suction pump and the most adorable, freckle faced, blond 9 yr old boy. His momma was combing his hair and straightening his clothes.

We had an instant connection. This momma, who has 3 children in heaven, who had the same genetic disease that Little L has, was loving caring for him, while chattering away to us. She did not seem the least bit frazzled to have 5 extra people for breakfast and finished her care of Little L before serving us. We had the most interesting conversations about our loved ones in heaven and our loved ones who require 24 hr care. I was absolutely blessed by this family's kindness and our conversation. 

Soon it was time for us to move on to our next stop, The Creation Museum. That will be a post all of it's own! So we piled kids into the car and headed off to the museum. Tired momma, tired kids...We were so excited to be on vacation, but our bodies simply wanted to sleep! 

We enjoyed our time on vacation and then headed home on Sunday morning!

This time it was with much less enthusiasm and energy. lol
We left at 10 am. My kids were silly and grouchy before we ever left...

(we were not driving at this moment)

We traveled 2 hours before stopping for a potty break. It was hilarious to watch people's reactions as we climbed out of the van in some rural Ohio town, first there was several men wearing jeans and suspenders accompanied by 2 black boys wearing sweats and t shirts. This was followed by several covering and dress wearing women with little ones, finally here comes a white momma wearing jeans and a tshirt, accompanied by 2 little black girls, everyone filed in, used the bathroom then filed right back out. #weprovidedtheirsundaymorningentertainment

We drove several more hours before we stopped for lunch right before getting on the dreaded turnpike! I had packed sandwiches and snacks for the kids so I took them to the gas station while our passengers ordered subway.

Another "huh" moment.. we pulled up to the gas pumps, the kids piled out and were goofing around waiting for me to fill the van. I was standing off to the side. This young black guy pulls up beside us, car thumping, hat sideways, drawers drooping, he hops out, looks at my kids and my van, then peers around the pump to get a look at me. The look of surprise on his face showed that he CLEARLY was not expecting to see a large white woman answering to "mom" from these beautiful children. My children were not amused when I nearly collapsed with laughter. They were sure he was a gangster who was about to rob us.

We filled our gas tank, emptied our bladders and headed back to pick up our friends, ready to travel our final leg of the journey. We had brought hours and hours of audio books. However the babies did NOT like when we played the cds. Little E. was quite unhappy for the majority of the trip. However her crying kept the other lil one quite entertained. The kids all did really good until we were about an hr from home. Big boys got silly, big girls got nitpicky, little boys were screaming, babies wanted out of carseats, parents were sick of traveling and whining kiddoes... I put the peddle to the metal...  we arrived at our first drop off in a little over 7 hours after we had left Ohio.

It took me another hour to drop everyone off, refill the van with gas, unload our junk and return the van. I was simply exhausted, but ran to get Nesiah, who had stayed with a friend. (I managed to break her wheelchair which is yet another story for another post) I had planned to pick up fast food for the kids, since there was not much "quick fix" food in the house, but I forgot my wallet! At 9 pm, I finally had all my kids under one roof and by ten everyone was sound asleep with full bellies!

This was def an adventure my children will remember for life. We had fun and I really truly enjoy traveling with my kids. I love that we have the flexibility to travel and hang out with all different kinds of people from all walks of life.


My favorite comment from all weekend... our hostess had expressed distress at what to feed my "African american" children. I responded with they are really "Amish-African-American children" and their favorite food is chinese!