The LOOOOONG Haul

So as I stated before, we drove to Utah for Thanksgiving. Yes we are brave and we are pretty proud of ourselves! lol I think we surprised everyone except ourselves.

We said we were going to leave at 2pm on Friday and we pulled out of our driveway at 1:56pm! WOOHOO!! YAY US!! lol Things went well for most of the drive on Friday. We had one large delay from an accident where the person's trailer caught on fire. But we made up the time pretty quickly and just kept on truckin'.

My dad kept calling us and asking where we were about every 3-6 hours. He was shocked at how far we were each time. Pretty good considering he is a trucker and used to just hauling hiney! lol We each drove a stint of about 4 hours or so from the time we left until about 11:30pm. Then Kevin took over driving for the night. Since he works nights we figured he could handle it. And he did until around 6am and then he was VERY tired (so was I since I couldn't get to sleep in the car. I kept worrying that he was falling asleep driving). We weren't sure where the next rest stop was so we were just south of St. Louis and decided to find a quiet, dark exit and sleep there (like the truckers!) lol Well the one we choose of course was a huge pain because there was an oil rig there and it squeaked something awful. Tye woke up all upset. So I drove for awhile until we found the next rest stop and we pulled over to get some sleep. I figured the few hours stop wouldn't hurt us and the sun would wake us up in the morning and we could get going.

Around 7:30 I woke up and Tye woke up about then too. So we went into the potty and got ourselves together for the day and then I hit the road. Kevin was able to sleep so that was a very good thing. We really only stopped to put gas in the car and sometimes as rest stops to switch drivers and use the restrooms. We made it to North Platte, NE around 8pm our time and 7pm local time. We had dinner at Applebees and I was so exhausted I could barely order my meal!

Also right down the road was a "Buffalo Bill" Cody museum. (It was already closed for the day.) But we ran down there after dinner and took a few photos of Tye on the Buffalo out front! Don't mind his jammies, he was ready for bed in his carseat! lol

After dinner, Kevin said he felt good enough to drive for awhile longer Saturday night. I tried to sleep while he drove and did some, but not much. We pulled into Cheyenne just before midnight our time and 10pm Mountain time. We stayed at the Days Inn and I must say that bed was more comfortable than my own. It was an extremely nice hotel, especially for the price we paid! I think it had either just been built or just remodeled. Either way we were grateful for a really comfy bed! By 10:30 we were dead asleep.

We got up early to get back on the road. Around 5:30 Mountain time. We got ready and had the breakfast at the hotel and got the car repacked (which wasn't hard considering we only took in our suitcases). We were back on the road (after getting gas) at 6:45am. We only had one incident this day and it had nothing to do with driving! lol We decided to get gas in Rock Springs at the Flying J because that is where my dad said would be best. Well we did and we were hungry too. I didn't want to make the sandwiches we had taken with us so we went across to McDonalds to get lunch so we wouldn't have to stop again. Well it was 10:26am and they don't start serving it until 10:30 and REFUSED to serve us! I was like hello, that is 4 minutes from now and you won't even take our order? And she told us no they hadn't started cooking the meat. I was like, "hello, you don't cook your meat until it is already 10:30??? But you are supposed to start serving at 10:30? How does that make sense!?" WHATEVER! So we said forget it and went on our way. We stopped later in Evanston (which is where I had originally planned on stopping to get gas, would have saved us a stop had I done that to begin with! lol) and got something to eat for the road.

Another funny thing that happened almost every time on this trip was Kevin and I would start wondering why my dad hadn't called yet and within 10 minutes he would end up calling! lol I guess either we know him too well or we have ESP! lol

At 1:45pm (3:45 our time) we pulled into my parent's parking lot at their apartment. They were glad to see us and surprised we got there so quickly. So it took us basically 50 hours to drive from our house in Florida to my parent's house in Tremonton, UT. We were exhausted. We all ended up taking a nap when we got there to be ready to go for our family dinner later that night!

Oh and you ask what Tye did on the long drive? Pretty much 5 things (in no particular order):

1. Ask when he was going to see Grandma and Grandpa and Utah

2. Sleep

3. Eat

4. Play with the Aqua Doodle

5. Watch movies on the portable DVD player

We really didn't have any problems with him traveling except for him constantly asking us if we were to Grandma and Grandpa's yet. Even though we kept telling him he had to go to sleep in the dark 2 times before we would get there. I tried to find other things for him to do but he didn't want to do them, just playing with the aqua doodle and watching movies. Fine, easy for me! lol He did GREAT! I am so proud of him!

PS. The rest of this trip will come in several posts, I just don't have the time to do the whole thing in one night! lol So stay tuned for future updates.