I wish this could have been a road trip for a better reason, we had to make the trip to attend my Grandmothers funeral, she passed away last week at the ripe age of 90. My Grandparents moved to NC about 9 years ago to be closer to my Aunt who’s daughter is a nurse, she was going to help take care of my Grandfather who had Parkinson’s Disease. Shortly after moving down there my Grandfather passed away, that was the last time we took a trip. Which leads us to this trip to NC.
DAY 1 - Thursday
The plan was to leave at 6am, that didn’t happen, it was my fault, but since it was my plan to leave at 6am it was OK that we left late. I got up at 5:15, only 15 minutes later than I was planning on, hey I was tired, got to bed late on Wednesday. I took forever to get the MINIvan packed up ( it is called mini for a reason ). Minivans are not meant to be taken on trips with 6 people for 5 days. Even though we packed light ( very light ) there still was NO room in there for the kids. Two in car seats the other two big kids in back sprawled out with their feet sticking wherever they could find a crease to stretch them out.
The trip went very well considering the cramped space and all. It was made easier for the kids with the portable DVD players my parents bought for them. All in all they were very quiet and we only made 1 non planned potty break.
The only real excitement which no one but I was privileged enough experience was me hitting a flying bird, well he had already been hit and fluttering hopelessly before I …. well you know. At our first unplanned stop I got to see and remove the …. you know.
We got to Lexington KY about 4:30pm their time, got to our room which was nice but for the cost of it should have been nicer. We stayed at the Embassy Suites, therewas a living room area with a TV, a kitchen area with a sink micro and fridge and also a bedroom area with 2 queen beds and a TV. I looked at the room rates on the door and it was $400+/night for 4 people and we had 6. We didn’t pay that much for the rooms but that is insane, so what if there are complimentary cocktails from 4:30-6pm and free anything you want breakfast.
Later that night we had dinner with my parents in the hotel restaurant, a bit pricey for what was on the menu but at least there was a kids menu. They picked up the bill for dinner and the hotel. Thanks Mom and Dad.
DAY 2 - Friday
We got up at … well I don’t remember when we got up, I know it was later than I planned again, probably about 6:30. The Queen and I went down and got everyone some breakfast about 7ish and brought it back to the room so everyone could eat and get ready to go.
When I went down to take the luggage to the van, the reception area was filled with ladies all dressed up in their best Kentucky Derby clothes and big hats. Why are big hats required when attending the Kentucky Derby?
The ride to our destination in NC was once again much quieter than I had expected it to be, the kids were entertaining themselves with the movies we brought with us and they didn’t have to take many breaks. Since we had a big breakfast we skipped lunch and just ate snacks in the car, that saved us about an hour in travel time and an extra potty break. We arrived around 4:30pm about 7 hours after we left, we made very good time.
The Queens cousin got us a corporate rate at the hotel she uses for out of town clients, that was much appreciated. Under a $100 per night and only slightly less room than the Embassy Suites the night before.
Late that night we had dinner with the Queens cousin, we had a good time, thanks for paying for dinner.
DAY 3 - Saturday
We needed to get up a bit early to get to the funeral home today, the hotel had a free Continental breakfast, which basically equals a snack, so while the kids were getting ready the Boy and I went down and stacked up donuts, fruit, bagels and juice and took them back up to the room for the others.
We left about 8:30am and arrived at the funeral home around 9am, 30 minutes early. We waited around for my parents to get there but as usual they were running late, my cousins whom I had not seen since my Grandfather passed were there already there. My parents were taking too long so we decided to just go in without them.
The wake was only an hour since all of my Grandmothers family , what little she has left is in Illinois and she is now in NC. There was a short service after then we proceeded to the mausoleum for the conclusion of the service.
Afterwards we went to my Aunt’s house, she gave us mapquest directions, my brother said he would just put it into his cell phone, so I followed him. His leading skills have something to be desired, I thought when someone is following you, you are supposed to go a little slower so they can easily follow. Not him, he was doing 20 over the speed limit. He then proceeded to vary from the directions from my Aunt and took us down a dead end, nice GPS on that phone. Then he misses the exit, so we have to double back. Even with all these mishaps we still made it there right behind my Aunt.
We stayed there for a few hours, before we left we went through my Grandmothers things to see if there was anything we wanted, I put dibbs on the TV and the entertainment center ( just kidding ). The Queen took the pics of our family and I snatched the recipe book.
When we were leaving the girls ( my cousins and the Queen ) were talking about getting together atleast once a year. I have only seen these cousins probably 5 times that I can remember. Usually about once every 8-10 years it seems like and we don’t really keep in contact via email or anything else either.
After we left there I went back to the hotel to change clothes and we went to a Mexican restaurant with the Queens cousin, the food there was good and a nice change over the food we had the last couple days.
DAY 4 - Sunday
Since there was no real need to get up early I let everyone sleep in ( till 8:45 ), we got on the road about 9:40. What ensued was the longest 15 hours ever.
An hour and a half into the ride Twin 2 says ” Daddy I gotta go to the bathroom “, Ahhhhhh!!!! Not already. Everyone gets out and goes to he bathroom. But they cannot use the bathroom unless they buy something, so the queen comes back to the car with a bag full of junk.
Hour and a half later, again ” I gotta go to the bathroom “.
This is going to be a long trip.
Another stop a few hours later.
Next stop was for lunch / gas, I figured I would make it one stop and of course someone had to go to the bathroom about 15 minutes before I had planned on stopping. Usualy not a big deal but when you are driving through the mountains there are not many decent places to stop to eat. This was no exception, we pulled into someplace called O’Malleys, a Irish place in the mountains of TN, go figure. The service was good, the drinks tasted funny and the food was just ok. 40 minutes later we were back on the road, I looked down the street and there was an Applebee’s, damn we could have went there.
So far the drive has been less than pleasant, the kids are doing much more complaining than they did on the way down and we are only about 6 hours into the ride back home. Did I mention I was planning on driving all the way back in one day?
Since we were on a straight stretch of road I let the Queen drive for a bit.
Well we were driving for a couple hours when someone needed to go to the bathroom again. Since the Big One had asked the night before if we could stop and get ice cream on the way home I saw there was a Dairy Queen at the next exit so we stopped and there and got desert.
The rest of the way home had more exits and traffic to worry about so I took over the driving again when we left.
The Boy kept taking his seat belt off and the Twins kept snitching on him, I told him that they were more uncomfortable in their car seats than he was. He says ” I had to sit in those seats before and it was not that bad “. There was a comment about someone acting like a baby which brought on the Quote of the Trip from Twin 2.
Without further adeau the Quote of the Trip : ” I am a baby aaaannnnddd I .. LIKE IT! ”
It was a welcome laugh during a fairly aggravating trip.
We made our last gas / potty stop about 10:30pm, it was finally dark and I was hoping that the kids would just fall asleep. They fought it for about 30 minutes then finally fell asleep.
FINALLY, quiet time, everyone was asleep, it was only me and the open road, I cracked open a 5 hour energy drink and set forth on the home stretch. 2.5 hours later we pulled into the driveway.
I am still awake, everyone else is tired and going to bed, I suppose I will too.
I am sure the Queen will have some other comments on our trip. If the big one took any pics I will get some posted later.
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