We Have Arrived

It has been a long day. By the time we loaded everyone and got fuel it was about 5:00 when we headed out of town. Mapquest gave us about a 10 hour travel time. I had already planned the route I wanted to take, but I wanted to see what Mapquest had to offer. I have found errors in the directions given by Mapquest before. Specifically directions to my house. They leave out an important turn. Anyway...I figured with potty stops it would take us about 12 hours. Yep, I figured in two hours of potty stops. Let's face it. Public bathrooms are disgusting. Luckily, we had a Cracker Barrel about every 10 miles on our journey. Their bathrooms are usually pretty decent. Twenty to thirty minute potty stops are part of my travel tip for the day. When anyone in your traveling party calls for a potty break, everyone traveling has to try to go. Adults included. My family is use to this rule and everyone cooperates. This does take extra time at the actual stop, but you don't have to stop again 10 minutes down the road. Besides Cracker Barrel having clean bathrooms, there is a bit of room to stretch for a few minutes. Don't rush the potty/stretch breaks. It will make for a more enjoyable ride.

So our 12 hour trip turned out to be a 15 1/2 hour trip. Traffic in general wasn't bad. There was a bit of congestion in one major city, but it was flowing. The problem was two accidents. We crawled for an hour while the first one was cleaned up. The second one blocked both lanes and involved 3 vehicles. We came upon that one right after it happened and as emergency crews were arriving. I have a picture, but my camera got left in the car and I am not going to go get it at this hour. It was pretty messy, but thankfully everyone involved in the crash was walking afterwards. We sat for an hour and a half. P.K. and I were entertained by all the people who couldn't stay in their vehicles. They were walking right up to the accident sight and asking how much longer it was going to take to clear the accident. Each time the police and other officials would tell them to return to their vehicles. I'm sure the officials wanted to say, "Oh. We didn't realize you were tired of waiting. Please feel free to fly right over the pile of mangled vehicles!" It was a good lesson in patience. We were very thankful that we weren't directly involved.

After all the potty/stretch breaks at Cracker Barrel, it seemed only fair to everyone to have lunch there. That took an hour, but it was yummy. Something we have done in the past which didn't really work with Cracker Barrel is to let the kids run around while we eat and then let them eat in the car. It works really well if you come across a McDonald's or similar restaurant with a play area. We have also done this at rest areas. Rest areas are perfect because they usually have large grassy areas. You can give the kids a bottle of bubbles (which don't take up much packing space) and let them chase after them while you eat. Eating in the car will entertain them for 15 minutes. Can you tell I am about every entertained, whine free minute I can get in the car.