10 am- And we’re off! Again we got a late start, planned to leave at 8 this morning and it seemed like we were off to a good start but after taking pictures, saying good bye and tracking down a missing shoe we weren’t off until 10. Oh well. We’re in the van listening to Christmas music. I’m not a fan of the sappy contrived story type songs, they just don’t do it for me but I do like most Christmas music otherwise. Jeremy just found Journey on the radio- fun! After only 10 minutes in the van the girls were fighting, being super loud and requested the road trip games. What in the world! I don’t like to bust those out until we’ve been on the road for a couple hours. Gave in though and the backseat is all quiet. Jeremy’s driving us over a bridge, I’m going to miss the beautiful water and beaches here, TX may be on the gulf but it isn’t what I’d call the pretty side.
Looking for a grocery store, we need some junk to much! Carrots, I mean carrots.
3.27 pm- Found a grocery store and got carrots, grapes, broccoli, cauliflower, pretzels and a few not-so-good-for-you munchies. There are now Cheese Nips all over the van. It’s quiet time now, Helena and Evangeline are asleep, Lavinia and Ophelia are just barely restraining themselves from killing each other. My favorite? “Ophelia bit me!” from Lavinia followed by “On accident!” from Ophelia. How exactly do we manage that? Never mind, I don’t want to know.
Jeremy’s driving in rain outside of Tallahase. I have yet to drive today, Jeremy gets car sick easily if he’s not driving so I put aside my love for the road to keep him from barffing. It’s well worth it and I just pick up my love for knitting, writing, napping or snacking. I do wish the rain would stop, it’s slowing us down. The rain is coming down so hard it’s hard to see and what we can see looks like we’re driving on a river. My nap was interrupted first by Ophelia and Lavinia’s sweet expressions of love for one another (please read that with a sarcastic inflection) and now by the down pour. Fitful nap, car ride, week long visit with parents throwing off Evangeline’s sleep pattern and you have a recipe for a grumpy Jessica. Looking for Starbucks. I need coffee, water, and to pee. Where are the M&M’s?
4.30 pm- Quiet time is sooooooo over. Starbucks was located, good ol’ drip coffee for Jeremy and I and little hot chocolates for the three big girls. Those now consumed, Ophelia and Lavinia have created a new game using their cups to shoot the lids at each other. It’s actually very funny and they are laughing their butts off with background music provided by the African Children’s Choir. Helena has decided she needs to do school work however and is getting angry with her sisters’ noisy game. Try as we might, we can’t get her to understand that quiet time is done for now and it’s a good time to be loud. Strange, she usually thinks it’s always a good time to be loud. Hours and hours in a van with family brings out the best in everyone!
4.54 pm- Just passed the exit for Sneads. Love that, what a superb name, Sneads. Who wouldn’t want to live there. Hi, I’m from Sneads, Florida- hold the jokes please. BAHAHAHAHAHA! Someday I’m going to write a children’s fantasy book and I’m so using Sneads for a character or town.
8.08 EST/ 7.08 CST pm- We poured so much crap into our bodies for entertainment (not recommended by the way) that we just now stopped for a very late dinner. My parents eat a lot more meat than we do and Jeremy and I were craving veggies in a bad way so we jumped at the chance to eat Subway- both of us got Veggie Delights and boy, did they taste good! I forget how wonderful a pile of veggies wrapped in a tortilla really is. The girls devoured their sandwiches and had seconds. Lavinia announced that she’s finally full. That will last all of 10 minutes if we’re lucky.
Back on the road now we’re going to start looking for a hotel fairly soon I suspect, the rain and wind provided a successful delay to our mileage today, we haven’t even made it out of Florida yet. Still hoping we will but we’ve only averaged 50 mph so probably just barely. Oh well, better safe than sorry. But man, I would love to have more miles under our belt to keep tomorrow from being ridiculously long. I took my turn driving just as it got dark, super windy and rainy again. Kept me on my toes. I love driving so I really didn’t mind. Woohoo! There’s the exit for Pensacola! Not much longer and we’ll be out of Florida. Finally feels like we’re getting somewhere.
8.20 EST/7.20 CST- Lavinia just declared that she found a hotel with hot breakfast, we should stop there. She was crushed when Jeremy informed her we aren’t stopping yet. Thanks to the time change we’ve gained an hour. The tired family says yay.
8.10 central- I wrote a song! It’s been a while, for some reason it just hasn’t been flowing and this song idea I’ve been turning over in my head for months finally wrote itself and got out of my head. Such a good feeling.
We’re near Pascagoula, not sure if we’re stopping now or not. It is still raining but not as hard as it was and Jeremy’s going at a descent clip. I get the feeling he doesn’t want to stop until we’ve made it a little further. The car is quiet, I can’t see but I think the girls passed out. The peace broken only by the swish of the windshield wipers is a refreshing change from the chaos that has been in our confined quarters all day. I’ll try not to think about how crabby they will be when we do finally stop to go to bed. Waking up children is always just such a joy.
8.29 pm- just crossed the Mississippi state line. Another state gone! Headway is being made.
9.03 pm- stopped at the same hotel we did last week. Super tired children have crashed on comfy hotel beds watching elf and cheery hyper baby is all over the room with smiles, laughs and adorable antics. As soon as everyone settles down it’s lights out!
No comments:
Post a Comment