Road Trip(s)!

A milestone like high school graduation necessitates a milestone like a cross-country road trip to research George Washington with one's constitutional-scholar-father and little sisters. Or at least we thought so. So Justin packed the three big girls up in the Volt and "Head[ed East], Young Man!"  We will let the takers of that trip report on it momentarily; Lia and the younger children sat idle for about two minutes before heading out on a spontaneous road trip themselves: Minnesota or bust!

Though it seemed spontaneous, actually a few minutes of planning had gone into it. Learning the night before that Jini and her family had descended upon Chari and her family in Minnesota, and seeing a golden opportunity for the little kids to play with their little cousins while the big girls were off doing their big girl things, we checked the distance on Google Maps, threw together a suitcase, and loaded the car. We also thought ahead enough to stop at the Apple Store down the road to get a phone charger that actually worked in the car, then off we went. Just in case anyone else has the thought to make a 19 hour drive with a 9, 7, 3, and 1 year old all by herself, I will give you some information. Make sure the fun on the other side of that drive is sufficient to make it worth it. Luckily ours was!

 The first night I made a slight miscalculation, not realizing how much of nothing lay between Wyoming cities. I knew we could easily make it to Casper, but wanted to be as far ahead as possible, and so booked us a hotel in Gillette. An extra two and a half hour drive (in looking at it now, I think the high wind advisory in place at the time must have led us the long way) had us pulling into town at 1 am to sleep in a Super 8 that didn't have anything for a baby to sleep in. (Tip one: always bring your own pack'n'play!) Around 3 am, after pacing the halls as quietly as we could muster, Gabriel finally fell asleep. But we were up and at 'em to make it to a 9:30 am church and then continue onward.

As much as I would have loved to make it all the way to Pine City that night, I just couldn't do it. Patti swooped in to the rescue and booked us a Sheraton hotel about two hours shy of our destination. The kids definitely noticed the difference between what Mom books and what Grandma books. Abdiel still hasn't stopped identifying every Super 8 he sees and heaping maledictions upon its sorry head. We awoke dark and early the next day so as not to miss any playtime, so dark, in fact, that we drove away without my wallet. Luckily I was inspired to get gas right away, so the omission was soon detected, and we were on the road without too much delay to play, play, play.

 I seem not to have taken too many photos with the Egans. 😟While all were together we went to the Pine City town lake, went fishing at another lake, went intense razor riding slash mudding, played with RC cars, rafted/walked down the river (Egans) to meet up and catch crawdads (Abdiel and Ras) and be eaten alive by mosquitos (Collings), and generally had a grand old, little kid time. I hadn't thought out how long to stay at the Dotys, but the decision became easier when I heard that Dustin would be leaving on a trip the same day the Egans were leaving. I could either leave Chari and her darlings to be work widows like we were, or we could join forces and hold down our forts together. 

 

Together is, of course, always better! We went to another super fun lake that has a Swedish sister city, did some missionary work with a returning sister and her kids at church on Sunday, visited a cool granite pools state park, went down to the temple and the Zoo in Minneapolis, and, once, again, generally had a romping little kid time.

 At least some of us did. A thing for which we are holding that crummy Super 8 fully responsible was Gwyn picking up a double eye, double ear infection. She was a good sport but pretty miserable for a lot of the trip, and I finally took her to an InstaCare after we went to the temple while Chari took Abdiel and her kids to the zoo. They prescribed her a heavy-duty antibiotic which left her better at DeSmet, SD where we toured Little House on the Prairie sites but throwing up at Mt. Rushmore and all across Wyoming. A Good Samaritan who had worked with preschoolers for 40 years and so was used to cleaning up bodily fluids mercifully came to our aid in a Walmart bathroom to clean up Gwyndelin while I cleaned up myself. We made it home on a prayer, a Domino's pizza, and a whole lot of Alexander's Amazing Adventures.

When counting the costs of anything, the opportunity cost must also be taken into account. In reviewing these pictures I recalled that by going to Minnesota, we missed out on nine hours of solo-flying little league baseball games taking into account both Go-Get-Em Gwyndelin's and A-1 Hitter Abdiel's commitments. Let's just say we'd do it again in a heartbeat!!