Having a child has not changed this one bit for me. I have taken Cooper with me on many a visit to spend time with family and friends. His first airplane ride was at 5 months. We have been no strangers to traveling with a child. The experience is definitely harder, but still worth it.
A couple months ago, my friend asked if I wanted to drive with her to Florida. Her parents live in Orlando and they were going for spring break. At first I said "yes" then I said "no" once I realized I'd be seeing family the week before (for a wedding) and the week after (for another wedding). After I had told my friend no, I got a message from one of my closest friends from college saying she'd be in Florida from Alaska for a couple weeks, with the dates of my trip and her trip coinciding for a while. And, that, my friends, is not something I could say no to. A ride to Florida is easier than a flight to Alaska, and I hadn't been able to hug her neck in 2 1/2 years. Knowing I wouldn't get this opportunity again for a while, I called my friend up and changed my mind to "yes" for good.
My friend and I (2) loaded her kids (3) my child (1) plus a friend's daughter (1) into her van and left on a Friday afternoon, pulling into her parents driveway shortly before 6 am on Saturday. If you were keeping track, that's a total of 7 people. Adults were outnumbered, 5-2. I was expecting cries, lots of potty breaks, and my brain to be completely tired by the time we got to our destination. I was completely surprised that the trip seemed to be a quick drive. We stopped quite a bit for breaks and still managed to get there in 15 1/2 hours. I was also surprised how my friend and I were both able to stay up the entire night. Neither of us slept, thanks to conversation, a good book we read aloud, jimmy fallon episodes, brian reagan, and good music.
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| This was the view from our kitchen window the morning we left. I texted my friend and said "Get me out of here!" |
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| When the kids are asleep, you go as far as you can. |
When we pulled into her parents house, all the kids were asleep. Not wanting to wake them too early and disturb the peace, we slept there in the van for about 30 minutes until I couldn't take it anymore and had to use the bathroom. We both used the restroom and the kids started waking one by one. We moved to the house for a while, freshened up, and hung out until my brother and friend picked up Cooper and myself around 8:00.
As tired as I was, I was also ready for breakfast. So, we ate breakfast, showed Cooper the UCF campus, and visited an outlet store to look for some UCF gear.
Once we were on the road I was excited. Orlando is a 2 hour trip...tops...to my parents house. Then, hello Spring Break traffic in Orlando. Hello everyone and their mom vacationing at the beach that week. It took 3+ hours to get to my mom and dad's. It was awful. The only great things about this drive were the company of my brother and friend, and getting to ride in my brother's new car. It was stop and go traffic on most of I-4, then stop and go again when we got into the county where my mom and dad lived. (Turns out there was a tragic plane accident...probably causing a lot of the traffic problems).
It was probably the longest three hours because I hadn't slept. But also probably the longest three hours because I was excited to surprise my parents. I had only told my brother and friend who was with him that I was coming to town. My parents had no idea that we were coming. And the anticipation and nervous feeling hung around in my stomach that whole drive. So much was leading up to that moment we pulled in the drive.
Mom as at the grocery store when we got there. When she came in, we couldn't get the cameras on in time to record her reaction. It was pretty much the same excitement, though.
So, the shortest 15 hour drive, and the longest 3 hour drive - - - completely worth it. Surprise, we were in Florida!
Also, score! - when you visit your parents and they take over child duties so you can sleep.
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