Roadtrip!

Early this spring I hatched a fabulously brilliant plan. I heard that the Holderness Family Reunion was scheduled for the first week in August, in Clayton, Idaho. "What fun," I thought, "it would be if I gathered up all the young mothers and small children in the Winn Family and took a giant road trip!" I presented the plan to my children. McKenzie was the first one to respond. I'm pretty sure that McKenzie wins the Sharpest Pencil in the Box award. She politely declined. She explained that she would have a three week old baby at the time when we were planning to leave on our vacation, and she just didn't see how "newborn", "brand new mother", "just gave birth", "five women", "nine children under the age of 5" and "6,000 miles in a car" could all go in the same sentence with "FUN!" Jamie let me know that she couldn't come, because she would be on a road trip of her own at the time, driving from Utah to Delaware by way of Nevada, Arizona and Texas. I quickly awarded Jamie the Master of Geography and Math award for finding the shortest distance between two points. Annie was seriously considering joining me, but then she went on a trial roadtrip from Delaware to South Carolina with two children and decided against Delaware to Idaho roadtrip with three. I should never have let her make the trial run! She decided to fly out with her kids and Jarom, and meet us there. It came down to Loni and Alixa, and they both agreed to join me. Wahoo! I was ready to go! What a great roadtrip it would be! Three women, a 5 year old, a 4 year old, an 8 month old and a 1 month old!

At the crack of dawn on Tuesday, July 28th, we were not ready to go. But we did get ready by about noon, which was only three hours later than our intended departure time. In all fairness to the passengers in my Excursion, they were all packed and ready long before I was. But we finally did fit everything into the Excursion. "Goodness!" Alixa exclaimed, "There's enough stuff in this car for a small army for a month!" I explained to her that we were a small army, and we were going to be gone for more than a month. Suitcases full of clothes, diapers and wet ones for the babies, snacks for all of us, sleeping bags, sheets and towels for the camping nights at the reunion, toys for the little girls, movies and CD's for entertainment, an extra CD player and portable DVD player, plus headphones, in case we didn't all want to watch and listen to Finding Nemo eighty-seven times, car seats, booster seats, Map Quest directions, cell phones, credit cards, cash, paper towels and a lap top - with the thought that we could just buy anything we forgot. We pulled out of the driveway and started heading west. We could barely see Alli and Madison in the back seat, tucked in between all of our belongings.
It occured to me that we would have been terrible pioneers! We would never have fit our stuff into a covered wagon or a handcart!

Barely two hours down the road, we had to make our first stop. I was too sleepy to drive and needed a replacement. Jenna had an explodo diaper and needed a diaper change/bath/new set of clothes. Taya wanted to nurse. Alli and Madison both had to go to the bathroom. We'd been in slow traffic on the two-lane Pennsylvania highway due to a traffic accident, and when I looked down at the odometer, I almost cried and turned around to go back home. In two hours, we had gone only 50 miles! Quick math told me it was going to be mid-November when we got to Idaho!

Fortunately, we soon found our traveling groove, and learned to cruise right along. Well, for us it was cruising. Our pace would have driven any red-blooded American male crazy! Good thing we didn't have any of them with us! The first night we made it to Cleveland, Ohio. July 29th we arrived in Champaign, Illinois. The 30th, we stayed over in Omaha, Nebraska. By the end of July we found ourselves in Cheyenne, Wyoming. This is a wonderful, beautiful country that we live in! We loved driving across it and watching the landscape change. Each part of the country is unique and picturesque. We also enjoyed listening to the different accents we heard at the rest stops when we stopped to get gas or a cool drink. August 1st we stayed in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and on August 2nd, we pulled up right on time for the family reunion in Clayton, Idaho. We had logged 2,650 miles! The kids had all been amazingly good little travelers! They had discovered all kinds of ways to keep themselves occupied in the car for hours on end strapped into five-point harnesses. For example, you can.....

SLEEP

GIGGLEREAD A BOOK
PLAY GAMES ON YOUR LAP TOP
HANG OUT WITH YOUR COUSIN LEARN TO CROSS STITCHTAKE YOUR TURN DRIVING AND DRIVING AND DRIVING...
You can also take advantage of stops along the way. For example, you can....

STOP AND VISIT RELATIVES YOU LIKE ENJOY THE SUNSHINE AND A BOTTLE AT A REST STOP

FIND TREASURES IN THE REST STOP LAWN

DO SOME FLOWER ARRANGING ON THE PICNIC TABLE Until at last you arrive at your destination, and find lots of people that you love waiting there for you! Brothers, cousins, sisters and friends! And you know that the long, long trip was worth it after all!