Day 1

July 20, 2008 – Sunday – Day 1

0515 Wake up. When I decided that leaving at 7 was a decent hour, not too early but not too late I forgot that meant I had to wake up much earlier than that 0500 is not such a decent hour!

0708 Leave home. Wow – I’m impressed that we actually made it so close to 7. I was aiming for 7 and hoping for 7:30.

0712 Post office to mail the bill that snuck past and is due now!

0715 Stop at McD’s for coffee and breakfast. As we’re driving around town I’m struck by how quiet everything is – not many people out and about at 7 on a Sunday morning. They messed up our order so we had to park and go inside to fix it. When we got out Ryan said “It feels weird to walking around outside so early!”

0728 Finally leaving McD’s. After we fixed our order and went back to the car it occurred to me to ask if anyone needed to go potty. As I suspected, Ryan and Felisa hadn’t gone when they got up and got dressed. So we all went back inside McD’s AGAIN!

0742 Hear on the radio that it’s National Ice Cream Day. Apparently Ronald Reagan declared it 24 years ago. At first I think that’s impossible. He wasn’t president 24 years ago. Then I do a little math and wow, do I feel old!

0748 Hit a license plate bouncing around in the middle of the road.

0911 Call Allie with an ETA

0930 Stop for gas. $3.87/gallon

0940 Arrive at Allie’s house.

1113 Leaving Allie’s. This was a quick visit but nice. It let the kids get their wiggles out before we spend the rest of the day on the road.

1124 Stop at Sonic for a breakfast burrito and coffee then call Lana with an ETA for her.

12:22 p.m. Decide to play the license plate game with myself. So far today I have seen NH, NJ, GA, FL, VA, NC, IN

12:30 p.m. Fantasize about getting a maid when I get back. My house is miraculously clean today (I NEVER actually get it clean before we leave on a trip even though I always intend to get it clean) so wouldn’t it be nice to keep it clean when I get back. I when I say clean, I mean picked up. Other than vacuuming the living room and entryway, I didn’t actually CLEAN anything. But if someone was coming to clean my house, there would be my incentive to keep it picked up more often.

12:49 p.m. North Carolina – finally! It seemed very far away today.

12:54 p.m. Realize that we haven’t seen any cows yet today.

1:15 – 1:29 p.m. McD’s stop – potty, coffee, playground, and happy meals in just 14 minutes. They’ll eat in the car while I drive.

1:56 p.m. Get a text message from Ron. Weird because I was JUST thinking about him! And how cool is that – he can text me from his email. Isn’t it amazing how technology has advanced so much and improved deployment communication?!

1:57 p.m. Falls Lake (outside of Durham) – smells like stinky fish. Yuck!

2:28 p.m. It has been sunny all day. No sign of Tropical Storm Cristobal. Guess we’re too far inland to be affected.

3:45 p.m. Stop at a church parking lot. I’m sleepy and need to walk around a bit. I ask the kids if they want to watch a movie. Maybe that will help keep my mind occupied and awake as well. We’re getting close to Charlotte so almost there.

3:52 p.m. Oh sure – now there’s a rest stop. Where was it when I needed it?!?

4:20 p.m. Uh oh. I think we’re lost. Get the map back from Ryan and figure out that I should’ve turned onto I-77 instead of staying on I-85. Oops!

4:35 p.m. South Carolina

4:49 p.m. Stop for gas. $3.79/gallon

5:05 p.m. Arrive at Lana’s.

Mike made “chicken” (otherwise known as roast pork loin) for dinner and Bella ate it all up. Mashed potatoes and –yummy!- homemade noodles. And peas.

And now Bella and Ryan are on the couch playing footsie – just like my brother and I always did growing up. (the version where you lie end to end on the couch, put your feet together and push against each other). What’s the proper term for that? Mercy? Foot wrestling?

An update on my license plate game: AL, NY, SC, TN, OH, IL, TX, PA, and US Govt.

And so ends the first day of Big Trip 3!!!