Monday, August 25, 2014

Homeward Bound

240/365

Tuesday, our plan was to get moving early, and get as far as we could before surrendering for the night. I woke up this morning sunburned, sore, and feeling like I'd had way too to much to drink the night before.   I had.   But we realized that Lisa's flight didn't leave until 7, we had to be out of the hotel at 11.  So the plan was to pack up, have lunch with Lisa, then we could drop her off after 11 at Karen's, a good friend and neighbor of Grandma Pat's, and she'd take Li to the airport.

The boys demanded a morning swim.  And honestly, I thought it was a great idea. Jake and I didn't swim, but I let the big boys do so.  I wish I'd remembered my camera, because Christopher made friends with an older kid and figured out how to do backward rolls.  And Sam went around the whole pool in the water, though I don't think he ever got his hair wet.  Still, their "10 minute morning swim" went for half an hour to 45 minutes.  Eric had the car pretty much packed by the time we got back.

So we loaded ourselves up into the mini-van, and went to the store.  Uncle Paul had brought out something called Buffalo Dip, Buffalo brand ranch dip.  It was really good, especially with some salty chips.  Daddy and MB loved it, so I said maybe we'll pick some up on the way out of town.  So we did.  I can do serious damage in a western New York grocery store...you know I have a loganberry problem, to say nothing of 12 pounds of hot dogs.  My Dad got 16!  It was a good thing I brought the Big Cooler.  Anyway, after our grocery trip, we decided to have lunch.


This is our party at Mighty Taco.  
What a great name, eh?  
Yeah, Aunt Judy and cousin Gretchen told us that as soon as they'd arrived in NY they'd gone to Mighty Taco and done damage at the Premier Wine Store.  Well, we'd seen that the wine store rocked, so they could not be wrong about Mighty Taco.  I see now.   It was Good and not too expensive.  It actually reminded me of Roscoe's Tacos.  Fresh ingredients. Not too spicy, and a good variety of stuff, chicken, beef, and bbq pork and choose your tortilla form. I had a Mighty beef taco, a Mighty Burrito, and a Buffito, which was buffalo chicken with blue cheese and lettuce, rather tasty.  Even Jacob ate some nacho chip strips!   



 After our yummy lunch, we took Li down the street to Karen's.  She lives two doors down from where Grandma Pat and Papa did.  My stepmom was born in that house.  Now the family has a 1 year old there, friends of Uncle Paul, and there was a play pool out back.  They'd redone the front area, Karen says they're remodeling inside too.  And the shrubbery out front was gone.  As sad as it made me, it was good to see that they are loving the home, and taking good care of it.   I think Grandma would be happy to know, it's giving another young family new life too.

Then we hit the road.  How refreshing for me not to drive.  I worked on sewing a baby blanket while Eric drove.  And we didn't stop until we hit the Pennsylvania border!



And what a beautiful rest stop! 
The welcome center was right next to a vineyard, and we could see Lake Erie.  
It was breathtaking.  So, we got rid of some trash, took turns going to the bathroom.  Eric rearranged the cooler, so we could get at the snacks, and I took the kids out back to run it off.  That felt good to them.  And Christopher finally was able to list for me the names of the Great Lakes.  I must say, as happy as I am that he finally knows them, I am going to miss his reject naming attempts, such as Superio, Erieo and Oreo.  I would not mind visiting Lake Oreo at all!


They took turns rolling down the hill. 
Well, not Jake, but he thought the chance to run wild was pretty crazy too. 


There were grape vines that actually grew over the fence, so I took the boys down to check them out.  


Beautiful growing grapes.  


And a few crazy boys running wild at a rest stop.  


Jacob was Very Interested in the grapes.  


Tee hee hee -- look what Mr. Boy snuck off the vine.  He's got a minxy smirk about his little victory.
He did not want to let it go.  The only person who was able to pry it out of his hand before we hit the road again, was Daddy.    We made good progress through Pennsylvania.   I find the boys do well if we drive and give them screens.  It's not like they can turn and play cards or some kind of other game like my sister and I used to do.   But they do well switching the dvd player and ipad.  I loaded up some treats on both for them, and they were happy the whole trip.  




We stopped in the middle of Ohio at Wendy's for dinner.  
And Jacob figured out how to drink from a juice box.  

I wanted to stop and call it a night.  But the kids were crazy.  There was not going to be an evening swim.  So we decided to see how far we could get.  Eric wanted to try to get all the way home.  


One more stop post supper, all three boys piling into an Ohio rest area bathroom.  I love that they have family bathrooms now, so we can just Take Over.  That kept it easier for me when I was traveling with them alone.  I could keep us all in one space, and they were safer.  With Daddy with us, we could split up, but we didn't always choose to do so.  I think the reason they'd gotten nutsy at Wendy's and slightly before was because they were Hungry.  Because once we got on the road again, they started behaving really well again.  And we made more great progress.  I thought, oh we'll stop outside Columbus.  And maybe we could play at Wright Pat AFB in the morning a bit, but then we just kept going.  Eric wanted to try to get home.  Oy!  And I was crazy driving to NY alone?  But then we hit Dayton.  And the boys were still happy.  So we kept going.   And then we hit the Indiana border.  And the boys were still happy.  Then we started seeing some lightning in the distance, and we thought a storm might be coming...but we were so close, the sun was going down.  Once in Indiana, we had to just go for it.  So we did.  We got home at 10:30.  And we'd watched a huge lightning storm for the last hour and a half of the drive.  Sam and Jake crashed, but Chris stayed awake until the end.  And as we pulled into our neighborhood, it started to rain on us.  We'd managed to avoid the rain and crappy weather until we got home.  Then there was a nasty storm, but by then we were safe and sound.  Thank God!  

We had a blessed trip, for sure.  But now we know, we can theoretically do the trip to New York in one day.  I have good boys.  Well, mostly good boys.  And a crazy limit pushing husband.  But I tell you what, I was Happy to sleep in my own bed.  

1 comments:

Elizabeth said...

I'm catching up on your blog. What a week you had.

We stopped at that same Penn. border rest stop this summer too! Prettiest one I've been to. And the boys ran and ran and ran up and down that hill out back too! :)

Plus...I'm with you on the screens. We drove over 3000 miles in 2 weeks out east this summer. The iPad and 3DS were awesome. The boys were happy and we could keep truckin'!