The trip

I know, I know, I have not made an entry in so long but I do feel I have a good excuse. I will bring you up to date and we can start from there, be warned it is going to be a long entry.....

Well, here we are in good 'ole Texas! We left NY on Friday June 12th. Firstborn was already home with us because due to another incident at her wonderful school I did not send her back after Tuesday (that could be a whole other entry). We were all excited, we had the snacks loaded in the car, we had the cooler with all the drinks, we had bags of activities to keep our kids entertained and possibly Bebop (Gramps). We were unable to fit everything into the moving truck so after claiming dramatically that I couldn't live without anything we gave a few choice pieces to our friends and neighbours. Soul mate gave up a lawn mower and a grill with a promise that this Fathers day would be one to remember. The kids gave up their desks. Me?....well......I forget

So anyway we leave at 6.00pm, feeling slightly like the Beverley Hillbillies with the dog, gramps , kids and a big old Penske. Our goal was Cincinnati Ohio. We sang songs, we told jokes, we had packed the 2 way radios so cell phone calls were rampant, we laughed, we cried, we whined , we moaned and we slept! 2am we were in our hotel in Blue Ash, Ohio.

Saturday morning, goal North Little Rock, Arkansas. We had a filling breakfast at Bob Evans, which took way too long and did not get on the road until 11am. Soul mate was not a happy camper and this is how the day went. Looking at the darling TomTom (Samantha I owe you one!) we knew we just were not going to handle another 10 hours of driving especially when literally 8 minutes after leaving Bob Evans I was being asked if we were there yet, the DVD player had broken and we were drawing an imaginary line down the back seat which we had already crossed over several times resulting in "brat and meanie". Oh it was going to be a long one! ( is cracking open a beer at 11am while driving wrong?)

Cancelled the hotel in Little rock and planned to get to Memphis Tennesee. This was accomplished by 6.30pm at night. Found a hotel that would take dogs, had dinner, swimming and hit the hay for the last leg of our adventure.

Sunday morning wake up call for 6.00 am, on the road by 7am and excitement was brewing, Today we would be pulling in our driveway!!! Making great time as it was a Sunday with no traffic. Suddenly, it got darker, and darker, and darker, and holy Sh@%! have you ever been to one of those water parks where there is a huge barrel that dumps gallons and gallons of water on your head? Well, I was driving thru one of those in Memphis. I was leading the whole way with Penske following. I could only see 2 white lines in front, the winds were 80 miles an hour (no kidding), crawled to an exit and waited the storm out at a gas station. Advised by the gas attendant that this was series of 3 hurricanes and the third was to hit by noon. Gulp! we got outta of there asap and headed to Dallas, Tx. Due to the fact that I had also packed my cell phone charger we made a stop the day before and bought another set of 2 way radios, which made the drive go by a lot quicker, especially when every time baby got on the radio he always addressed his father as "whassup my brother!!!" Finally 6.00pm after 11 hours on the road we pulled in to our new abode. Wow! some trip, what a house and let the adventure begin.......