Travel Triumphs and Tribulations

My husband and I LOVE to travel. We were both bitten by the travel bug in early adulthood, and if we had our way, we'd be in a plane, train, or automobile probably 50% of the time. Having James has put a serious crimp in that part of our life. We tried some mini-vacas when he was still an infant. Results were mixed. While a trip to see G-squared was a success, a long-weekend with friends in Branson had us driving home at 10pm a day early. That one was so scarring that we haven't ventured more than an hour away from the house.

Don't get me wrong - there isn't a place out there that would make me give up my sweet son, but we do miss being able to take weekend trips. So we decided it was time to give it another chance. We figured we'll never make it on a 12-hour trip to the beach next year if we can't master this road trip concept. This past week we took a two-night trip to see my brother-in-law, about 6 hours away.

So, with Explorer packed, we set out. In an attempt to stave off temper tantrums, we planned carefully our route, stopping at the 2 hour mark for some entertainment.

We settled into the car after several hours at the zoo. We'd kinda skipped naptime, so we were thrilled when James crashed in his carseat. We woke him up in time to stop for dinner, and then continued on our merry way. I'd like to say that the remainder of the trip was blissful, but that would be a lie. The use of the word "NO!" was frequent from the back seat, and the DVD player was removed when a certain size-7 foot couldn't seem to stay away from the screen. But we made it without having to pull the car over for time-out. And not to worry - we were apprised of every single truck once the pint-sized-traveler was awake. ("Tuck! Biiig Tuck!")

The visit itself was great. James loved spending time with his uncle (and his uncle's dog), and we also got to catch up with one of Matt's friends from college and his GORGEOUS daughters. Other highlights from the trip included:

* James spontaneously calling the hogs after we'd pulled up behind a Tide-bedecked-minivan.

* Many, many "bus choo-choos." (This would be a bus, but he wished it was a choo-choo.)

* Old McDonald had a sea lion?

We made the return trip about 48 hours later with similar conditions. Were it not for the need to pull over a change a tire in the middle-of-nowhere Alabama, the trip home might have even been uneventful. Again, not that it was the picture of blissful patience from either the mother or the child, but it was certainly tolerable.