At Least It's Not As Bad As Texas!

Our road trip has been interesting to say the least.  As with most of our trips, we went into it with VERY low expectations, and so, starting from there, it's not too bad, and actually, possibly... good.

All the kids are good travelers, but we were slightly worried as we drove down the road, not even out of Iowa, and Eli started to get fussy.  We waited it out, tried to distract him with a few new toys, and eventually, he drifted off to sleep.  At that point, we enforced the "If the baby is sleeping... we keep driving policy" and we made pretty good time, only stopping to refuel, and at those stops use the restrooms and grab food.

Eli received a new toy from Uncle Chris and Aunt Beth before our trip to keep him busy.

It was all going great, we were happily moving along, and with bedtime approaching for the kids, it promised to be a quiet night on the road.

Really, we didn't know how far we would go, where we would stop for the night, or if we were going to just sleep for a few hours in the van at a rest stop somewhere along the way, but we did know that we wanted to get to Arizona as quickly as our crew would allow us, so we kept moving down the road.  

It was somewhere in Kansas that Derrick was starting to get sleepy, so he let me drive.  At the gas station pit stop, we met another family, who were traveling with 4 boys as well, on their way to Arizona from Minnesota.  Traveling home from visiting family for the holidays, the mom of the family said she was looking forward to a quiet ride as we said our short hello and good-bye.  I was thinking the same thing as I watched them pull away a few minutes ahead of us.  Night driving (as long as you aren't tired) is a great way to travel with kids as long as you can grab a few hours of sleep too before they wake up for the day.

Eli was such a happy traveler!
Especially after a refuel and diaper change.

Little did I know, when I took over the driving, that the worst of our trip was ahead of us.  About 30 minutes into the drive the snow started to come down.  Now, the temps were hovering around freezing, so the snow really wasn't too bad, mostly just light flurries, but it was enough to accumulate on the road.  This snow, when it was put together with a dark, unlit, two-lane highway, with lines barely visible in perfect conditions, and large semi-trucks barreling down the road at 70-80 mph, kicking all the snow up in a whiteout effect with each passing, made the drive extremely stressful, and at times frightening.  A few occasions, I would loose sight of the road, let off the gas (for fear the road could be slick) and weather out the multiple wind gusts from the many, many, many semi-trucks that passed us by, hoping the end of the snow was near.  Derrick, understanding my fear, watched the radar on his phone from time to time and apologized as new storm after new storm popped up in our path, making his claims, "just a few more miles and we will be out of the worst of it", wasted breath.  

Finally, in what seemed like FOREVER, we were out of the snow and I think out of Kansas too.  I made a comment to Derrick, as we were getting to the end of the storm... "that was bad, but it still wasn't as bad as that time we drove through Texas after the ice storm".  He agreed, there might not be anything that will top the stress and ice mess we encountered along that Texas drive.  That was unforgettably terrible!

I didn't want to experience that difficult drive again, so I decided I was going to drive as far as I could as long as it was clear and dry and everyone was asleep.  The road ran right along a train track, for many, many miles, and through many small towns.  A few times I was thankful we had stopped and filled up with gas earlier, as the signs read "no services" for 80-mile stretches or more.  We buzzed through Oklahoma and Texas, then around 4:30 AM, when I was getting pretty sleepy, we crossed the New Mexico state line.

I was thankful for the safe trip (I had done a lot of praying along the way) and quickly filled up the van at the gas station and switched places with Derrick.  He decided he was still sleepy, so we tried to find a place to park and get a few hours of sleep before the kids were awake.  It was hard to get a spot that didn't feel like it was in the middle of everything, and most of the good places were taken by other sleeping travelers, then as we tried to settle into sleep, Ethan and Everett woke up.  Wide awake, they moved and fidgeted, making it hard to sleep for everyone, so Derrick decided to drive for a short time until everyone drifted back to sleep, then pull over at a rest stop to grab a few more hours of sleep himself.

He did that, somewhere around Cuervo, NM, and in that time I fell asleep too.  He had a hard time getting comfortable in the driver seat because Eli's seat was behind him.  We switched places (me in the driver seat and Derrick in the passenger seat) and right about the time I was asleep again, Eli woke up.  With fear of him waking the whole van, I quickly pulled him from his seat and nursed him back into dreamland.  In the process, I too fell asleep.  Between waking to switch sides nursing a baby, starting the van every now and then to warm it up inside (it was still at or below freezing with the outside temps) and not being too comfortable in the first place, I think I possibly got an hour of sleep?  Possibly a few minutes more?  But as soon as the sun came up all the kids were up, so we started back on the road.

Hungry kids turn into whiny kids, so we started our hunt for food.  There wasn't a lot to pick from besides fast food, so we held out for a Denny's restaurant further down the road.  We quickly ordered and waited for our food.

While Derrick spent some alone time in the restroom, regrouping for the extended drive, Eli pooped through his outfit and the kids were loud, full of crazy conversations and arguing like normal over crayons and their coloring sheets.  We were a sight to say the least, and they sat us right up front, so it felt like we were on display.  As I was nursing and managing kids, a kind man handed me a receipt and told me our bill was paid in full.  Before I could say more than "Thank you, God Bless You!" he had turned around and was gone.  I later asked the waitress if the kind stranger was a regular, so I could possibly leave him and his wife a note of thanks, but she said they weren't, they were just traveling through, so we just prayed safety travels for them and well wishes and enjoyed our free meal.  Thinking back, we must have looked a mess... and I'm sure one of the kids said "I can't believe we slept in the van lastnight!" so I'm thinking who ever it was, possibly thought we were in need of a bit of sunshine to start off our long day of travel.  They were right.

After breakfast, we loaded back into the van, and headed down Route 66 to our next stop, the Explora Science Museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico, so the kids could burn off a little energy before we continued the 6+ hours to Arizona.  It's been a decent trip so far... and at least it's not as bad as Texas!
 

This is Minion Tom, our geocaching travel companion.
He's as surprised as we were to see snow in New Mexico!