On the Road Again... New Mexico Here We Come!

The drive time said 14 hours and 36 minutes (956 miles) on the map.  Driving with kids always amounts to more, and not wanting to sleep in the van makes for a long day on the road, so we had a hard time deciding when to leave for this trip.  I, as always, procrastinated on packing, and this time it was until the day of our trip.  I guess you can say my lack of pack was the majority of the hold up in the exact time of departure.

To be honest, I don't know why I've been lacking motivation lately... it seems EVERYTHING takes 10 times more effort to do, and I'm always doing it while holding a baby, and I get interrupted a million times in the process, then I forget what I'm even doing... so lately, my production in "moving in the right direction" has been pretty low and the whole process is exhausting.  I'm sure things will improve, if not, I guess this is what life is with 4 kids, and I'll get used to it.

Despite it all, the packing was completed around 8 PM Friday evening, and after discussing what our evening drive would be like, and the fact that sleeping in the van our last trip (at a rest stop) was NOT very restful, we disappointed the kids by delaying our departure a few hours and getting one last night of sleep in our beds at home.  To say they were disappointed is an understatement, you would have thought we told them we were not going on the trip at all by the way they were all crying, but we stayed firm, told them we would be leaving before the sun was up the following day, and they finally decided that they could live with our decision to leave early Saturday morning and everyone went to bed.  

I had planned to wake up before 4 AM, but when that time came around (after waking at 2, 2:30 and 3 AM with Eli) I was still tired, so I slept in a bit and finally got out of bed around 4:45 AM.  I dressed, packed up a few last minute things, and then finished packing the van.  I woke up Ethan around 5:30 AM (so he could get the full effect of "leaving when it was still dark") and just when I thought we were minutes from leaving (as we loaded the DVD player to make sure all systems were go), Elliot's DVD player was broken and I needed to hunt down the additional player and switch it out.  So, with all intentions and prior preparation, we didn't get on the road until 6:30 AM, but that was still before the sun was up, so the kids were happy.  

The trip was pretty uneventful, and the scenery was pretty boring, so we let the kids watch movies, play their Nintendo DS games for a large stretch, and somewhere in Missouri they read each other books and enjoyed activities they packed in their activity bins for the trip.  

On the road to New Mexico!

Ethan was a great big brother, reading books to Everett along the way, in between movies and video games.

We were all eager to see what Kansas looked like, as the last time we drove through it was dark and everyone was sleeping, but once we crossed the boarder, it proved to be nothing spectacular, except for the many oil Derrick's we saw along the way (I was surprised to see so many).  The kids, had a great time shouting "there's Derrick" with a choir of giggles, as we passed one after another after another after another.  Oh, what we find enjoyable after many hours in the van!

This is Kansas.  Flat and empty.

Elliot slept, Eli played quietly. and everyone did great.  A few times Eli started to get bored of his seat and scenery, and I attempted to trial toy after toy to keep him entertained, but after a few minutes he was happy, or asleep, and we kept moving southwest.  

We didn't stop much, just to get gas and our normal routine of me nursing the baby while the others used the bathroom facilities, and a quick stop to grab a photo of a road sign, claiming to be the Midway point between San Francisco and New York (that I read about on RoadsideAmerica.com), so we made pretty good time. 

Midway U.S.A in Kinsley, Kansas

Two lane highways were the majority of the trip.

Derrick, who wanted to watch the ISU basketball game, decided we would stop at a restaurant with a TV sometime around dinner, so we could stretch our legs and eat.  There wasn't much around, just a lot of rundown gas stations and grain silos, so we ended up stopping at a Pizza Hut in Boise City, Oklahoma, to eat, recharge and watch the game.  Eli enjoyed walking around the table as we ate, stretching his little legs and enjoying being out of the car seat. 

As we were finishing dinner, Derrick's parents came through town too, and as we left, they took our seats and finished off our leftover pizza and pasta so we didn't have to pack up leftovers.  It worked out pretty well.  

The evening drive was not so great for me, the sinus infection I had been battling for weeks was starting to make me feel terrible and I could tell I was running a fever and had terrible body aches, so I decided to call the doc for a script so I wouldn't suffer all week.  It was a little after midnight when we arrived at the Walgreen's in Santa Fe, New Mexico to grab my script, and around 1:30/2 AM we were checked into our room and sleeping in our new location for the week.  It was nice to be off the road and somewhere new for the week.