roadtrip

Steve got home from his last day of clinic (again, with the obvious streak of panic running through him that our friend, Dryw, could sense in the first 2 minutes of him being there), our good friends, the Waites came over to see us off and help us pack up everything we'd need for the next 9 months, picked up some In-N-Out, and started for the road about 7:30 pm. Doesn't Steve look like he was run over by a truck exhausted? You'd think I would be since I was the pregnant one doing all the packing all day and taking care of Parker while he was at school, but he stresses more so I think everything equaled out. Plus I had my burger so I was carefree.

 After repeating the cycle of sleeping for 30 minutes then waking up and screaming for 20 minutes multiple times, we finally arrived in Seligman, AZ (aka middle of nowhere) about midnight. Stayed at the super quaint Supai Motel, and woke up to this beaut across the street.

Get 'yer kicks *pow pow* on Route 66.

We picked up a bottled smoothie, doughnut, and a gas station frozen breakfast burrito (heated it up in the gas station microwave and everything) as we filled up on gas and were outskies.

 I had prepared an entire bag of dollar-store goodies, even had Steve drill holes in an Elmo travel-sized wipes container so Parker could put these little felt balls in the holes (and throw them all over the car) over and over and over again, and he was actually pretty entertained by that! I also got this travel tray that wrapped around his carseat that was great at times so we could put food or games on it, but other times he was kicking it off, yelling "wan it wan it!" (I don't want it!). It was a constant battle of providing new entertainment sometimes every five minutes, or figuring out what treats he wanted. He wasn't used to sitting in front of the iPad for that long, but as the trip went on, he got more used to it. I told Steve when we drive to Utah in a couple months, I may have to do most of the driving and he play passenger/mommy because it's hard to unbuckle your seatbelt every five minutes with a huge belly to turn around, reach over the seat, find what he wants, clean up whatever mess he made, etc. We stopped in The Land of Enchantment (New Mexico) for lunch, then made it to Amarillo, TEXAS!

The motherland.

Parker was enjoy himself too much to get back in.

I don't blame ya, kid. Not one little bit.

 So we blasted his brains out and rolled down all the windows.

 Seriously the flattest thing I've ever seen. Love it.

 That night, we unpacked in our hotel and walked down the street to Denny's for dinner. My heart had never been warmer to hear so many "y'alls" and "ma'ams". 

That kid ran like I've never seen him run before. Dinner was a little insane, he could not sit still. There was light fixture pulling, there was blinds opening, there was jumping over the booth into the next booth over in-between shoving bites of egg and pancake into his mouth, there was running into the kitchen, there was lots of yelling greetings such as "hi!" and "two! (I'm two!)". It was madness.

After the scene was over, we got outside, and again, the running in circles ensued. On repeat.

Nonstop.

I don't blame ya, kid. Not one little bit.

The next morning we ate our continental breakfast at the hotel, including biscuits and gravy (Texas knows me all too well) and headed for home, Dallas.

Parker was still in denial about the fact that he'd be in the car all day long again.

And Steve got a ticket. Decatur, TX is his faaaaaaavorite.

We arrived home, relaxed for 10 minutes, then began unpacking our pods that had arrived at my parents' house the day prior. We fit a lot in Michael's room, then took two truckloads over to Spencer's garage and stuck our piano in their living room. We got to meet the newest member of the family, their second little boy, Caden. He looks just like his brother, Grant (here with Parker), and is the cutest little guy. Steve wants to cut Parker's hair like Grant's, but I just can't bring myself to do it. 

The next morning, we took off bright and early for the country music capital, Nashville. Steve was shocked to see how green East Texas is, and it stayed that way as we went through Arkansas, and of course Tennessee. Super green and lots of trees, it was beautiful! At one point, we pulled over to the side of the road to switch drivers and you could hear the thick, dense trees absolutely alive with I don't even want to know what kind of bugs and animals.

M-I-S-S-I-P-P-I. River, that is.

 Parker succumbed to his seemingly-never-ending fate of sitting in the car all day and wasn't quite as bad as the previous days. Yay for Elmo and 11 hours of torture in the car!

I was super excited to eat some good BBQ in Nashville. Turns out one of our friends, Kyle and Mekelle, that we cruised with before optometry school (here) were going to be there the exact same night for a tri she was doing the next day. Of course we met for dinner, and it was as if we hadn't skipped a beat. It was so much fun catching up, and it seriously made me long for the Provo days.

 We went to Edly's BBQ and got fried okra, pulled pork sandwiches, cornbread, mac and cheese, and potato salad. The atmosphere was great, especially since we got to eat outside under a string of lights as the charming Nashville folk perused the streets.

 I think I kinda, maybe love Nashville.

Another hotel stay that evening, then packed up for our final day of driving. All. Day. Long.

We finally took a little blessed advice from my sister and stopped at a McDonald's for lunch with a playplace. Parker got out all sorts of wiggles, but still threw a fit when we got back into the car. We still felt better about seeing him scurry around that playground like he's never scurried before. 

The drive through Virginia was indeed, the most beautiful. I wish so much that I had stopped to get a picture of the lush, green landscape with picturesque barns and pastures filled with cows, a single country house surrounded by a white picket fence among acres and acres of rolling hills.

It was beautiful.

You know what else was beautiful? Pulling into my aunt and uncle's house, as it signified the end.

We had made it.

43 hours of driving in 4.5 days.

Never, ever, ever to do again.

Phew.