Twelve hours in the car with a toddler? No thanks! That was my initial reaction to Allen's suggestion that we drive to Wichita Falls for Thanksgiving. Samuel is not too fond of being strapped down and unable to move around and he usually expresses those feelings very vocally. Sometimes we are lucky to make it to Ft. Collins with out protest and that's only 45 minutes away. Although, once we checked airline tickets and saw that they were nearly $400 a piece we realized a car trip was the only option.
Our plan was to leave in the late afternoon and drive most of the way while Samuel slept. We took off around 4 PM, stopped in Colorado Springs to eat and stretch our legs, then continued on to Texas. We wanted to at least make it as far as Raton, NM or Dalhart, TX. Around 9 PM we arrived in Raton. We decided that was much too early to stop for the night so we kept going. The only problem was that as soon as we slowed down to change highways Samuel woke up. Ugh! Surely he will go back to sleep we said.... Nope! He spent the next several hours intermittently playing quietly in the backseat and occasionally fussing to let us know that he was ready to be snuggled up in bed. Unfortunately, we were in the middle of nowhere and each town we passed looked more run down than the next. Mom took the wheel and we pushed on to Amarillo. I figured that as long as he was riding well we would keep going. He would have the next day to catch up on sleep.
On the way back home we decided to tackle the problem differently. Since Samuel rode surprising well in the car, especially once we put Yo Gabba Gabba on the portable DVD player, we left mid-morning and drove all day. We almost made it home too but we got stuck in Colorado Springs due to an unexpected snow fall. Thankfully, the Air Force Academy had room in VOQ so we stayed there overnight.
I'm glad the trip was less painful than I envisioned, especially since we will be traveling by car much more once Samuel turns 2 and isn't able to fly for free. I was proud of myself too! I usually hate car trips since they often seem to drag on and on. My coping strategy is to sleep but this trip I didn't nap at all! Allen and I talked and listened to NPR or music on our satellite radio. I really felt like we enjoyed each other's company and had a chance to spend some quality time together. We have talked about buying an RV in the future for family trips, but I worried that I would get bored while we drove. After our first successful road trip I'm starting to like the idea more and more!
