Anyhoo, before I get into writing about the trip, I should give a bit of background on why we took the trip in the first place. My grandpa on my mom's side turned 80 years old last week. The family planned a big shin-dig in Fresno, CA to celebrate. It's very rare that this side of the family gets together in large numbers. Well, it's rare that we can go when they get together in large numbers. To save money, we drove my mom and sister, Sarah, with us in our Jeep and they contributed to the gas fund. So, the scene is set--four adults and three children on a 12 hour drive ....let the fun begin!
Part 1: Getting There: The Master Packer and the Death of the DVD Player
We planned to leave first thing Friday morning. My mom and Sarah came to our house and we proceeded to load up. We had discussed different options for hauling the luggage, since all the room inside the Jeep was filled with bodies. Nate decided that he could fit everything into a car-top luggage bag. I really didn't see how that was possible, but he is a master at packing large things into small spaces. We used every nook and cranny inside that bag, as well as inside the Jeep, but he got it done.
On Friday we planned to drive to St. George and stay the night and then finish the drive to Fresno on Saturday. We have a car DVD player with two screens for the kids that we bought in March to use on road trips. At our first stop for gas, we tried to start up a movie for the kids. Yeah...that didn't happen. Our DVD player wouldn't work. It was getting NO power. After trying everything we could think of, we pulled out the coloring books and headed down the road. Jonah and Lilly actually did really well, with very few complaints- just a lot of potty breaks.
When we made it to St. George, the first thing we had to do was swim in the hotel pool. Jonah had been looking forward to it all day. So we got our suits on and dove right in!
Jayne absolutely LOVED the water! She had a great time floating around in this little dolphin toy.
After we were done in the pool, we got to visit with some of Nate's family. His parents, sister Emily, brother Tyler, sis-in-law Rebekka and their son, Quinn all drove up from Las Vegas just to visit with us. It was so great to see everyone, even just for a short time. It was especially great to get to see Tyler before he left for his military training this last Monday. After the family left, Nate and I set out to fix the DVD player. We were NOT wanting to attempt the next day's 8 hour drive without it. Our first stop was Best Buy, where we bought the DVD player. They helped us figure out the the fuse in the car adapter was blown. Sadly, they don't carry that type of fuse and the only place that would was closed. They told us to try Checker Auto Parts and see if they had one. So we headed over there only to find that the fuse we needed was the ONE kind of fuse they didn't carry. We headed back over to Best Buy and bought a universal car adapter that they assured us would do the trick. We tested it out and it worked great!
Here's a shot of the kids getting some much needed sleep after a busy day of travel.
I think they were the only ones who got much sleep that night. They kept Nate and me awake by talking in their sleep and rolling on top of each other a zillion times during the night. Then there was a noisy thunderstorm around 3am.Saturday, we got up bright and early to hit the road. We got a movie going, the kids were happy, and life was good. Two hours later, life was not so good. After just one movie, the DVD player stopped working again. We tried everything we knew how, but to no avail. Alas, we had to face the fact that we were going to have to finish this trip sans movie entertainment.
Needless to say, the drive was LONG. There's not much to look at out the window between St. George and Fresno. But, we made it. We were all hot, tired, and a tiny bit cranky, but we were there. We got checked into our hotel and rested up for the big party later that night.
Stay tuned for our next installment--- Being There: Food, Family, & Fun
1 comment:
When we drove to Oregon we didn't have our DVD player either. Wes had let his old boss use it and we never got it back. We ended up listening to audio books which went pretty well, but my girls are also older. I am looking forward to the next part of the story!
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