The Move: Driving Day One

At 12:45am we crossed Mississippi River and left Wisconsin behind. For me, that was the last big hurdle.

At 1:00am we stopped at a very busy BP for a gas and potty stop. I also fed the baby who had, thankfully, slept great up to that point. Jerry did a quick walk around the van and U-Haul trailer to make sure everything was okay and found a surprise on the bumper of the van. One of my dad's screwdrivers had stayed on the bumper all the way from Oconto! If you've ever driven on Wisconsin roads you'll know they are not know for being smooth... yet somehow that screwdriver didn't fall off. We got a good chuckle out of that.

As we were getting settled back in the van we saw Muammar Gaddafi or a guy dressed like him. At first we thought it was kind of strange, but then realized he must have been in a costume for a Halloween party or something.

We were back on the road again until 6:00am when we stopped for another gas, potty, and feed-the-baby break at the Kum and Go about 114 miles before Kansas City. [Am I the only who doesn't like that name for a gas station? Whose idea was that anyway?] Shortly after that we broke out the breakfast goodies... donuts, bananas, hardboiled eggs, and juice boxes.

Around 11:00am or so I drove a bit so Jerry could drive. Thankfully, there was no crazy fog like the last time I was driving in Kansas. I didn't drive long though because Jerry wasn't able to sleep. I don't know how he can stay awake that long! Lunch on the road was bologna and cream cheese roll-ups, Go-gurt, Goldfish crackers, string cheese, and Caprisuns to drink. And good news: we made it through Kansas without a speeding ticket this time!

When we looked out the windows, we saw a lot of this:

 And when we looked back in the van, we saw a lot of this:

Before our last trip to AZ, we invested in a dual screen DVD player. It was worth every penny. Only one problem... the kids in the back can't see the screen when they are hooked to the front seats. So, if you look carefully, you can see we have a little hack going on there in the middle of the van. It's a board (from our old set of bunk beds) cut to fit across the width of the van. It is hung with a piece of wire coat hanger from the hook on one side of the van and the door latch on the other. I screwed a piece of scrap wood to the long board so I could attach the screen. I even tapped in a few nails so it wouldn't slide off accidentally. It worked perfectly! We are definitely saving it for future trips!

Today's inflight in-drive movie was Despicable Me. We bought several new movies and didn't let the kids watch them until we were on the road which is more entertaining than movies they've already seen a hundred times.

Our travel policy is to always stop at hotels with swimming pools and continental breakfasts. The boys are able to get out a little energy in the pool after dinner and if we are lucky enough (and this time we were!) the driver can relax a bit in a hot tub before crashing for the night. Tonight we stopped in Liberal, Kansas. After unloading the van and a failed attempt* to sneak the gerbils into our room we drove over to Pizza Hut for dinner.

[*Jerry tried to carry the gerbils into the hotel under a blanket but the front desk lady saw us and, while she didn't demand to see what was under the blanket, she did ask. Since we also carried the computers into the room under blankets that is what we told her was under there. Jerry was overcome with guilt, and we figured she'd check the room while we were out to dinner, so we decided it was warm enough for the gerbils to spend the night in the van. Note to self: Don't carry concealed gerbils through the lobby even if it's the shortest route to the room.]

It was early to bed for us all because we'll be back on the road tomorrow! We covered over 1,000 miles the first 24 hours and plan to go another 500 tomorrow.