It was quite the ordeal getting back here though. It was suppose to take 13 hours but ended up taking 25 hrs!
Here's what happened:
- dead battery when we we ready to leave
- headlight out and had to replace it
- blew a tire at 1:30-2:00am in Nashville which ended up taking till 5:30am to get fixed
- all lanes northbound closed for an hour outside of Louisville due to an accident
We ended up leaving out trailer(which is staying in Florida for right now) at 3pm on Monday Nov. 30th. Our original plan was to leave around 8pm and drive through the night. So Hubby stayed up till 6am Sunday night/Monday morning. He planned on sleeping till 3-4pm. Unfortunately he was up at about 11:30 am-and felt like crap.
Yikes.
So we decided to just leave as soon as possible before he crashed.
The back of the van had been emptied the day before(bikes,wood,tent,waste tote, Jimmy Hoffa, etc) and loaded a bunch of things. In case you were wondering what things we packed, just imagine everything in our trailer in the back of our van. Seriously.
We also had added tasks like making sure any perishable food items were taken with us or thrown away, cleaning the pantry of yummy morsels that critters might like, cleaning the fridge since our electric would be off, etc. We put out ant and fly traps and some rat poison too. Don't want any unexpected visitors when we come back.
Once everything was packed up we put all the stuff that was sitting in the grass(bikes, wood, etc) into the trailer, unhooked the electric and water and pulled the slides in.
Then the van wouldn't start, not even with a jump. So we got a new battery and were on our way!
We stopped to have a late lunch and about an hour later noticed a headlight was out. After stopping at an Advanced Auto Parts we got it switched out and a half an hour later we were on the road again.
Now, my SIL Amanda was in Alabama doing training for her work and it just so happened we would be going right through the city she was staying at so we stopped in and had some pizza with her. We spent 1 1/2-2 hours there.
It was 10-10:30pm(central time) by then.
Baby Girl was doing great and we hadn't had to make any extra stops to feed her. *thumbs up*
It started raining pretty good and just as we were passing through Nashville we felt the all too familiar vibration of a blown tire.
It was 1:30/-2:00am and pouring rain.
We called insurance and they sent someone out who spent a whole of 10 minutes trying ot change our tire and gave up saying he couldn't get it and to call a tow truck.
This part is a really, really long story. I will try my best to give you the Cliff Notes version.
3 tow trucks and another roadside emergency guy ended up coming out to us. 2 of the tow trucks wouldn't work because our rear tire was blown and the 2nd guy who tried to change our tire ended up getting into it with the cop who was sitting behind us( so we wouldn't get hit) and suddenly packed up his tools and left! Later on that guy's boss called us to say he had been fired and had dome something similar to somebody before.
The 3rd tow truck was a flat bad and said he could tow us to the shop he worked for but they didn't open for another 2 hours(7am) and they might not even be able to change it anyhow. Awesome.
In the end they towed us to a gas station and the cops, who were so annoyed that it took so long to get a tire changed, called up the flat bed drivers boss and made him get out of bed to come change our tire.
The police officers were so apologetic to us and we sure appreciated their help. Bubba, Sissy, Princess and Snuggle Bug rode in the back of the cop car and Hubby,Little Miss, Baby Girl, and me rode in the cab of the tow truck.
So at 5:30am we were on the road again and stopped to have breakfast. Only another 7 and 1`/2 hours ahead of us( if we didn't stop again). Yay.
8am Tuesday morning came and Hubby said he had to sleep so we pulled over to get gas and switch. He had taken 2- 5 Hour Energy's and was now crashing.
I do not like to drive on multi lane roads but as long as I didn't have to merge or get off at an exit I was ok. I had dosed a little bit but decided to park at the gas station for a half an hour to rest up a little more.
When 8:30am came around, Hubby said he actually felt good after his power nap. So he ended up driving the rest of the trip.
We made a couple more stops before getting home- potty breaks, fed Baby Girl and grabbed some lunch.
Before we left for our trip home, the kids were so excited to eat out. We would be eating out for lunch, dinner and breakfast. They all said how we never eat out that much on a trip. But by the time we were getting eating out for the 4th time in 24 hours they were all complaining about stomach trouble and asking for something more 'clean'. I got some secret enjoyment out of that ;)
Just as we were crossing into Indiana there was an accident and we were at a stand still for about 45 minutes to an hour.
It was my mom's turn 1st to be
We went back to the van to wait and we thought we saw her pull into her drive so we we jumped out and stealthily went down the road towards her place again. But it wasn't her. So we turned around to head back to the van...just as her headlights illuminated us!
We darted toward the cover of some nearby trees hoping she didn't see us!
I called her and was chatting with her on the phone while we went over to her door. I knocked while still chatting and when she opened the door she was quite shocked to see all of us standing there!
We visited for a couple hours and then headed to Hubby's parents about 45-50 minutes away.
Our plan was to to video chat with them right outside their house but they didn't pick up so we just called and did the same thing we had done with my mom.
What an ordeal!! We will definitely get a cheap hotel room when we go back down and stop at the halfway point.
It's surreal being back home but we are enjoying seeing everyone of course.
I am also enjoying having reliable internet!! I have several posts in the works so keep checking in here or you can subscribe to this blog to the right of the page and receive a notification in your email whenever I post anything new.
Many Blessings,
The Mama
