The Adventures of Nana, 5 preschoolers, and a 2000 mile road trip . . . Day 4

Sorry for the uneventful blog post, but today we mostly just drove. Nana got 'ready to get there' and didn't want to stop at any touristy-things.

We made driving fun by opening scratch off art projects in the car and listening to all 3 Mrs. Piggle Wiggle CDs again. (In Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, each episode features a kid with an ailment like 'talker baker-ism' whose nitwit mother cannot figure out what to do. She calls her equally ridiculous friends whose children are named
Paraphernalia and Calliope but they are no help. She eventually calls Mrs. Piggle Wiggle who basically says to let the kids keep doing their terrible thing until they decide to stop on their own. This leads to scenes such as a kid locked in his room because he won't pick up his toys or a girl who won't bathe so her parents plant her with radishes. The obnoxiously overstated morals seem lost on the kids, who we surmise are listening for ideas on how to misbehave better in the future. The stories are read in a pedantic manner with everyone's full names used all the time. After several hours of these stories, I can quote most of them and I fully expect to hear them from my kids mouths again and again.)

We stopped in Baker City for gas, and in an oddly nostalgic turn of events, pulled into a gas station that Brian and I stopped at when he was moving to Texas. If it weren't for food allergies, we would have eaten at the same Pizza Hut too. The funny part for me is that I didn't realize it was the same city since we entered from a different direction, but something about the gas station jogged my memory.

We ended up eating lunch at Chick-fil-A and letting the kids play of the playground for a while. For dinner the leftover chicken nuggets made a reappearance, along with some peanuts, popcorn, and leftover bananas. Our dinner picnic took place at Candy Cane Park in La Grande, Oregon.

After dinner we continued on towards Kennewick, but since all the hotels were sold out, we ended up stopping a bit sooner in Hermiston. Our early arrival meant time for a pre-bedtime swim, followed by a quick bath, and sleeping soundly.

The Adventures of Nana, 5 preschoolers, and a 2000 mile road trip . . . Day 3

We seem to be falling into a routine already. The kids get up, get dressed, load their bags, and obediently march to the car. We load it up, then take the hotel's complimentary breakfast by storm. For added amusement today a group of businessmen were seated at the table behind us trying to have an important meeting in the breakfast room of the Residence Inn complete with suit jackets on and massive piles of spreadsheets. We, at the table next to them, had a full-on two year old tantrum because someone had been given the banana they requested, but then wanted to steal his sister's Fruit Loops. It culminated with him grabbing the bowl, her pulling it back, flying cereal, and him wailing in the floor. I tried to look graceful and in control while crawling under the table to retrieve him and drag him outside. He immediately calmed down and said, "Eat nannana." He then took my hand and calmly led me back to the table where he climbed into his oversized chair and asked the Fruit Loop eating sister to peel the banana for him. 

On the road we played the find 10 things that start with the letter game for C (car, clouds, cactus, etc.) for a bit, but held off on opening our first surprise until after an early bathroom stop. With a full tank of gas, we gave the kids "magic pen" books to color and set out for Wyoming. We stopped at the border to take a picture, and noted that we'd also taken a 15 minute detour. Thankfully it wasn't worse and we headed on our way.

After noting the dearth of options for lunch, we opted to stop in Laramie at 11am even though no one yet wanted food. We found a local playground and enjoyed some fun in the sun before dining at a local McAlister's. It's a good thing we did! Back on the road we observed that once again the scenery was unbroken by civilization for hundreds of miles. In fact, restrooms were scarce too . . . .

The kids enjoyed an afternoon of car bingo games and listening to books on tape. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle proved to be a favorite - stories of children's bad habits and how this crazy lady corrects them, usually after their terrible mothers declare them incorrigible. Around 6pm we reached Evanston and had Subway for dinner. We used the time to scout hotels for the night and the kids enjoyed running around a bit. 

Nana drove for the last hour of the day while I completed the hotel reservations. I also worked on the blog and played an endless stream of Disney sing along songs on my phone. 

We reached the hotel in Ogden, UT with plenty of time for an evening swim. After a quick bath, we breezed through bedtime.

The best part of the day: hot water! And Nana sneaked down to the front desk to procure overpriced chocolate!

More adventures tomorrow . . . 

Today's bonus pictures:

The Adventures of Nana, 5 preschoolers, and a 2000 mile road trip . . . Day 2

We awoke this morning to the kids stirring and before long everyone had risen, dressed, and packed. Our hotel breakfast offered fruit, baked goods, cereal, and juice, so we ate our fill before loading up again. 

Our first stop was the Don Herrington Discovery Center in Amarillo, which proved to be an excellent free diversion. Like most children's science museums, it contained a variety of pseudo-educational, mostly functional, brightly colored activities such as a wall size lite-brite, a dance/theater stage, a room full of taxadermied birds of prey, a dog mating simulation, and pool table on the floor made of soccer balls. 

We enjoyed meeting a very fat tiger salamander, a great horned toad, and a shy hedgehog named Finn. After several hours we dragged the children out only because we needed to get on the road for a long day of driving.

We hopped into the car and hit the road, planning for an immediate stop for lunch and gas. However, we found ourselves instantly in the middle of nowhere. Yes, that's right the town immediately disappeared with nothing to be seen for miles around but grass, shrubs, rocks, fences, mountains and the occasional farmhouse. While we enjoyed the scenery the hungry children and the rapidly emptying gas tank began to make us nervous. In fact, we franticly searched the internet for the nearest gas station while calculating whether or not our gas would hold out. As we entered the first "town" the Google-proficied gas station failed to materialize. Our last hope, the next town, waited 13 miles down the road. Only 18 miles of gas remained. We turned off the the air conditioner and tried to avoid braking as we coasted into town. Luckily our salvation was right where Google maps indicated. We purchased 25.4 gallons of gas for our 26 gallon tank. 

With that crisis averted, we offered the kids mini-notebooks and mechanical pencils to placate them for twenty miles until a town with a decent selection of food. We survived lunch at Taco Bell and the afternoon's drive passed without incident.

"I have to go to the bathroom," and our thirst caused us to pull off the road in Trinidad, where we ran into their National Night Out celebration. We grabbed some happy hour Sonic drinks and they graciously shared hot dogs, chips, and cotton candy as our children enjoyed the playground and bounce house. We knew that we'd be pushing our time, but we let the kids play a while. 

We boarded the car happily, except for Troy who lost it over leaving the bounce house, and started the long push for Denver. We opted to get past the city at night to avoid morning traffic - a gambit for sure with the kids, the time change, and the sugar they ingested. We located a hotel in Loveland just north of Denver and set out. As we neared it, darkness set in, and we realized that the kids had eaten at 4pm and would need something to eat before bed. We formulated a plan to stop at a fast food place, pick up a snack, and eat it in the room before bed. To placate the troops in the back seat, we handed out glow bracelets. For the second time that day our luck held, Chick-fil-A was near the hotel and open, the kids ate happily, and this time everyone did go to bed nicely. The best part: hot water. (Confession: I spent forever in the shower washing my hair, shaving my legs, and savoring the hot water. That might be why I didn't write this last night.) 

Stay tuned for the next installment, coming whenever we have time to write . . . 

Bonus pictures:

The Adventures of Nana, 5 preschoolers, and a 2000 mile road trip . . .

For once we left on time. To be fair, Nana usually leaves on time, but for me and the preschoolers, it's a rarity. After loading the car and trailer, we departed Carin's house about 11:33 this morning. I know it was 11:33 because my niece pointed out that her watch said 11:33. The 11:27 on the car clock did not matter.

We made it about 48 minutes down the road before stopping for lunch at a Whataburger. Road trips with kids are glamorous. About as glamorous as all 7 of us in the same one-holer restroom together at said Whataburger. But the guy and his kid that came to Whataburger in their ATV were pretty classy too. 

Once we got on the road, things picked up. Well, our speed picked up at least. The little guy fell asleep pretty quickly. The big kids found great amusement playing with a string they found in the floor. 

We gave them their first 'present' - individual marker boards. From the $1 bin at Target, these awesome boards include a marker/eraser and have a blank side for drawing a a lined side for writing. They can also be used as a lap desk later with other gifts. (Nana has wrapped all of the goodies like Christmas gifts, complete with Christmas paper, to add to the fun of car surprises.) Two hours flew by until the markers began to run out.

 In Childress the baby started to stir and the bigger kids seemed antsy. We pulled in to a Dollar General to discreetly restock our dry erase marker supply, then picked up Sonic happy hour drinks (total under $5) and headed for the only park in town. 

The selection of play equipment provided a pleasant surprise - slides and swings galore, merry-go-round, see-saws, climbing wall, and random jungle animals. While we grown-ups got sweatier than we would have liked, the kids showed off on the monkey bars and begged us to see-saw or push the merry-go-round faster.

Bailey took a spill off the tire swing that left her a muddy mess, but she good naturedly washed up in the nearby restroom and was back to playing in no time. 

After we all used the restroom again, we loaded the hot, tired crew back in the car for the final stretch of the day. We listened to some kids books on tape and played "Guess Animal" as we drove through the intermittent rain. A few miles from our hotel we grabbed dinner at Rosa's and thoroughly enjoyed the gumball machine. 

The Springhill Suites in Amarillo proved to be a perfect choice, with our room featuring 2 queen beds and a comfortable couch with a drawer bed. Sleeping space for 7 in one nice cozy room. Showers went quickly and the kids all drifted off to sleep with relative ease. (Ok, I had to threaten to make Troy sleep on the floor if he didn't stop trying to take Bailey's blanket, but then he did settle down and go to sleep.) Our day ended with a final disappointment - lukewarm showers. As two people who like HOT showers, this was a tragedy. However, after 350 miles in the car with 5 preschoolers, if the worst part of the day was lack of a hot shower . . . okay. 

Tune in tomorrow as we attempt an entire day on the road . . .

Sunset

I'm jarred awake again as another nurse bustles into the room. I roll over painfully, my back complaining with each inch of movement. My head throbs slightly and my hips ache from the thin mattress. The small cot in the corner doesn't provide much in the way of comfort, but it's a place to rest. I say 'rest' because sleep seems elusive in this place no matter how hard I try. The constant beeps and hums of the machines blend with noise from the hall and the never ending parade of doctors, nurses, therapists, social workers, food servers, and housekeepers continues.

I glance around the room, scanning for the source of the most recent interruption. The room is too light to be considered dark, but too dark to be called light. We exist in a state of perpetual twilight where time is irrelevant and the outside world has faded away. In these endless hours time both races and stands still.

I see my grandfather, still sleeping. Whatever this intrusion is, it has not disturbed him, and for that I'm grateful. I watch him breathe for a moment, thankful that he is resting peacefully and thankful that he is still alive. Thankful that later this morning he will wake up. Maybe we'll talk, maybe we won't. Maybe I'll just sit and hold his and and enjoy being with him for this much longer.

The nurse leaves, having completed whatever task summoned her. I glance at the clock, 6AM, and decide to lay back down for a few more minutes. I'll probably not sleep, but maybe I'll gain strength for this journey. Each day blends into the next in this world which is both emotionally turbulent and outwardly calm.

My eyes never quite adjust to this lighting, somewhere between day and night - like a sunset. And like a sunset this time of transition for our family is both fleeting and drawn-out. We never quite settle into a daytime routine, but we can never truly relax into the peace of the night. We're always watching, always waiting, always wondering, always ready to manage the next step of the journey whether or not it's a step we want to take.

What this time has taught me is to savor it. Enjoy each moment that he is awake. Take the extra time that he needs to eat. Don't worry that we can't stay long if he comes with us. Have Christmas in his living room so he can be with us one more time, even if he is in a hospital bed. All too soon his sun will set and we'll be left to adjust to the darkness for the rest of our lives for once each sun has set, it will never rise again.

My grandfather died eight years ago today. Eight years, but it feels like both yesterday and forever.

I miss him.
Those words are inadequate.

My grandfather was a fixture in our family. A constant patriarch. Always present for Sunday dinners. He attended our basketball games, volunteered at his church, and enjoyed beach vacations with us. At Christmas he always wore his Santa Claus suspenders - the ones on which Santa's hat was green! We loved to share Schwann's ice cream together and eat seafood even though grandma didn't like it. He taught me the most obscure things and would call to tell me what he was watching on the discovery channel. He instilled in me a curiosity for life and a love of learning.

When I think back about all the years we spent together, the ones I miss most are the sunset. The quiet days sitting by his bedside. The crazy stories he would tell when we were alone. Climbing into that hospital bed with him and sitting behind him so that he could sit up. Bringing him a Wendy's frosty so we could share more ice cream. Talking and listening, but mostly just being. Being together. Like a pair of lovers sitting on a hill staring at a sunset. We shared a deep bond of being family and of being a part of one another's lives.

Even though that sunset has faded, the warmth continues every day of my life. I see him when I see an older man at the beach. I hear him when someone pronounces my name Er-rin. When I'm explaining something silly to my kids, I find him within myself.

The last gift he gave me was an ice cream scoop. He sent my grandmother and I to buy it on my birthday when he couldn't get out of bed anymore. We picked out one with a pale blue handle. It's strong and sturdy and when I pick it up, it's almost like holding his strong, sturdy hand. Every bowl of ice cream I eat is still shared with him.

Every sunset I see is still shared with him as well. Vibrant and beautiful right up to the end, and a lingering sense of longing after it's faded away. It's a natural part of a cycle complete. So relax and enjoy the sunsetting time . . .  don't dread the darkness that follows, but remember the beauty of the final rays.