Monday, November 27, 2006

Will Travel With Children--AT NIGHT!!!

That's right, folks.
Traveling at night is the new way to go for the Salada family.
Last Tuesday, after Duncan got home from work, we left for Thanksgiving in Erie, PA. That's a seven hour trip, for those of you that don't know. Seven hours of driving, that is. In addition to seven hours, you've got stops for eating, diaper changes, nursing, leg stretching, etc. Those of you with kids know how it goes. Well leaving after a dinner at home allowed us to head out and not stop until it was p.j. time. We got gas, coffee, put the girls in their snuggly pajamas and were back on the road. [Possible future post preview: The bathroom at Sheetz, somewhere around Frederick, was the scene of what, I think, is the first time I wondered if people thought I was abusing my child. Perhaps I was, if that's what you call putting on a p.j. top with a too-small neckline that caused Amelie to FREAK OUT. Man those bathrooms echo.] We stopped one more time on the turnpike when Amelie woke up and was super squirmy and wanted to be out of the carseat for a few minutes. After that, it was smooth sailing all the way to Erie. I had to pee like crazy, somewhere around Grove City, but was convinced to hold it until we got to my in-laws...to prevent premature waking and consequential screaming the rest of the way to Gramma's house.
Total trip time: UNDER 7 hours.
Something we haven't managed since we were sans children. Awesome.
The result?

A (very wise) decision to leave Saturday night instead of Sunday morning. Fortunately, we were given an identical experience. We even took 270 and the beltway which shaves off a bit more time, since the chance for major traffic at midnight was pretty slim. We were quite pleased with this discovery. When possible, this is the way we will be traveling long distances. The bonus?
Lots of time just to talk to my sweet husband with out being constantly interrupted.
Another bonus?
Worshipping with our church family, on a day we previously thought we wouldn't formally worship at all.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

this is a genius idea, even for those of us who don't have kids, for one reason: no traffic! :)