Woot! I am excited to relive this trip, even though it was a roller coaster of good and bad. But the good was very good and overall, it was a learning experience.
This year we decided to take a trip instead of giving presents. We always end up spending more than we say we will, giving more than we say we will, and I'm ultimately overwhelmed with the sudden influx of all that STUFF. I dread Christmas and birthdays and get grumpy in anticipation. We're working on changing to bypass all that.
December 21, 2018: To McAlester, Oklahoma
We set a goal departure time of 9 am and we made it! Had to have our van parked on the street outside our housing nook because the HOA was having road work done. So all remaining last minute packing had to be walked out further and took longer, but we made our goal time.
Dancy was always falling asleep, forcing me to pause our audiobook so she wouldn't miss it. Most commonly heard phrase: "Mom, I'm hungry!" Second most common: "Mom, Dancy fell asleep again!"
Some of my road trip features:
Dashboard navigation. DVD is 10 years old, but gets me where I need to go and saves my phone battery for audiobooks.
Double USB phone charger, FM transmitter that uses my phone's Blu Tooth to play my digital audiobooks over the van speakers. Favorite app: Libby. Run by OverDrive, but more user friendly. Second: Hoopla. Current book: The River by Gary Paulsen. For the kids' listening, I turn the playback speed to 1.5 or 1.75 depending on the reader. For myself, I listen at 1.75 or 2x depending on the reader. We get through our books faster.
Glove compartment: snacks/breakfast-to-go, games, hand sanitizer. Toward the end of our trip, this is also where our ziplock bags of sand and shells got stashed.
Door pockets: Bandaids, hair ties, bobby pins on top.
Snacks, gum, lotion in the middle.
Water bottle, essential oils bag, graham crackers, book on bottom.
I read aloud while Shad drives. He does all the driving because it's less stressful to him than tending to all the kid demands.
Like lunch. Peanut butter and honey. No stopping!
Open Kansas road with wind turbines.
Built-in DVD player. Current "in-flight" movie: Inside Out. "Who's your friend who likes to play? Bing-Bong! Bing-Bong!"
Green in December!!
And then, after spending all day out in the beautiful sunlight (okay, well, all day with window views, anyway), we got treated to a spectacular twilight display with the clouds.
And then a simultaneous moonrise and sunset!
Skewed light. That's the moon.
What a glorious way to spend the Winter Solstice, enjoying the full cycle of light on this day of darkness and to celebrate the return of light!
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