Admittedly I was more than a little worried about the drive across the country and back. My kids are pretty good travelers between Las Vegas and Utah- a drive we’ve done about 10 times a year. We’ve not had huge problems or issues. But that is a 5 1/2 hour drive. Driving for 12 hours a day two days in a row? Plus an extra 10 hour ‘1/2′ day? Not to mention that we were going to have an extra adult in the car on the way there and two extra adults on the way home. (My sisters). It was going to be more than a little crowded. But my kids did really really well. The bickering was at a minimum, the whining was almost non-existent. I think they were better behaved in the car then they generally were at home! If it’s any indication of how well the drive went- I would be willing to do it again. Shocked? So am I.

Here are some pictures from the drive- we didn’t get every state we entered- but we gave it a shot. There is a shot of the back of the car too- I was amazingly able to cram all three car seats in the back. That made a big difference. The picture where it looks like Steve is sleeping and driving? He’s not- I promise- I just caught him with his eyes closed.

Apparently I’m not smart enough to embed slideshows in wordpress. I need to take an HTML class. So just click on the link for pictures.

We left on a Thursday night from SLC after Steve got off work.  We drove to Rock Springs, WY (don’t want to ever live there) to pick up my sister who is working for the summer in Jackson Hole, WY.  We promised the kids that we would stop in Jackson Hole for dinner at McDonald’s.  After wandering around for way too long trying to find her we finally did and then found a McDonald’s- without a play place.  So we decided to hop back on the freeway and check out the next exit.  Problem was that there was no next exit! Not for 100 miles.  We ended up feeding some very disgruntled kids pb&honey and promising them McDonald’s the next day.

I drove that night until 4am when we stopped somewhere in Nebraska and slept at a rest stop for 3ish hours.  Sleeping in a car is not my favorite thing. Then we got up and got some milk at a gas station and ate cereal in the parking lot of a steakhouse that wasn’t open for breakfast (for some reason). 

We hit the road again and drove all day through some pretty horrible rainstorms (everything on top of the car was drenched).  We stopped at a rest stop for PB&Honey again (well- we did have ham and cheese also in the cooler) at a rest stop in Nebraska for lunch.  It wasn’t at all restful though since you felt completely drenched in sweat the moment you left the car and then the bugs were horrible.  Definitely not moving to Nebraska. We drove all day and stopped at McDonald’s for dinner in Missouri.  We were so excited to find a McDonald’s with a play place!! When we got inside the ‘playplace’ consisted of four video game consoles.  Really?  Since when does that count as a playplace???  It’s not worth it for me to eat at McDonald’s if my kids can’t play!  We left and went to Wendy’s.

After more drenching rain we arrived in Terra Haute, Indiana at about 2am to sleep at my cousin’s apartment.  She and her family had already left at that point but a nice friend of theirs woke up to bring us out a key to get in.  We all crashed hard and 8am came way too early.  We hit the road again and drove like maniacs to get to Maryland before it was terribly late.  We tried to stop at a playplace McDonald’s again but couldn’t find any.  Seriously not sure what their problem is. All McDonald’s next to MAJOR interstates should have playplaces and Redboxes- or at least they should advertise on the exit sign (you know the blue ones that tell you what food/gas/lodging is coming up) that they have one.  We got to Maryland by about 9:30 and had a great visit with my family before crashing into bed.