Summer Road Trip, Last Leg

We had been so busy enjoying our time at the beach that I didn't make our hotel arrangements, for the trip home, before we left OBX. The other reason this task hadn't been accomplished was due to my holding out hope that we might be able to stay at my grandfather's house, free of charge, one more night. Going to his house would've simply changed our route slightly, but only added about fifteen minutes to the travel time. (In reality, probably, not really. We got stuck in traffic around D.C.) Too bad my holding out didn't work. The Regime was dead set on trying to get further down the road on that Friday, June 24, 2011.

I didn't really expect it to be a problem. They have lots of hotels along the Pennsylvania turnpike, right? So I thought this was just a little, and easily fixable oops. Sadly, I was wrong. It turned out to be a bigger problem than I had imagined.

My first clue to the severity of having no reservations was discovered, when we found a place with free Wi-Fi, after we got back into Virginia. The kids needed food, so they had some pizza at this stop, while I tried Priceline. Previously I had used Priceline to negotiate very cheap hotel rates. (And because it was so easy before I just assumed it would continue to be easy.) Regrettably, I tried and tried for an hour. And even when I tried bidding higher and higher I still had no luck, so we had no choice but to give up. We had already wasted an hour of precious daylight driving time.

By the time we got to the area where The Regime wanted to stop it was very late at night. Actually it had turned into very early Saturday morning. I got a travel brochure from one of the pit stops and tried calling all of the hotels in the area. There were no vacancies, at all. Turns out there aren't a lot of hotels along the Pennsylvania turnpike. And it was a Friday night during the busy summer traveling season. (On our way down we needed hotel stays on less busy Sunday and Monday nights. And previously we were staying in metropolitan areas, which have many hotel options, both times. But you know I didn't think of any of that until after the fact.)

Finally, around 2 am (with our eyes barely staying open) we decided that our only option was to pull off at one of the stops and sleep in the car. Which really was no problem for me and my husband, we are seasoned road trippers, but with the kids it was slightly more difficult.

I had Bug cuddled up on my lap so that I could lay my chair back. And Miss Doodle was actually the luckiest of the bunch. We were able to make a little bed for her on top of the suitcases and cooler that were filling up the side of the van. So we were able to get somewhat comfortable and fall into a deep sleep.

Unfortunately the sleep didn't last very long. I was awakened by, what felt like, a real life nightmare, the sound of retching around 4 a.m. I jumped up out of my sleep and took Miss Doodle into the bathroom, where she got sick some more. I washed her off at the sink the best I could. And I found her some clean clothes to change into. (Later the Regime admitted that he was totally out of it during this fiasco. He was amazed by my quick acting reflexes. I think being a mom gives you this skill.)

Then I went back to the car to clean up. I had to throw away a pillow. The rest of the stuff was bagged up in an effort to contain the grossness until we could get home to wash it all. I felt very lucky (and grateful) that the man in the convenience store was kind enough to give me a large, thick plastic bag, from under their counter, because they didn't sell any there.

After that we decided to continue on the road. I was groggy and feeling very nauseous so my husband drove until he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. Lucky me, I got to take the wheel right before we entered the Chicago area's Saturday afternoon traffic madness. Despite being very tired and just plain ready to get out of the stinky car, I got us safely through to the north west suburbs. This is where we stopped for an early dinner and found another free internet connection so I could make a hotel reservation. We felt very fortunate to get a room at a deluxe Hyatt for only $50.

Here's Miss Doodle conked out as we drove through Chicago (I think this picture is a good representation of how we all felt at this point):

We had driven long enough so that we'd be able to check-into the hotel. It was heavenly to get in there and get Miss Doodle into the shower. The beds were also wonderful. After sleeping in the car they felt like the most comfortable beds on the planet. Of course the girls had been sleeping in the car on and off all night and day so they had plenty more energy than me and the Regime. Yet we still went to sleep very early, the Regime was out like a light way before the rest of us. And I dozed off while the girls watched a game show on tv before finally hitting the hay.

In the morning, before checking out, me and the girls loved relaxing in the hot tub and swimming in the pool. After that we packed up and headed back out on to the road. Wisconsin feels like it lasts forever,* but we eventually made it home. We unpacked and got the puked on stuff into the washing machine. Dorothy is right, "there's no place like home."

*Stopping for some delicious Dunkin' Donuts one last time, was the highlight there. Too bad they don't have any shops in Minnesota.