Mike and I woke around 6, before the kids, and could see a sunrise out the sliding glass door spanning the back wall of the apartment.
Robin and Josh's apartment felt like a hotel room, clean and everything in just the right place to maximize space, and a balcony with a 3rd floor view. It was decorated with love, and the surfaces were covered with encouraging affirmations and verses. No television, but a desk, couch, table and chairs made it fully furnished and practical.
Mike and I set to work folding and packing. We had breakfast as people woke up, a mishmash of eggs, oatmeal, yogurt, and bananas. In a hurry to get out the door, I spoon-fed Fiona the rest of her yogurt (bad idea because she wasn't really that hungry) and we made several elevator trips to bring bedding and bags to the car. We locked up, got everyone in their seats, and started out around 8:30 a.m.
Less than 2 hours out, in Virginia, we decide to bypass the highway and take Route 1 to avoid some traffic. Before we knew it, Fiona's breakfast, mostly pink sweet flavored yogurt, had made its way back the way it came. (I seem to recall that happening to both Derek and Elinor at around the same age in the car.) It got all over her, the seat, and the stuffed panda. We pulled into a 7-Eleven and immediately began to wipe the contents of her stomach off the seat. Mike took Fiona into the icky-smelling bathroom to wipe her down, rinse her clothes, and replace them with clean ones.
When I had wiped the seat off as best I could with water and paper towels, I put a used cotton shirt on the seat to soak up the rest and a plastic bag to sit on. I went back in while Mike got the kids all back into the car, and bought the girls each a small bottle of bug juice, and bottled water for Derek since they had had nothing to drink since leaving Maryland. The next several hours of driving were then punctuated frequently with potty stops, and the trip stretched longer and longer.
At one point we ate lunch in the car, raisin bread with butter spread made soupy by the heat for the girls and butter-hummus-turkey sandwiches for Mike and I (surprisingly good).
One of the stops was a huge gaudy Mexican themed conglomeration of buildings called South of the Border. There were billboards for miles around advertising the place. It included a truck stop, restaurant, a defunct amusement park, mini golf, a conference center, and more. I found it rather creepy and dilapidated and was happy to move on from there.
Between stops I managed to watch the rest of the available episodes of Dr. Who and read half of a book. The kids occupied themselves with tablets, and gameboy, often resorting to whining or provoking everyone else in the car. For the last 3 hours of the trip the complaining escalated. We got a reprieve for about an hour while Derek fell asleep, but had to wake him for another bathroom stop.
We did not arrive in time for a church service, and found a trendy looking place called "Cook Out" where between us we ordered a variety of fast food, including BBQ Pork, a cajun chicken sandwich, fries, chicken nuggets, corn dog, cole slaw, and finally hush puppies. Mike decided they were basically the same batter as onion rings and everyone seemed to like them.
We brought what was left on to the Russells' house about 10 minutes away. We were met by delighted greetings and tromped in with all our things. Elinor played shy but as the two oldest Russell children were still up they immediately ingratiated themselves and began playing vigorously. We spent some time catching up and eating popcorn and hush puppies.
After some time we decided to scurry along to bed. Derek slept on the couch in the den. The rest of us shared the school room. Mike and I slept on a comfortable futon, while Elinor got to sleep on an air mattress. Fiona had a hard time staying put and I found myself sleeping for most of the night on the air mattress next to both girls. Early in the morning I snuck back to my husband for the last few moments before the girls woke up.
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