
It has been a long time coming for the entire family to take a trip home to Texas. My oldest daughter goes back to Texas at least twice a year, I go back once a year, and my husband makes it back whenever he can take leave. This year, we got extremely lucky. He had tons of leave saved up from after his deployment PLUS his new daddy leave. Lucky for us, he was able to take 14 days/2 weeks of regular leave and his 10 days for new daddy leave all at the same time. All of this time off leaves the door wide open for a great adventure for all four of us.
It was originally planned that we would leave for Texas at night, when our two girls have been fed, bathed, and ready to go to bed. That plan was quickly changed when my husband came home at 10 am instead of 4 pm. He was ready to get on the road as soon as possible, and I am happy that he did. We were able to miss a large majority of Friday after work traffic. Our road trip started off quite nicely. The baby immediately fell asleep as soon as we hit the highway and my oldest decided she wanted to color in her coloring book. I turned the radio to some oldies and we were on our way. Everything was going smoothly, we even stopped at a brand new Hardee’s about 3 hours into our journey so we could all take a potty break and eat some lunch. Once again, we were back on the road driving smoothly without any problems or cares. Well, good luck never lasts forever. We were about 10 miles from the main highway to take us into North Carolina when the speed limit changed from 65 to 55. My husband, being the lead-foot he is, decided he could still go 10 miles over the speed limit. I kept telling him to slow down, but he didn’t want to listen. Just as I told him, “Slow down before a cop comes out of nowhere and pulls you over,” a sheriff’s deputy drives by us going in the opposite direction. He literally stops so fast that the back end/trunk of his car pops up as he flies in reverse to come and catch up to us. I am not one to tell my husband “I told you so” but, I said it at least twice. My husband received a ticket for going 67 in a 55, and that was that. After that moment, he was on his best driving behavior.
Once we made it into North Carolina, we were able to finally get some serious driving done. We flew through South Carolina and stopped overnight in Georgia. We had originally made reservations in Atlanta so we could stay overnight and get a decent nights rest. Well, we didn’t quite make it to Atlanta. We ended up making reservations on the fly for a hotel in Commerce, GA instead. I kid you not, when we pulled up to the front of the hotel, I was a little scared. The outside wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t that great either. The inside of our room was just as disappointing as the outside. My husband had to reassure me we weren’t even staying for more than 8 hours, so I needed to relax and try and get some sleep. Once I had the girls fed and bathed, they fell asleep with ease. Now that the hubby and I had some quiet time, we mapped out our route for the next day and planned our gas and food budget accordingly. We had a 12 hour drive ahead of us, and wanted to make each stop count. After we were done, I took my shower and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
Stay tuned…
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