1,000 Miles!

We completed the first leg of our trip today and passed the 1,000-mile mark! We are now in Crossville, Tennessee, and the countryside is so beautiful it makes me want to escape from the overpriced housing market in New England and live where life moves at a little slower pace. It’ll never happen but a girl can dream, right?

We started the day by heading to the Natural Bridge Zoo to get some of the crazies out before our long drive. It’s a small zoo but there were a lot of petting/feeding opportunities and they had plenty of animals to keep the kids occupied for an hour and a half. There were 3 tiger cubs (born in May), an elephant, 3 himalayan bears, 5 giraffes, camels, monkeys, 2 white tigers, lots of birds, and goats, llamas, donkeys and a few other animals to pet and feed. The tiny tiger cubs were my favorite.

We’re working on winning $250,000 (or an RV) in the Cracker Barrel Road Trip game, so that’s where we stopped for lunch.


Other cool things we saw today:

~ a yellow plane taking off on a runway parallel with the highway
~ a water tower painted like a hot air balloon
~ a silo going down the highway on a truck
~ a giant truck full of live pigs
~ and the most amazing thing…FOAMHENGE! So weird.

Here are two good sources for unusual roadside attractions:
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/
http://www.waymarking.com/

Another weird thing that happened is that I went to a Starbucks drive-thru for the first time and while I was waiting for my coffee the guy behind me kept honking for me to move! That would never happen at home even if someone REALLY needed their Frappucino. What if I jumped out of my car and attacked him because I REALLY needed my Frappucino too??

Hotel Review: Last night we stayed at the Country Inn & Suites in Lexington, Virginia. Pros: Very nice rooms, pool, decent breakfast including Belgian waffles. Cons: Walls so thin I could hear the people talking in the next room and later on I could hear one of them snoring. I guess it could have been worse. 3 stars.
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Who Farted?

Defecation and its byproducts were the theme of the day. I don’t know how it happened but once it got rolling there was no stopping it. It began at breakfast when Adlani announced very loudly, “Uncle Josh…I can smell your fart!” So much for trying to sneak one out at the breakfast table. Actually, it started even before breakfast because Norah needed to poop but didn’t want to do it in her diaper. All signs are pointing to serious potty training readiness. Yay! As we entered Amish Country and saw the absolutely beautiful farms there, I kept hearing, “Who farted?!” from the back seat. We explained all about fertilizer (again) so they are now experts on the topic. We saw horse poop (that’s how you know a buggy has passed by), goat poop, and bird poop. When we were were playing Outburst and Uncle Josh was giving the kids a clue in the “Types of Cake” category, he said, “Angels eat angelfood cake, bad kids eat…” and Aliya shouted, “POOP-CAKE!” Defecation Day ended with Adlani in the bathroom of the hotel room we had entered moments before yelling, “Mommy! There’s poop in here!” With disgust I imagined a former guest’s remnants until I realized that he was talking about his own underwear. I hope they’ve got it out of their system.

So…today we traveled from Denver, Pennsylvania to Lexington, Virginia. We spent the morning touring the Amish House and Farm, and the afternoon meandering through Amish farmland. The farm was great, although I was a little freaked out by its close proximity to Target. When we went for a buggy ride around the farm we circled the corn field and drove right along the back wall of Target. It’s kind of sad when you think that the whole area used to be an Amish farm and now it’s filled with strip malls and discount stores (it was kind of cool when we needed deodorant and toothpaste, though). The tour of the house was very informative and Aliya learned a lot. I spent most of the tour keeping the posse from breaking anything. We were there right before lunch and when we went into the kitchen, Adlani was ready to sit right down and chow on the plastic fruit. Here’s a good FAQ site about the Amish: http://www.holycrosslivonia.org/amish/amishfaq.htm#how


After a lovely lunch at Cracker Barrel, we took the long way to the highway. The Amish farms are SO beautiful and Josh and I both enjoyed the ride, especially when the kids all fell asleep. Just before naptime we had a special surprise – “The REAL Thomas”. We didn’t go for a ride but Adlani was content saying hi to Thomas and his friends. Today was supposed to be a short drive but we stayed in the Lancaster area so long that we didn’t arrive at our hotel until about 10 p.m. The kids went right to sleep so we should be all set for a visit to the zoo and the drive to Uncle Elijah and Auntie Kristin’s tomorrow.

Today’s Favorite Sights / Activities:

Aliya – Amish house tour, buggy ride
Adlani – The REAL Thomas, buggy ride
Norah – dipping her cheese in Mommy’s blue cheese dressing
Josh – the goats at the farm, Cracker Barrel
Lori – seeing an Amish farmer cutting his hay with a mule-drawn mower, learning that Virginville got its name from the abundance of virgin land (I was wondering), the deer running through the field of hay bales, the beautiful full moon, bedtime
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This water tower was really cool too. It’s a bowl of apples.


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Hotel Review: Last night we stayed at the Econolodge in Denver PA. Pros: Close proximity to Dunkin Donuts. Cons: Outdated, not very clean, really bad breakfast, centipede in the bathroom. One star.

Adios Amigos!

Hopefully it wasn’t an omen but we started out the day with Norah puking all over herself on the way home from the bus stop. She was crying hysterically and when I pulled in the driveway and opened the door, she said, “I pooped!” The poor thing. I got her and the car cleaned up and put her down for a nap which lasted 4 hours!! She woke up feeling much better so we continued as planned.

Today was the last day of school and also Aliya’s graduation from kindergarten (de ja vu). Aliya has been obsessing about graduation and whether anyone would make a mistake during the songs. I’m becoming very worried that she is a clone of me who will drive herself and everyone else crazy with her expectations. She swore that she was going to get all 4’s on her report card and I knew she was setting herself up for a big disappointment. She ended up with all 4’s except the Spanish where she got 3’s, and 4’s for effort. Anyway, someone did shout “O-K” at the wrong time in the song just as she had worried, but the show went on and it was very cute.

We picked up Adlani and after a half hour of throwing the last few things into the car and looking for the spare key (we’re still looking), we set off for Denver, Pennsylvania. Actually, we drove around the block once because after hours of loading music in the iPod I thought I forgot the cord. At that point Josh was so ready to get on the road that he said, “We’ll buy a new one!” I found the cord in my pocketbook and off we went (again). We avoided NYC this time and had great luck with traffic. We hit a very heavy rain storm which lasted quite a while, but thanks to the rain we saw the highlight of the day – a gorgeous rainbow!

We had lots of activities to occupy our time…

~ The Fox & the Hound and The Bee Movie
~ Lyle Lovett – Joshua Judges Ruth and the soundtrack from Alvin & the Chipmunks
~ Naps! (the first kid to fall asleep got to open the goody bag)
~ Snacks, snacks, and more snacks!
~ Road kill identification – a possible skunk sighting and 2 deer
~ Magnetic transportation and doll house sets
~ A baby and magic baba for Norah
~ Uncle Josh’s Rubik’s Cube demonstration
~ Attempts to take photos of points of interest, like the stack of squished cars on the back of a truck, mispelled signage, and the sign for Virginville PA.
~ A few rounds of Zobmondo with Uncle Josh as the host (“Would you rather…have 9 fingers or 2 toes?…be struck by lightning or bitten by a shark?…eat nose pickings on your cereal or an earwax omelet?”)

After a pit stop and tank of gas ($3.95/gallon!), we stopped at Pizza Hut and grabbed a very late dinner to take to the hotel. We got here around 10 p.m. Everyone was exhausted but I didn’t get Norah to sleep until 11:45. It’s a good thing we’re not in a hurry tomorrow morning. Four more emails and I’m going to hit the hay too.





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Happy Trails

So what does one do the night before embarking on a 3000+ mile road trip?

~ pack up everyone’s party clothes, pool stuff, health and beauty aids, comfortable shoes, the Hannah Montana sleep mask, and all of the other necessities
~ type the itinerary into an Excel spreadsheet and attach the hotel confirmations, maps, eTickets, and list of places to stop when the Prozac stops working
~ make goody bags for the half-way point of each day’s drive so I can hear “Are we half-way there yet?” eight hundred and ninety two times every day
~ load up the iPod – we’re up to 4 days and 2 hours worth of music, just about enough to get us there and back if we listen to the Christmas stuff too
~ sort through the DVD’s and leave behind all of the ones that are too scary (The Lion King?!?!), find the missing cable that makes the second screen work, install it in the car and hope that the petty thieves are otherwise engaged tonight
~ write detailed instructions for Ben, who is missing the first 11 days of this journey, on how to keep the cat and dog alive
~ wash all of the laundry so that we don’t come home to moldy underwear – I was all caught up Friday night but somehow there were 5 loads waiting down there for me tonight
~ catch up on all of my work-related email so that everyone can live without hearing from me until at least tomorrow night
~ keep the kids well-behaved enough (bribery, threats, and the hairy eyeball) to make Uncle Josh think he might actually survive the first half of the our trip – at least until we get him into the car and too far away to jump out and hitchike home
~ fill up the spray bottle and stash it on the front seat floor so I can break up fights without taking my eyes off the road. As a deterrent, I told the kids I was going to fill the bottle with pee. The other morning I heard Aliya tell Adlani, “If you do that on the way to Tennessee, Mommy’s going to squirt you with pee.” Hopefully that one didn’t make it to school.
~ get everything ready for the last big day at school tomorrow so I don’t say “f*ing cheese stick” in front of Uncle Josh
~ most important – make sure everyone (especially ME!) gets a good night’s sleep

Nightie-Night!
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I found Aliya’s packing list in my to-do notebook…everything we need for a fun and exciting road trip (click on photo to enlarge):

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