Driving, Driving, Driving

We made a 3,500 mile (PLUS) roundtrip from Portland to Omaha with myself, my husband, our potty trained 2 year old and our most recent addition a 5 month old lab mix puppy (after a vet visit we are not sure what all makes up our chocolate caramel sweetheart). By some miracle we all survived.

Loaded into the car and ready to go! 

Trip Stats are as follows:

Total mileage: 3,620 or something like that

Total time on the road: Out 30-32 hours (includes pit stops)

                                    Back 27 (includes pit stops + 2 ½ hours in a hotel) Can you tell we                                         wanted to get home??

Potty accidents: Me 0, hubby 0, kid 0, puppy 2 (thank goodness for pee pads!)

Vomitus eruptus: Me 0, hubby 0, kid 3 (once out, twice back), puppy 0

Total cost for fuel for our 2009 Subaru Outback: 291.07 (average gas price was around                                        2.10/gallon)

How did we survive? First off, I have been planning this trip for the better part of the year. We knew we would be making it with a toddler who does not like sleeping in her car seat and that she would be potty trained or almost potty trained. The pup was an unknown but managed to fit into the plans perfectly.

Given the length of our time we planned on being at our destination, when it came time to look for a place to stay in good ole Omaha I checked a variety of hotels and then decided to take a gander at HomeAway.com. I was flabberghasted. Not that the hotels will take note of this, but it was the same as (OR WAAY CHEAPER) to rent a HOUSE than book a room. Yes, the upfront costs are higher; you pay at the time of your reservation plus a security deposit (that is typically refundable), but in the long haul having the comforts of a home were worth every single dime.

By renting a house we saved even more money because we didn’t HAVE to eat out every meal and the house was stocked with a week’s worth of basic essentials (laundry detergent, TP, paper towels, etc.) and we brought a lot of the food we would need (I’ll get into the details on that shortly). The house also had a small fenced in yard and they accepted dogs as part of the rental agreement with a measly $20/day pet fee. It was great all the way around; I could probably write a whole post just about the house.

Back to the semblance of sanity maintenance.

In the month prior to our trip I created a very basic project plan just to make sure we didn’t forget some silly little thing. It included items like the following:

- Get Sammy’s oil changed and a service inspection

- Write grocery list

- Write list of items to pack (example of lists below)

- Buy items needed for trip

- Take out cash

These may seem silly, but for someone like me (anxiety, yay!) it gave me peace of mind and helped me enjoy the vacation when it got here.

I mapped out space in our car first in my head and then in reality. The weekend before we left I took the time to take all the vessels we planned to load into the car and play with them. I loaded them in a number of different fashions (while empty) keeping in mind what I would want/need to have access to while on the road. I took pictures of the one that worked best so I could remember when it came time to load and go. (see below)

For on the road I knew that I would want snacks and activities at the ready for the toddler. I loaded up two shoebox sized storage containers that I already had with a variety of her favorite snacks as well as some for us parental units. I put some little dividers in to kind of keep it organized. The idea was cute, but I eliminated them on the way back in favor of just grouping like snacks together.

We had picked up some pre-packaged and I also bagged some stuff from Costco sized packages. I also made our own trail mix with mixed nuts, banana chips, dried fruit, sesame sticks and chocolate candies.

We even bagged up meals for the puppy, which made it quick and easy to get her meals. Sadly, she wasn’t too keen on eating while we were on the road, but she ate like a champ at the rental house.

Our plan on the drive (both there and back) was to drive straight through. Out, we mostly did. We stopped for about an hour at the Wyoming-Nebraska border to doze. Neither of us had slept well the night before we left and it really took its toll around dawn.

We did pretty good on the way back, but around midnight hit a wall with the wee one. She woke up from a night terror so we stopped at the first rest stop we could (luckily it was nearby). She sobbed and sobbed that she didn’t want to go back in her car seat (heart breaking) as we took turns holding her. She just wanted to go home she cried. She got so worked up she threw up (thankfully into a bag). Collin was able to give her some logic that we couldn’t go home until she was in her car seat because it was dangerous and the car can’t move if she isn’t in her seat properly.

Eventually she settled, but after the emotional roller coaster (I cried to, come on, I was tired and my little monster was breaking my heart) I was drained. Collin was able to drive about another hour while I tried to rest. We both admitted defeat and I began the frantic search for a hotel or something in the middle of nowhere Idaho. We were minutes from Bliss, ID and thankfully the Amber Inn (right off I-84) had a vacant double room for $54. Best money I ever spent for a couple hours of sleep and the peace of mind we would make it home safely.

The reality of it was that I didn’t hardly sleep as I was too focused on keeping the tiny body next to me in the bed (damn, that child likes to move in her sleep). Might also have been interrupted by the number of times she inadvertently kicked and smacked me…

After we had snoozed a bit, we headed for breakfast, Dutch Bros and fuel in Boise. First Dutch in almost a week. The tiny demon went all exorcist while we fueled up. So much for those pancakes and bacon… Again, like a champ, she did it into a bag. She quickly drifted off after that and I drove like a bat out of hell to hit Oregon. The drivers are shit, but we were glad to be “home”. To the toddler, we were far from it, but we knew.

She was tired and cranky after throwing up her breakfast. She wanted to be left alone.

My hope was that after Baker City it would be a straight shot home plus maybe a stop for gas. Oh, hell no. We got gas and potty break in Pendleton. Then we had another potty break 50 miles down the road…. Then another in 40 and then ONE LAST about 50 miles after that (this was just west of The Dalles- about an hour from home). I couldn’t not stop when she asked. She had done so well and I didn’t want to spoil her perfect vacation record that close to home. She drifted off just outside of Portland and woke up between Portland and home. A little disoriented but once we got into town proper you could see realization that we were almost there dawn on her little face.

What killed me, after stopping every 30-60 minutes in the last five hours of driving, that little turd then slept from 7:30pm and was dry and in her bed (awake for god knows how long) at 7:30am the next morning…. 12 hours… 12 hours no peeing or accidents but she couldn’t make it more than 45 minutes when we were almost home… 

Sigh.

For the next post I will share the real adventure – our time in Omaha! And boy was it a big one.