680, 5, 152, 99, 58, 15...

Let me start off by saying that despite a statement in my previous post to the contrary, I've done a little bit of traveling in the past year and a half. I went to San Antonio twice - once in December 2009 and then again in January 2010. Went to Big Sur in early July 2010 (or was it the end of June?), moved to Middle Georgia in August, went to North Carolina and DC area end of August, visited Savannah with my parents in October, had Thanksgiving in NJ and visited Philly the same trip, back to DC area for Christmas, and then back to California for a visit in early March! I guess I have plenty of fodder for posts, just need to get back in the habit.

Also, I feel like this post is going to need lots of back-story and therefore might not be the most fluid writing in the world. Perhaps exacerbated by being a bit rusty in my blog-writing.... So, here goes.

I have a two door car that I leased almost three years ago, before I realized I would be a suburban mom living in Warner Robins, GA before my lease was up. The car is great, I love it (2008 VW Rabbit) but it is true that it is a bit easier to transport a baby around in a car with more than two doors. My mother-in-law had an extra vehicle, and she offered the van to Chris and me. It was very kind and generous of her (she is a very kind and generous lady) and we accepted. Now the issue was, how to get it to Georgia? We started brainstorming about this a few months ago and toyed with different options, finally settling on the idea of both Chris and I flying back to California for a visit (with baby, too, of course - we'd probably be blacklisted if we came back without William. No one wants to see us anymore now that we have an adorable baby.) and then Chris and I would drive together to Vegas (where Marush, Jason, Syd and my mother were going to be for a vacation and we could stay and visit with them for a few days), then I would fly back with William to Georgia and Chris would drive the rest of the way. Yes, I took the easy route (not that flying by yourself with a 9-month old is really "easy") but my justification was that it would be better for William, that I couldn't miss too much work, and blah blah whatever other excuses I could come up with not to have to drive. It took a while to agree on it all and iron out the details (as anyone who has been around Chris and me for an extended period of time can imagine) but it was finally set!

Bellagio fountains at dusk on Tuesday, our last night in Las Vegas.

And then... plans changed. I am not known for always being the most flexible, accommodating person. I usually come around in the end, but tend to get upset when plans first change. Yes, it is something I could work on, especially now that my husband is in the military and I have a baby. In the end, after more negotiating, bargaining and finally an agreement, it was decided that we would drive together the whole way. I love adventures and traveling and any excuse to go anywhere, but this time I wasn't so sure (hence why I didn't agree to do the drive in the first round of negotiations months ago). We weren't going to have a lot of leisure time to stop along the way and sight-see and we have a fidgeting, energetic baby who would not want to be cooped up in a carseat for hours on end each day. In the end though, I was glad to get to spend the time with Chris and William and we did have a good time and managed to fit in a smidgen of sight-seeing.

And now back to the title of this post. For those that aren't highway geeks, the title is the route we took that first day from Pleasant Hill, CA to Las Vegas, NV, specifically the Interstate and route numbers. That first day, Sunday, was long (second longest of the whole trip in terms of mileage) and unforeseen events meant that we left a few hours later than intended and didn't get to the hotel until after 11pm, which definitely wasn't ideal. Even so, the drive was nice because I love seeing California, even if we didn't go through the most picturesque areas. My mom was with us (she joined us for the drive to Vegas and then was going to fly back at the end of the week), which was a huge help. I did get a bit tired of hearing "Patty-cake," though. Even though we got in late, once we got up to our room and settled, William decided that he didn't want to sleep. We learned how to combat this later on in the trip, but that first night it took a lot more effort to get him to go to sleep than it normally does, which didn't help the slightly frayed nerves from the long drive.

Sydny at the MGM Grand Lion Habitat on Monday (left) and her response to the question "what sound does a lion make?"(below)

We stayed in Vegas for all of Monday and all of Tuesday (to rest and recuperate before venturing back into the car for four more days of driving!) and did a fair amount of walking around, a bit of swimming, a lot of eating, and of course taking pictures. It was a nice break in the trip and I wish we could have stayed longer to spend more time with family.