It's Just me, V

Think back on your most memorable road trip.

Probably my most memorable road trip was my son, K and I helping my elder son, H and his new wife, S move cross country to Virginia. We had two vehicles, two of us in the car and two in the moving truck. All packed up for the move, road snacks, the two dogs in the car with S and me, and the guys in the truck, we set off on our adventure.

We weren’t even out of the state, and the two dogs decided they weren’t fond of driving in the same car. Let me tell you, breaking up a dog fight from the passenger seat in a car going 75 mph while my AMAZING girl was able to pull over with out crashing was a feat! I really have no idea how we did it, but wow, that was a surprise. We separated the two putting one in the moving van with the guys and moved on.

We stopped in Kanas City for food. Hoping we could find a good place for BBQ we drove through the city streets, looking for a place that we could get the truck into their parking lot. Oh wow, the navigation of that city in a moving truck was interesting. We finally found an open parking lot and managed to find food. Taking turns going in to order and bring our meals out, making sure the dogs weren’t left unattended, we had bites to eat and got back on our way.

We drove through the night, to keep everyone awake and semi sane, I started asking trivia questions over the walkie talkies. You can’t even imagine the about of slap happy we all were, especially with Red Bulls on board!! Driving through Missouri and Illinois at night was not as exciting as you might think! By 4:00 am (I think) , we had reached our first rest destination in Indiana.

Of course there was more drama with the dogs, and an ER visit, but after this part of the trip, our adventure was just warming up. Driving from Colorado to the east coast is not an easy trip, then add in grumpy doggos, a moving van and a family of goof balls, it’s a recipe for laughter. (Even if the hysterical laughter didn’t happen until we got all the way there and unpacked!)

We wanted to stop in Louisville, KY at a distillery I had heard about. So here we go driving this moving van through a city we weren’t familiar with, finally found a place to park, only to find the place I wanted to go to was CLOSED! So bummed out, we found a place to get a bite to eat and headed on our way. It was close to sun down and we were enjoying the beautiful rolling hills of Kentucky, the green grasses and sunning horse ranches. Then… it began to rain.

We had heard that the rains were coming through the area we were in, but “how long can a rain storm last?” The answer is “ALL-night-LONG”.

Driving through the Appalachians I’m sure is absolutely stunning, unless you are our little caravan, in the pouring rain, terrifying lightning and thunder. As if the rain wasn’t enough, the winds were blowing so hard, my younger son and I were in the moving truck with H & S behind us. We were trying to navigate on our phones, while the wind was pushing us out of the lane (if we could see the lanes) in the pitch black night, except for the blinding lightning that was flashing through the sky and trees like it was out to get us. We some how got off of the main highway in search of a gas station (of course we needed to fill up in the middle of the night, in a torrential downpour in the middle of nowhere) and the roads were even darker! K and I were just positive that we could hear banjos playing in the rain… we were so stressed out and tired. Every gas station we tried (that we had found on our maps) was closed, apparently that area doesn’t have much need for 24-hour gas stations. We are cruising along hoping we don’t run out of gas, going from gas station to gas station (there were far and few between). At one point, H calls and lets us know that the firearm he was gifted by my father, was in the case behind the seats if we need it. I remember thinking to myself, “Holy crap! Where the hell are we and are we going to make it out?”

Finally, the rain has slowed from gale force winds to showers, this was more manageable. I can’t even tell you what time it was, I just knew that it was somewhere after midnight. We had made it through the storm and finally FINALLY found a 24 hour gas station. I believe we were in West Virginia. We filled up the vehicles and decided to sleep for a couple of hours before pushing on to our destination. We slept a bit longer than we had wanted to, but it was much needed, and in all honesty, how well can one sleep sitting up in a moving van?

So I am driving the moving van into Virginia, I realize quickly that I am way too short for this truck, even with the seat all the way up! I manage to find a jacket and put it behind me and that, my friends is how I drove the rest of the way into our destination!

There is so much more to this story, but it’s saved for family giggles over meals and nights of hanging out together. My family has grown since this road trip, but the adventures will never end, in fact it was just the beginning.

And yes, it is possible to get a moving truck, two dogs, and a newlywed couple cross country in 2 days. Anything is possible with the best adventure buddies, mine just happen to be my family.