Fourteen People....1600 Mile Road Trip!

As I sit here getting ready to write my latest blog something has occurred to me; I haven’t told you the story of how we moved from Atlanta, Georgia to Denver, Colorado in December of 2008. It is one of my funniest and most upsetting stories, but I think it’s time to let you into the circle of the privileged few who know the ‘Rest of the story’, as Paul Harvey used to say.

We began packing boxes and making plans to find the cheapest route to take 14 people, 1600 miles, to our new home. Okay, I never said we thought this through completely now did I? We did the best we could to pack the lives of 14 people onto the huge moving van. But we still couldn’t take it all. Thank the Lord for my wonderful friend Michelle who packed up what was left, and put it into storage for us.

Moving day finally came. We crammed the last few things we had into my van, my mom’s truck and the moving van and then somehow shoved the children into these very tightly packed vehicles. Now here is where my inability to plan ahead slapped me in the face. I’m driving the van that has 10 of the 11 children, 1 dog, and 3 cats. My mom has one of the children in her truck, and Rich (the lucky one) has no children and he gets to ride all alone until Tennessee.

We said goodbye to some of the most important people in our lives and began the long drive to Nashville, Tennessee, where my father-in-law would meet us to help Rich with driving the moving van. Oh yea, he also had the joy of driving without children! LOL!! Now we were in a race against time as a huge snow storm was on the way and was scheduled to hit Denver that very weekend. So we had to make this 1600 mile trip quickly. Have you ever traveled with 11 children? Seriously, have you? “Quickly” often doesn’t fit into the equation when traveling with kids.

If you have ever traveled with a child, you are all too familiar with… “Are we there yet?” Yes it began, about 30 miles outside of Atlanta, and then… “Mommy I have to go to the bathroom,” or “I’m hungry can we stop and eat?” It seemed every few miles one of the kids would ask me a question! I finally declared the van a no talking zone and turned on the radio. Since we were moving during the Christmas season we had a plethora of Christmas music to listen to and that made our first day a little better.

We pulled into Nashville around 8 pm, and unloaded kids, animals, and suitcases. After a very restless night’s sleep (it seems that cats that are in carriers all day have a need to run all night long, who knew?), we repacked the van and began the worst drive of my life.

About 100 miles down the road, I heard, “Mommy I think I am going to throw up!!” This coming from one of my “never gets carsick kids”. I nearly panicked but thought, “Okay you can handle this you are a mother and mothers can handle anything!” Okay, not anything but this for sure. I passed back a plastic bag and tried desperately to get my husband on his cell to pull over. Of course we would be an area where pulling over was not the best idea so we had to go to the next exit. Ever had to do that? If you have then you know that the next exit may in reality be half a mile but in your mind it feels like 50! So I passed back the anti-nausea pills and prayed that the exit would be soon. Finally, we pulled over. I got out and helped clean up my poor child; bought her a ginger ale and we were off again, only to hear in less than a mile, “Mommy I fixing to throw up too!” And yes a different child but still not the child who always gets carsick! Again we pull over, I clean her up and off we go again.

This time we were blessed with about 50 miles before, I heard,” OH Mommy, the cat threw up!” Thank heavens she was in her carrier! But the smell was less than pleasant for sure. We traveled a little longer, pulled over for gas where I was given the opportunity to clean up the cat. Nine of the kids had a little something to eat and we all piled back into the van and started again.

By this time I was very tired, less than happy, and had declared the van a no throw up, no talking and a no cat zone, ( didn’t do me any good but I still declared it). I turned up the music, we all began to sing, when the first child, yelled out, “Mommy I feel better!” I thanked the Lord for his goodness and drove on, and then I heard that same child yell,” Uh oh, I should not have said that,” and off she went again. This time I called my husband and demanded that he inform his father that I was pulling off for the night, I was holding the money and if they wanted to eat supper or sleep in a hotel for the night they had better pull off too! Funny how when Mama gets so upset that she is no longer nice, people listen!

We had another fun evening of running cats, and sick children. By the next morning both of the kids were feeling better and as we prayed before we left, we asked the Lord to please give us his traveling mercies and help us make good time. We were on the last part of our trip and we needed to pull into our new home that night if we wanted to beat the storm that was coming soon.

The cats and the dog were getting restless; the children asked if I would let them out for a bit to run through the van. I said, “Okay” how much damage could they do? (I never said it was smart?) It seems that a male cat can spray an entire van of children; a female cat can throw up all over the person holding her, and the dog, well, he was just perfect and so good! With the new smells added to our already interesting smelling van, more children began to get sick; but still not the carsick child.

I ended up pulling over (yet again) on the side of the road, cleaning up that mess and then praying, “Okay Lord you never give us more than we can bear, but I am faltering here! HELP!!” I gave every child an anti-nausea pill, and we started the drive again. At last the children began to drift off into a peaceful slumber and I was left alone with my own thoughts for a bit, only to see it begin to snow. Now I am from Atlanta, Georgia, born and raised, I do not do snow. But I learned very quickly! Snow turned into slush and slush into ice, yet the presence of God never left my side, and His angels helped me drive that van! They must have, I don’t remember doing it?

We had been through one heck of an adventure when finally we pulled into the driveway of our new home. The lights were on and some of the most wonderful people God ever created, where their waiting to welcome us. To be home was the best feeling of all.



God bless you all!
Rise'

Hope to see you in two weeks. Tuesday, March 23rd to be exact!


Wednesday's Blog: Michele, "Single Working Mom"