Four Arrows: Vacation Recap - Last Installment

Tuesday

Time to head home! As there was light packing to do and we were all up early, we were able to leave by 8:15 a.m. After a brief stop for some ice to preserve the crab cakes, we were well on our way...or so we thought. :)

It was a bumpy start for the first couple of hours...

It seems a large swarm of "mosquitos" decided to follow us. (Interjection: I forgot to share this in a previous post, but when we were in our second day of travel on the way down, as soon as we hit the highway this loud humming noise sounded over our heads. It was coming from the car top but it sounded like a swarm of oversized mosquitos were following us. We ended up having to stop four or five times before we lost the swarm - turned out we had to lighten the load up top by a bag or two). After stopping four or five times again, the loud humming noise was reduced to a barely noticeable hum.

Then Reese, who was overtired, was fussing in the back for about a half hour. Understandable since his schedule was completely thrown off but it was challenging to get through. I think Dave and I both wondered how far we would make it before needing to stop for the day. I prayed we'd at least make it to Wytheville, VA which is about the halfway point. However, that was the last hiccup we encountered, thankfully, as the rest of the drive was peaceful. The kids did so well in fact that we ended up driving all the way home - 14 hours total on the road.

Highlights:

Stopping in Greensboro for lunch. We picnicked on the grounds of a huge Baptist church - they actually called it a campus! - at some tables which were shaded by trees. The kids snacked on their lunch but had a better time running through the grass and pretending they were exploring. Here is a picture of the picnic table:

When we began to round up the kids, Luke came over to me with his face covered with some red juice. As I didn't recall giving him anything which fit that description, I asked Dave if he'd given something to Luke. Nope. So I began frantically searching the grounds where they'd been playing for anything that looked edible and possibly poisonous. Turns out most of the trees around the tables were plum trees and Luke had helped himself to a plum that was on the ground (no telling if he also ate some bugs along with it!). As I was looking around, Dave was trying to get Luke to spit out what was in his mouth. He obliged by spitting out the pit and was looking quite pleased with himself. It hard to resist the temptation to pick plums from the trees once we made the discovery. We settled for trying an unblemished plum that had fallen to the ground. Here's a picture of the trees and a plum:

We stopped in Charleston, West Virginia in hopes of seeking lodging (we thought the kids would declare mutiny if we didn't stay at a hotel...with a swimming pool!). We tried 5 or 6 hotels and all of them were booked. Who would have thought we'd need reservations in Charleston, on a Tuesday night, at the end of June. Apparantly there was a medical transcription conference going on...hence the lack of beds. We kind of got an idea of what Joseph and Mary might have felt like - at least I wasn't about to go into labor though!

So, on we continued, still thinking we might stop. We discovered there isn't much in the way of lodging between Charleston and Parkersburg, WVA. Instead, with the kids still doing amazingly well on this epic journey, we decided to stop for dinner and then continue on home. (Parkersburg is about 2.5 hours from home so there didn't seem to be much point in staying overnight).

We found our way to a Cracker Barrel, ate a quick meal and then bought some a treats for the kids to show our appreciation for their endurance. Here are the pictures...Brie and Reese are in rocking chairs outside the restaurant, Luke is holding up his dump truck, Reese is holding his favorite cupcake recipe book instead of the race car we got him and Brie is holding her sticker books.