travel post
Oct. 6th, 2014 03:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miss_lucy21That was a trip and a half, let me tell you. Friday before last, my parents and I left their house around 4:30 p.m. to drive to R & H's home in Colorado (R is my brother and H is my sister-in-law. They have a new baby, JD, who was the purpose of the trip). Door to door, the trip is 1300 miles/2092 km. We did not stop for the night. We drove straight through- we did stop for dinner, for gas/restroom purposes, and then for breakfast and lunch, but not for more than a little more than an hour at any one time. 25 hours later, we arrived in the city where R & H live. If you think this probably kind of sucked, you would be correct. I actually got the most sleep of anyone, because my night time meds more or less keep me asleep, and I was still exhausted. This was Dad's idea- he wanted to get there as soon as possible (JD is the first grandchild. Yeah.) and he didn't want to spend money on a hotel. I think he forgot to take into account that he didn't have 3 night time drivers, he only had 2 (see above about my meds. I'm also a lousy night driver because my depth perception is even worse in the dark and because I'm just the right height while sitting to get hit in the eyes by the headlights of every car behind me. If I'm in familiar territory, and it's a relatively short drive, I'm fine. But otherwise, I'd rather not drive in the dark). I think he also did not take into account that a good chunk of our route was on state routes and US highways and not the interstate, which means it was extremely, extremely dark. He's since decided we won't do that again. I refrained from saying I told you so, but my brother did point out that he wasn't happy with the idea of us going straight through in the first place (neither was I, and I did point that out ahead of time, but there are times where there is no arguing with my dad).
But once we got there, it was great. JD is adorable. He was 5 weeks old when we got there, and he is pretty mobile for someone so young. He was trying to climb up our shoulders when we held him and he does pretty good push ups and holds his head up pretty well already. If he's not rolling himself over from front to back within the next 2-3 weeks, I'll be shocked. He was getting his knees up under himself already when we left. He's also a champion eater- we caught the 6 week growth spurt and he grew a pound in a week last week (he started out small, but he's close to doubling his birth weight). He doesn't quite have grasp control yet, but it's a smidgen early for it. He does definitely have social smiles, though- he is a mostly happy baby so long as he's not hungry (he is a pretty wrathful kid if he's hungry and you don't do something about it pretty quickly). We were trying to give H as much time for herself as possible this week- she's on maternity leave until the beginning of December- so I spent a lot of time babysitting (Mom was staying nights with them so they could both get some extra sleep- he's not sleeping through the night just yet, but he does sleep in 3-4 hour stretches, so it's not as bad as it could be. Dad was happy to hold JD or feed him a bottle, but did not want to be left alone with him). It was great. He really is a pretty good baby.
And then Saturday morning, we started back to Ohio. This time, we only drove 15 hours and stopped for the "night" (it was midnight when we got to the hotel and we were back on the road again by 8 am, so just barely overnight). And then we got to my parents' house around 7 pm on Sunday. I got to my place around 8:30 (I stayed to eat pizza at my parents' because I needed food badly) and was showered and in bed by 9. Today, I'm putting things back together for the week- grocery shopping, food for the week, etc. And laundry- I lost track of what was clean and what wasn't, so if it's not in a drawer or closet, it's getting re-washed because I don't have the patience to sort it out. It'll be an all week project- I have something to wear to work tomorrow, so it's not a big deal if I don't finish things today. My back is actually in pretty decent shape- it needs some stretching and trigger point therapy, but it'll be fine in a day or two. I'm really tired, but I can sneak some extra sleep by going to bed early a couple nights. Some of it is just re-entry and some is different weather (it's very dry in Colorado and very not dry here).
But once we got there, it was great. JD is adorable. He was 5 weeks old when we got there, and he is pretty mobile for someone so young. He was trying to climb up our shoulders when we held him and he does pretty good push ups and holds his head up pretty well already. If he's not rolling himself over from front to back within the next 2-3 weeks, I'll be shocked. He was getting his knees up under himself already when we left. He's also a champion eater- we caught the 6 week growth spurt and he grew a pound in a week last week (he started out small, but he's close to doubling his birth weight). He doesn't quite have grasp control yet, but it's a smidgen early for it. He does definitely have social smiles, though- he is a mostly happy baby so long as he's not hungry (he is a pretty wrathful kid if he's hungry and you don't do something about it pretty quickly). We were trying to give H as much time for herself as possible this week- she's on maternity leave until the beginning of December- so I spent a lot of time babysitting (Mom was staying nights with them so they could both get some extra sleep- he's not sleeping through the night just yet, but he does sleep in 3-4 hour stretches, so it's not as bad as it could be. Dad was happy to hold JD or feed him a bottle, but did not want to be left alone with him). It was great. He really is a pretty good baby.
And then Saturday morning, we started back to Ohio. This time, we only drove 15 hours and stopped for the "night" (it was midnight when we got to the hotel and we were back on the road again by 8 am, so just barely overnight). And then we got to my parents' house around 7 pm on Sunday. I got to my place around 8:30 (I stayed to eat pizza at my parents' because I needed food badly) and was showered and in bed by 9. Today, I'm putting things back together for the week- grocery shopping, food for the week, etc. And laundry- I lost track of what was clean and what wasn't, so if it's not in a drawer or closet, it's getting re-washed because I don't have the patience to sort it out. It'll be an all week project- I have something to wear to work tomorrow, so it's not a big deal if I don't finish things today. My back is actually in pretty decent shape- it needs some stretching and trigger point therapy, but it'll be fine in a day or two. I'm really tired, but I can sneak some extra sleep by going to bed early a couple nights. Some of it is just re-entry and some is different weather (it's very dry in Colorado and very not dry here).