Woman, 6 Months Pregnant, Drives 600 miles with Three Children ages 4 and Under. And Likes It (!)
I‘m as surprised as you are. Here’s the story:
Bryce & I had decided to drive the whole family out to the Bay area of California for Bryce’s grandmother's funeral, and our new little niece's baby blessing.
Sweet new baby.
(Photos courtesy Tom Pixton)
Of course as I was packing on Thursday I somehow banged/snagged my big toenail on the vacuum cleaner, ripping it halfway out and gushing blood everywhere. “Mommy, you need a Band-Aid,” Adelyn told me. (I’m lazy about getting my kids Band-Aids for every little scratch and scrape, so I tell them I’m not getting them a Band-Aid unless they’re “gushing blood”.) I told Bryce about my injury and he suggested we ice it up and yank the toenail out. I not-so-respectfully declined and decided to seek proper professional medical attention. I drove myself to the ER where they numbed my toe up, popped that toenail back into place, and gave me some narcotics just in case I was “feeling the pain” later.
After I came home we finished packing and hit the road, braving the 12-hour drive. As it turns out, Bryce & I weren’t the best “road buddies” this time. Things seemed to improve a bit after my threat to “take the baby and start walking.”
(Photo courtesy hotspotbirding.com)
The funeral was lovely, and it was a sacred, beautiful thing to visit Bryce’s “growing up” homes. At one we watched wild quail skitter about, and collected beautiful pink peppercorns off of a pepper tree (they used to decorate their Christmas tree with them); at another home they gathered dozens of peacock feathers.
Our hotel in Santa Rosa left something to be desired. Bryce found razor blades (as in, probably used for cocaine razor blades) in the top of the closet. There were loud, drunk conversations outside our window at night, and a “woman of ill repute” walking around outside in the morning (just for the record, I think human trafficking is a very tragic thing.) I’m pretty sure the only reason they have a swimming pool is so that online hotel seekers *might* book it. We did enjoy playing in the pool a bit after the funeral.
After the baby blessing we made friends with the local, sole, anti-Mormon protestor, who stands outside the Alameda Church building every Sunday with a diabolical-looking sign that reads “Blasphemers Lurk Within”. I didn’t know I lurked when I went to Church, it sounds alot more exciting (and peaceful, actually) than frantically shoving grapes, bread, cheese, crayons, and paper at a small army of toddlers in an attempt to keep them quiet during “Sacrament Meeting”. The protestor actually seemed like a reasonably nice guy.
The family enjoyed some lovely time at the beach after Church. Courtney & I couldn’t resist the opportunity to have some “pregnant bikini belly” photos taken. (We're due exactly a month apart.)
(Photos courtesy Tom Pixton)
Bryce & I decided to send him home on a plane so he could be home in time for work without doing a marathon 12-hour drive beforehand, and me home in the van with the girls so that we could just take our time and enjoy. That night the girls and I did a practice “camping in the van” run in Forrest & Kaarina’s driveway. We stocked up on supplies at Target, including an “I’m not travelling alone, my husband is just around the corner, can’t you see my rock?” ring for $20.
And we were off! Our first night’s dinner was delicious cheeseburger, fries, caramel milkshake AND a root beer float at “Healdsburger”, on Healdsburg Avenue in Healdsburg, CA. We then finally found a place to sleep at the Hendy Woods State Park around 10pm. We laid out our blankets and sleeping bags and camped under the stars in between the Redwood Trees.
(Steller's Jay photo courtesy fws.gov)
The next day I packed up camp as the girls frolicked in the woods, chased steller's jays and collected seashells and pinecones. It was pretty dusty where we stayed and played, and we HAD been on the road for 6 days already so I decided to give the “pay shower” a try before we drove off. The four of us took a 4 1/2 minute shower (I only had 3 quarters) and did what we could with our allotted shower time. We hit the road again, and I got to thinking, it was going to be awfully expensive (and not very appetizing, ultimately) if we bought ourselves cheeseburgers, fries, and ice cream for dinner every night, being as we had a 12 hour (plus, for “scenic route” purposes) total trip, and had only knocked off 3 hours in 2 days so far (which, I’m okay with, by the way, it was kind of the pace I had in mind. One advantage of my full-time job being a stay-at-home (“on-the-road” ? :) Mom with children not in school yet is that we had don’t have alot of time constraints holding us back!) Next item to procure: a camp stove. I was very excited to find a backpacking store in Fort Bragg. We ended up getting a JetBoil with a companion frypan. The JetBoil systems have brilliant engineering. Next stop was ubiquitous Safeway for more supplies and dinner. We devoured a rotisserie chicken. We found a nice spot to camp for the night, and in the morning Sarah spotted two swans in the lake below us! Adelyn loves swans, we’ve been wanting to see some for a long time.
(Photo courtesy thelife-animal.blogspot.com)
We went to Mackerricher State Park, a lovely “free day-use” one with a gray whale skeleton near the entrance, a long boardwalk with spots for seal and whale watching, and a place to walk down stairs to go see tide pools. We walked down the stairs, made our picnic breakfast of oatmeal with our new fancy schmancy JetBoil, and checked out the tidepools. We found sea snails and hermit crabs and sea anenomes. Tidepools are really incredible. The girls played and played and climbed and climbed on the “cliffs”. It is so wonderful to see them so happy and exuberant in nature, there is something so freeing and “contenting” about it for them. I love it. There were also these cute little chipmunkish tunnel dwelling rodents everywhere- they certainly were not shy. I was able to spot some harbor seals swimming, which apparently are there year-round. They’re a beautiful gray with white spots. They stick their cute little heads above the water, checking things out.
(Photo courtesy marinemammalcenter.org)
Now it was time to visit one of the famous “drive-thru Redwood trees”. We chose the “Chandelier Tree” in Leggett, CA. You pay 5 bucks to get into the park and can drive through as many times as you want. We first had a picnic dinner of lentil soup. There were some woods and a huge field and some piles of gravel. Again the girls ran and ran and played and played. Adelyn even checked out some pea hens far away in the field. And, we drove through the tree. And visited the gift shop. Then found a place to camp.
The next morning we made a long overdue trip to the laundromat. The girls had fun putting the quarters into the slots (gamblers in training). We then headed to Grant’s Pass, OR, on the winding highway 199. Turns out a winding highway didn’t really agree with us at that point. Adelyn started throwing up. Then Sarah started throwing up. Then I started throwing up. We threw up, repeatedly. I was able to pull over across from a small airport in Kerby, OR, so we could all just lay in the van and throw up. The stomach flu had stricken. I managed to call my husband, who at this point was 300 miles away, to ask for help. He contacted the local Mormon congregation and their kind Bishop said he would come help us. I was standing outside the van at one point and, I won’t get too descriptive here, but suffice it to say that I suddenly experienced something my brother Nathan once described as “out both ends”. So I’m just finishing up cleaning up THAT mess off of my legs and the ground as the kind Bishop pulls up. He goes into the store and gets us Gatorade and Ginger Ale and Saltines. He helps us get checked into a hotel room and gives us the number of the leader of the local Mormon women’s organization in case we need anything else, and says goodbye. We attempt to sleep in between someone vomiting and Mama cleaning it up approximately every 30 minutes until about midnight, when our bodies finally decided to give us a break and let us sleep.
My father-in-law flew Bryce over in his Cessna the next day so he could drive us home. A joyous reunion and a non-eventful (happily!) trip home ensued. Finally home!
Let’s do this again next weekend. :)
