The DRIVE

Note to self:

Be more prepared.

I'd like to think I am pretty organized. Yep- not when I am moving cross country.

Our kids ended up sleeping over with friends 2 nights in a row before we actually left Virginia. Thank GOODNESS for them! We had packed our bed and wanted to continue packing so we slept in the boys bunk beds with no sheets. Jailbird style. Because-- did I mention? I packed those, too. Why we didn't phone a friend? Not. A. Clue. I'm going to attribute the stupidity to stress and a lack of sleep.

Moral of the story? I was a packing maniac and should've planned for the lack of beds/bedding/clothes. I needed a suitcase, similar to a hospital bag when prepping for baby's arrival for moving week. Clothes and toiletries for all. That was all packed, too! Pretty sure we wore the same clothes for 3 days. At least we all had toothbrushes.  Phew! Luckily, a few friends stopped by before we left and armed us with snacks. They all got eaten. Every single one.

The drive down went well. Considering the last time we drove to Florida Cayenne had a stomach bug. We are talking about throw up all in her car seat and diarrhea everywhere. Not sure how she got it or where she got it but it started far enough into our trip that there was no turning back. Let's just say we haven't been back to FL in a year and a half and probably because we were just plain traumatized.

Pulling this big ass uhaul was no joke. Pretty sure we were over the weight limit but we had no choice. We had one container going to storage in MD until we figure out what we are doing with our lives and the all other stuff was coming with us. There was a lot of prioritizing. We stopped pretty much every 3-4 hours for gas. It was insane. We got 12 mpg when pulling that bad boy so to say it was slowing us down was an understatement. In fact, it was so slow we stopped for the night at a pet-friendly hotel in South Carolina. We headed out early the next morning after breakfast but not before stopping at Wally World for dog food. Because?? I wasn't prepared and had forgotten to buy more dog food before we left!

We made it to FL in one piece. Cayenne was sleeping when we high-fived at the Florida state line but when we stopped to get our free cup of OJ she woke up. I told her we were in Florida and the first thing she said while trying to get out of her seat was "BAVINGSUIT!" She cracked us up! She wanted to get her bathing suit on as soon as we hit Florida. Can you blame her?

Free OJ!

Many hours later as Florida is the frickin' longest flatest state ever... we arrived at my Mom's house. The kids got out of the car and immediately headed to the pool. The boys put their feet in and Cayenne literally dunked her whole body (fully-clothed) by sitting on the first step. They weren't messing around with the idea of finding their bavingsuits (misspelling intended). Who knows where this mama packed them.

And so the unpacking begins...