Departure Day
Our road trips are anywhere from an eight to ten hour drive or approximately 500 miles to the final destination. We always make sure the ipads are full of tv shows/movies, the snacks and drinks are ready to go and the suitcases are
packed. Kids have their car ride accoutrement, blankets, pillows, stuffed animals, toys ready to go. We are ready for the adventure.
Hold on it's 4:00AM.
Yep you read that right, 4:00AM. The time of departure. Every road trip leaves at 4:00am. That means wake up time is 3am, 3:20am for the kids. Insanity right? My husband has this down to a science. He first came up with it when we were driving from Dallas, Texas to New Orleans, Louisiana many years ago. He was determined to beat any and all traffic and get us there by lunch time. He even toyed with wheels up at 3:30am, but I put my foot down on that one. So 3:00AM rolls around on the day of departure, I think I had fallen asleep around midnight, and the alarm went off. My husband jumps out of bed and into the shower, I tried to ignore the 3:00AM wake-up, by rolling over and drifting back to sleep, but I have a nagging sense that in five minutes he is going to be out of the shower and nudging me to get up. I drag my half-asleep carcass out of the bed and slowly dress (I would shower, maybe, the next day). I brush my teeth, pack my toiletries, throw them in my bag along with my pj's and go make the coffee.
- 3:20AM wake the kids
- Pack the chargers and kids backpacks
- Wake the kids again
- Final house cleaning
- Yell at kids to get up and dressed
- Start loading up the car
- Stress about leaving at 4am
- Pack the kids suitcases into the car
- Pour the coffee into travel mugs
- Get the kids into the car
- lock-up set the alarm
- Wheels up
- Wonder if we turned the alarm on
- Kids back to sleep
- Mom back to sleep
- DAD ON A MISSION TO BEAT ALL TRAFFIC
Driving Four Hours Straight Before Someone Stirs
Typically my husband drives for four hours before it is time to re-fuel and before someone stirs from sleep, myself included. At this point my husband tells all of us how we are half way there and see how easy that was. We slept half way through the trip. No big deal, right? Typically this is a goodtime to stop for breakfast, which of course the kids think is time for a three course, three hour meal. This makes my husband crazy as he is on a mission to get to the destination by lunch time. Not everyone in the family got his memo. Since it's the mid-way point, it is my turn to drive. My coffee from 4:00AM is luke-warm, major disappointment. Kids grab their electronics and they start asking when we will be there within a half an hour of my driving. Sometimes, I think my husband has the better deal as we are all asleep and he drives in peace.
His Plan Worked
Destination is reached by lunch time. Once again, my husband takes the time to dwell on his meaning behind the 4:00AM departure madness. We arrived by lunch time. Had we not left at 4:00am, we would have arrived early evening and would've wasted the entire day in the car. Now we can enjoy lunch and have time to explore, to do something productive. As much as I hate the insanity of the 4:00AM departure, it does work. That said, I am sound asleep by 8:00PM the day of arrival.If We Left at a Normal Hour
Had we decided to leave at a decent hour like 7:00Am our day would have looked more like this:
- Wake up at 6:00AM
- Shower
- Make coffee
- Wake the kids at 6:20AM
- Pack the chargers and kid gear
- Pack the car
- Yell at the kids to get up
- Pour coffee into travel mugs
- Rush the kids into the car, while they are trying to pack last minute gear
- Turn on alarm and lock up
- Wheels up at 7:00AM
- Wonder if we turned on alarm
- Hit loads of traffic, argue over the traffic
- lunch stop at 12:00PM that would last an hour at least
- Back in the car for another 4 hours
- Arrive around 5:00-5:30PM
- DAY IS GONE AND WE HAVE NOT HAD A CHANCE TO DO OR SEE ANYTHING
I'm thinking the meaning behind the madness has been justified.☺
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