Louisiana or Bust! - Family Vacation 2009 - Day 1

So in a previous post I just committed to regular entries.  Then it hit me, I could blog about our family vacation so you could follow along (if you are really, really bored).

So we left Fremont this morning at 6:06 a.m.  Two adults, two children, one mommy-van, snacks, drinks, cameras, laptop, and too many suitcases to count.  Although we'll only be gone for six days, we packed for six weeks.

Our goal was to drive 12 hours to Memphis, Tennessee. I'm proud to report I am sitting in a hotel one-hour south of Memphis, in the town of Batesville, Mississippi (home of Batesville Casket Company for my funeral director friends and family members).  

The boys were exceptionally well-behaved today. The DVD player that came with the van paid off!  Owen (age 4) had a tiny meltdown this afternoon when he couldn't get comfortable for his nap.  But the tantrum passed.  Corbin (age 8) has been very helpful with Owen and has become the important point person between the food bags and cooler.  "Corbin could you give me the Wheat Thins?"  "Corbin I need a Diet Coke..."

We reached the Michigan-Indiana line in only 2 1/2 hours. I have no idea whether that was good timing or not, but it seemed to go quickly for me.  We even had a potty break and Egg McGrease Muffin just south of Holland. So much for spending less and eating less on this vacation.....

We chose a cross country route through Indiana instead of the high-traffic area around Chicago.  It set us back about 30 minutes but we watched plenty of corn grow.  Ben's Aunt Sarah and Uncle John left with us and they took the Chicago route, we opted for countryside. They ended up 30 minutes ahead of us. We never did catch them today but checked in several times by phone. They have more patience, better snacks, iron-clad bladders and no antsy children in their vehicle. We estimate they are an hour ahead of us and will check in with them again in the morning.

Traveling the flat country farmland through the long state of Illinois brought back many childhood memories of trips to visit family in Central Illinois.  I think I even recognized the overpass where my dad pulled our 1983 Subaru wagon over, hauled my sister and I out the back of the car and threatened to paddle us if we didn't shape up. As I recall it was all my sister's fault, but that's another story (love ya Lee Lee!).

Ben was in his glory watching the huge fields unfolding with corn, soybeans, sorgum (sp?) and other cash crops. There are several large dairy farms in Indiana and the Illinois farmers apparently harvest vast amounts of cash crops as their farms didn't have any animals on them.  What's a farm without animals???  Of course, he also rubbernecked at any tractors and mechanical oddities we passed. He missed his calling as a farmer....

Somewhere in Illinois, the boys enjoyed watching a by-plane dive through the air as he sprayed the fields.  I enjoyed experiencing small town America with their floral shops, cafes, antique stores and historical buildings and road markers.

Did I mention how flat the state of Illinois is? And boring...

Today I had several important jobs including iPod and radio operator, trash collector, DVD technician, snacks coordinator and my favorite - map reader and navigator. Ben was impressed. I owe my keen ability to read the map, recognize the symbols, mile markers and measure distances, to my Dad, who taught me how to read a map on our family vacations.  Nowadays I'm afraid map reading is becoming a lost skill with the invention of the Garmin and other GPS systems. (Oh yeah, just for back-up, the Garmin displayed its knowledge on our windshield too).  But I'm way more reliable and can hold a better conversation so I know I won't be replaced anytime soon.

We ran into rain showers in southern Illinois and it rained steadily for the next four hours. At times, it was raining so hard we considered pulling over. Ben expertly steered us past a stretch of road that was underwater and we hydropaned for quite a distance before he released his white knuckles and relaxed his jaw.  That was in northern Arkansas.

We hit rush hour, construction and more heavy rain as we approached Memphis. It took over an hour to pass through that.  Did I mention we were also in a tornado warning area?  At times there were flashes of lightening and dark, omnimous clouds. I would have panicked if we came upon the Storm Chaser unit from the Discovery Channel, but we didn't.  

We settled into an um...two-star hotel for the night. It's a Days Inn, an economical choice.  We were tired and the price was right.  For the most part the room was clean.  I'm just not spending a lot of time in the shower or bathroom.  The bathroom light takes about 10 minutes to turn on and the floor and walls of the shower are pretty scummy, but I'm blaming it on the water. 

We passed through seven states in all today: Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi.  We celebrated each new sign that marked the border to a new state much like a new adventure.

So that's the summary of Wolfsen Family Vacation 2009 - day one.  Tomorrow it's seven hours to Cajun Country in Lafayette, Louisiana where we will unite with Simon, Dawn and the rest of our crazy cast of characters we call family.  

Over and out good buddy.

More later...