Can't Something Go Right On a Trip?

Because I usually leave my wallet at a gas station or have to take Hannah to the ER or the car is broken into.

So, the kids and I packed up and headed to Peoria on Saturday. It's been 3+ years (since we lived in Iowa) since the kids and I just packed up the car and went to Peoria for the weekend (usually leaving Mike at home to sleep, play hearts or watch Ultimate Fighter). We got on the road about a 1/2 hour earlier than I had hoped to and were having a nice, uneventful journey to Dad's. I pulled over in Columbia, MO to get lunch, snacks and gas...pull up to the pump, take out my wallet and there's an empty spot where my debit card usually sits. Are you kidding me? Luckily, I knew exactly where it was (in my pants pocket at home) so it's not like I had to cancel anything but all I had was $20. Okay. We had a box of juice boxes in the car, cheese crackers and some fudge stripe cookies too. That'll have to do for lunch. I got myself a drink and put the rest of the $20 in the gas tank. I knew that I'd be okay on gas because we were about halfway and I had a full tank (the van gets better than 300 miles per tank when it's full and we didn't have 300 miles to go) but I've never watched that tank so much.

Just south of Springfield, we hit rain. I decided to pull over at a rest stop...raiding the car for change (the kids got YooHoos) and whatnot. When I thought that it was safe to go, we pull out and run right into the rain I was trying to avoid. Everyone went from 70 mph to 10. Just after Springfield, it got better.

Then around Tremont, out of nowhere, a wall of water fell out of the sky. It didn't matter how slow I drove, I just could not see anything. I pulled over with about 20 other cars and waited. After 10-15 minutes, I called Dad and asked if it was raining by him. He said no. I thought that if I could just get past the rain, I'd be okay (because we weren't far from Dad's). It was crazy. I was just glad that it didn't take long to get past it.

So, we have a nice visit. Deb's kids and mine get along really well and had a blast. We cooked up some prime rib and had a great dinner Sunday night. I found a scrapbook that grandma had made for me with their Christmas card from 1975 that announced my birth and had some cool pictures in it. The funny part is that there's only 2 pictures of me in the whole thing. Otherwise, it's pictures of Sue and Deb with Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa. There's also a few of Uncle John in there. LOL! Deb and I had a good laugh about the page of "Phil's Summer at Catalina" and of the photos of Dad in his...what did you call them? Bun huggers?

One of the two photos of me...here with my big sister Deb. I already had a version of this photo without my hand in my mouth.


This is self explanatory. That's my Dad! (and you can click to enlarge)

We left for home this morning.

I stopped to get gas and hit Krispy Kreme before we left Peoria (Dad lent me money for the ride home). We spent a lot of time there and didn't actually get on the road until about 8:45. I didn't feel like rushing the kids when they were having such a great time watching the donuts drop into the oil, flip and then go through the "wall of glaze." They really loved the time at Krispy Kreme. Around 11ish, the kids were starving (or so they said) so we decided to stop outside of St. Charles, MO for lunch. Another 45 minutes lost because I let them play in the playplace (I know I'd go nuts sitting in a car for an extended length of time). We get back in the car and stumble upon a nasty accident. 6 lanes of traffic diverted into 1. It took 35 minutes to get past it. We also had a couple of emergency potty breaks...the most frustrating one being 25 miles from home. Ugh. We pulled into the driveway at 4:45pm. So, what should have taken 6-6 1/2 hours took 8. My back hurts from all of the driving but I did have a good time singing to my Maroon 5 CD. LOL!