I was still driving when the day flipped over from Wednesday to Thursday. We hit traffic in Texas as we attempted to leave the DFW yesterday afternoon but after we were out of the DFW things flowed smoothly all night. We took the northern route through Oklahoma which I much prefer when we are leaving during heavy evening traffic in the DFW area as it gets us out of the traffic zone much more quickly than heading all of the way through the DFW in order to head east out to Arkansas.
Dominica took over driving for a few hours early this morning. We listened to a bunch of classic country music on her iPod and sang along for much of the night.
In the morning we stopped at a McDonald’s with a play area in southern Illinois so that the girls could get out and stretch a bit. Both of the girls have been doing an amazing job of riding in the car. Liesl has been a perfect angel without the slightest bit of complaining which we were not expecting at all. I can’t get over how well she has done on this really long trip.
While we were at McDonald’s I talked to Dominica about how well we were doing as far as making good time on the drive and mentioned that if possible that I would really like to run out to East Canton, Ohio so that I could see my family as we pass by. My family is only about thirty minutes out of the way on the drive from Texas to New York so it really is a good chance to see them. I texted my cousin and my aunt and let them know that we were going to be coming through in the middle of the afternoon.
We made it to my grandmother’s house at a quarter after three. Most of my family was able to meet up with us there including my cousin Monica. So we hung out for just a little bit before all going into Louisville to have a very early dinner at Grinders. It was really nice that we were able to stop by as I was able to take my grandmother out for Mother’s Day and she got to see the girls for a few hours. Getting her more time with Luciana is very important at Luciana has a little bit of stranger danger and having grandma meet her today before spending more time with her in two months will help with that.
It was just a few minutes past midnight when we pulled into dad’s driveway. We were in bed in pretty much no time. We were really exhausted. Dominica really helped a lot with the driving on this trip and might have driven as much as a third of the way. Altogether the drive, including our stops, took thirty hours.
Tomorrow I am working from dad’s house in the morning, running errands with Danielle and then heading off to Jeremy and Rachael’s wedding in Geneva. Dominica and the girls will be staying home and her parents are coming out to hang out with the girls in the evening.