Day 1418. Today it was 7:30, when Sammy woke up. We got up, and I immediately started packing, while Randy ate breakfast first with the kids. Once I was done packing, I went to have breakfast as well, and Randy closed the suitcases and put them into the car. The kids were enjoying their last moments with our friends they have come to love. Especially Sammy who held on to his new friend Marsha and didn't want to let go of her. Once we were all done, we went to the car, where more pictures were taken, and Tammy (who's not a big hugger) gave our friend a hug. We said our good-byes and left just after 9:30 am.
As was the case the last two travel days, we had about 370 miles to drive today, which was 380 in total in the end and took us 7 hours driving time. The kids were playing or listening or watching on their tablets, but I never had more than 5 minutes without having to help them, primarily because of Sammy. He likes pushing around on the bottom, and so I have to keep fixing it. Not being able to completely reach him in his back seat makes it even harder, and so I often have to unbuckle to be able to help.
We drove nearly 3 hours before we stopped for the first time. It was 12:20, and we had found a Chick-fil-A just before Charlotte, NC, that was along our route to go to for lunch. By the time we stopped, they really needed to get out of the seats again, especially Sammy who starts getting really cranky not long before a planned stop. The restaurant was filled to capacity, so that we did not get a parking spot right away, nor a table to eat at. The kids started playing at their playground right away, and soon a table right there became available to us. The kids were more interested in playing and running at first, but then sat down to get some food. Sammy wanted to play too and enjoyed looking at me through the glass.
Sammy had already briefly slept before stopping there, but he still had a fever today and was visibly tired, and he was cranky. He was asking for our friend Marsha again, and so I decided to call her. He was so happy to see her, but when I hung up, he immediately broke into tears, crying hard. We left the restaurant, and I ended up calling our friends again to calm Sammy down. Of course we had to hung up again, and then strapped everyone into their car seats. It was time to move on.
It was 2 pm, and we had 3.5 hours left to drive, and it was nap time. However, no one was going to sleep. Sammy finally fell asleep, but not the other two. Emmy, however, started crying hard and woke Sammy up who had not slept long at all. I continued encouraging Tammy and Emmy to fall asleep, and finally Tammy did, much to my surprise, in reality. But it seems that the middle seat keeps children awake, as it was Emmy there today who did not want to go to sleep, even though he was visibly tired. And Sammy had given him a long, deep scratch on his tigh, so he was crying about that as well. He was now so cranky he was crying for much of the time, and all I tried to keep him to sleep did not work.
After 2.5 hours we stopped for gas, and I took Tammy to the bathroom, while the others stayed in the car. We then had another 75 minutes to drive to the Walmart that was along our route and not far before reaching our hotel. We needed a few items. Once again Sammy was pretty cranky. But to my greatest surprise I finally got Emmy to fall asleep at 5 pm.
At 6:15 we reached Walmart, and it took us 50 minutes to get everything. I was tired and hungry and just wanted to get it over with. Both Tammy and Emmy had dirty diapers at that point, and so I took them to the restrooms to change them, while Randy was checking out.
It was just after 7 pm and by 7:30 pm we finally reached the hotel. They were ready to get out! We checked in and went to our room, where I waited with the kids for Randy to bring all our stuff inside. They had some salami and tortillas, then we put their bathing suits on and walked to the outside pool they had.
We were the only ones there at first, but not for long. The bigger pool had rather cold water, but it was okay, while the small whirlpool was extremely hot. We ended up having fun in both pools. The cold one wasn't really that cold, and the hot water stopped being so hot after a while in it.
We then returned to our room, where I put a lasagna into the microwave. We showered, then they all ate a litle bit. I was surprised how late it already was. It ended up being 10 pm befor they were all in bed. We have two queen sized beds, but Emmy did not want to share one with his siblings for fear of falling out of it, so he lay down in our bed. Sammy was extremely tired and fell asleep right away, Tammy did not need long either. Emmy, however, had his eyes wide open and needed a long time to fall asleep. Randy was extremely tired and soon went to bed. As for me, I went to work, but I've been falling asleep even while writing all this. Now it's 1 am, and I also need to go to bed, as we have an early morning again.
