summer 2011

summer 2011

Paul and I, all 16 kids and Ashley, Benjamin's wife...Christmas 2012

Paul and I, all 16 kids and Ashley, Benjamin's wife...Christmas 2012
family

Monday, January 4, 2016

seven degrees out...

That's minus 13.8 Celsius. The dogs didn't stay out for very long this morning, ha. The space heater is humming, and I am glad for my new slippers. I have socks on too, and my feet are still not warm and toasty. My coffee cup is full of piping hot pumpkin spice coffee, I'm wearing velour sweat pants, and my warmest wool sweater, from the thrift store, of course. We haven't started school yet because I let the girls have their cousin overnight, and they are way too busy playing already. I figure they aren't parked in front of the t.v., so we're okay.

Mirielle and I are really going to do it, we're driving across the whole U. S. of A.! She thinks we can do it in three days...we are leaving directly after she works a 12 hour night shift at the hospital, so she will be sleeping in the car while I navigate and drive...15 hours. I think that's too aggressive for the first day...if I drink enough coffee to drive that long so she can sleep, I'll have to stop every four hours to go to the bathroom. On paper, it's doable...15 hours to Des Moines Iowa, then 15 to Salt Lake City, then 8 to Reno, then on day four, the last few hours to San Francisco. But leaving at 8 a.m. + 15 hours plus a few stops, that puts you at at least 2 a.m. the first day. If the next day was ALSO 15 hours...leaving at 7 a.m., driving until 11 or midnight with stops...ugh. I don't know. I think we should pace ourselves more...but we'll see.

We're leaving next Sunday. I would take a third driver but his car is filled with good stuff that he needs:)

Ah well. Things to do, kids to parent:)

7 comments:

Kara said...

I can tell you we drove from Providence RI to Phoenix AZ, in 2001, and it took 3.5 days. And it was miserable. The first day, we (my husband and I, no kids) started driving right after I got off a plane (my job started in Phoenix a month before we moved out here). We only made it to the western edge of Pennsylvania before I needed to stop for the day. The next day, we went to the outskirts of St Louis. The day after that, we got to the Texas panhandle. The final day was the longest- 14+ hours of driving- from Texas to Phoenix. You don't see anything interesting from the car. There's long stretches on nothing.

Marilyn said...

Oh my............that is some heavy duty driving. You are much braver than me.......much younger too I might add. We never drive longer than about 9 hours and that is with both of us driving. We always have our two dogs too, so have to make a few stops for them to have a little walkie. Summer time is different than winter too. We find driving down to Arizona in January/February much different than driving back in April. Do take little breaks :-) It will be fun though.

Marilyn from Canada.

terre said...

awww wish you were taking a ride to southern cali too! i would love a meet-up for that pumpkin spice coffee. enjoy it but...15 hours a day is A LOT!!! take it from someone who has driven herself on a lot of cross country (although not totally across the USA)road-trips.

terre @ zoomama speaks..

FLmom7 said...

It can be done in 3 days, absolutely. That's how long we took. Stopped overnight at hotels twice, and stopped to see some of the beautiful sights along the way (we took the southern route, much more scenic). We actually drove back home from northern CA to NJ (on I-80, I think) in 48 hours (2 drivers, no stopping except for gas/fast food/restroom), but we were young and stupid and I wouldn't recommend that lol. You'll make memories, that's for sure:)

Cheryl said...

And you'd better write a book... When you return.

Cheryl said...

PS: I noticed how you eliminated the possibility of me tagging along.. Aaron needs his stuff.!!

Humble wife said...

Brr...if you pass southern New Mexico you can wave to my place. We have been cold this year too, not 7degrees cold but cold enough! I've been away awhile and am going to *catch up* with you and your family!
Jennifer