Roadtrip to Meet Halfway! Sort of
Each May, we have a decision to make: Will we take a road trip to Missouri to visit family once school is out? Growing up, my grandmother’s May 24th birthday was the perfect excuse for a Memorial Day family reunion. We started the tradition on her 70th birthday back in 1986, when I was only 13. I vowed to go every year, no matter where I was in life.
When I met Dennis in 1994, he joined me on the trip to southern Missouri each year for family, food and fun. He’d sit patiently as my cousins, sister and I pored over photo albums and old videos. I remember only missing one year because I’d just had our first baby (Jack) two weeks prior. I wanted to be there though, especially to show him off to his new family. Even after Granny died two years later, the reunion continued thanks to the bottomless energy of those who hosted annually. Every family has its glue that keeps everyone connected, even before Facebook, and in our family, that glue is Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Charles.
Once Dennis started his new career that required so much travel, and I subsequently quit work to stay home with the kids, we started a new tradition of attending the reunion and then driving down to my sister, Kristy’s, lake property in Arkansas.
Last summer, however, we didn’t make it to the reunion or the lake. We stayed busy enough with hosting family who visited us (can’t beat Colorado summers!) and a once-in-a-lifetime trip to South Korea. But then later in the year, the boys mentioned that even though we had an amazing summer, they were sad that we didn’t go to the lake. So we decided to make our Missouri and lake road trip a priority in 2019.
First Stop: Iowa
Taekwondo is a big part of our lives, and our oldest son, Jack, recently started sparring competitively. Earlier this year, USAT organized the athletes and coaches into regions, and were holding our first regional camp in Des Moines on Memorial Day weekend. We’d have to miss the family reunion again, but realized we could easily work Iowa into our lake road trip. This strip of states down the center of the US (Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas) was roughly halfway in between Colorado and DC. Plus, we’d never been to Iowa, so we’d get the bonus of adding a new state to our list.
The boys were already finished with school for the summer, so we packed the car to the brim. We set out for Iowa early Friday morning. We drove through Kansas and Nebraska (another state off our list!) and made the drive in 11 hours. I remember when I had to stop after six hours of driving, but in a long distance family, you realize what you’re capable of. Also, Dennis had to drive 16 hours, and I felt that if he could do it, so could I! I would have the company and help of the kids, as well as my audio books. (Game of Thrones, or A Song of Ice and Fire for the purists.) If you don’t already have an Audible account, sign up for a free 30 day trial or register for a Gold Membership. We can’t live without ours!
Packed and ready to go!
Dennis met us in Iowa on Saturday and we were able to hang out most of the day Sunday after watching Jack at camp. We didn’t have anything too exciting planned, and mostly hung out at the hotel before leaving Monday for St. Louis. We chose a hotel with a full kitchen, so we stocked it with our road trip snacks and all the ingredients for gourmet lunchmeat sandwiches to limit eating out.
After the camp, we each took a kid and caravanned to St. Louis through some scary Iowa weather, which included an alert to immediately seek shelter (we didn’t).
Next Stop: St. Louis, Missouri
Our first stop in St. Louis was to visit Dennis’s parents and catch up over St. Louis style pizza. Then we drove across town to spend the night with my aunt who filled us in on the reunion we missed. I later realized that I didn’t take any pictures in St. Louis, but if I had, they would have looked something like… picture the four of us plus Georgie drowning in the Mississippi River near the Gateway Arch. That pretty much sums up the conditions there.
The next morning, I woke up with a sore throat that I chalked up to getting reaquainted with Missouri allergens, but we had an easy trip: A three hour drive to my sister’s, with a required stop at Lion’s Choice for our favorite roast beef sandwiches. It’s become a tradition for us to eat there as many times as possible while in the area.
Then: Portageville, Missouri
My parents were already at my sister’s house, so we had a nice, relaxing dinner and afterward, the entire family attended Cooper’s baseball game. It was so fun watching second graders play machine pitch, and he was stoked to have us all there cheering for him. After the game, he proudly introduced all his friends to his two cousins, Jack and Ben.
The next morning, we were ready to tackle the three and a half hour drive to Norfork Lake in Arkansas. Since we were in three cars, we all split up for this part of our road trip. I went with Kristy and Cooper, Jack with Dennis, and Ben with my parents. However, when Ben was getting in the car, he realized he was missing his headphones and couldn’t remember when he last saw them. We did a quick sweep of the house and cars and didn’t see them, but knew they’d turn up. At least they’d better; remember those favorite Sony bluetooth headphones of mine? Jack and Ben each have a pair now, as well. Jack let him use his for the drive, and we were on our way.
Finally: Norfork Lake, Arkansas
After another stormy drive, we were at the lake! We unpacked the cars and dropped off the kids so that Kristy and I could hit the grocery store for entirely too much food for the weekend. We always enjoy this part of the trip and it’s 1000 times better when the kids aren’t with us!
When we woke up the next morning, my sore throat had developed into a rattling cough deep in my chest, so our next adventure was to find an urgent care. And shout out to Dr. Fulghum at MedExpress in Mountain Home, Arkansas! I’m sure it helped that we were first visitors there that morning, but from the moment we arrived, we had their undivided attention. Check-in was swift, and I barely sat down before the jovial, attentive nurse called me in for vitals.
Once they got me into an exam room, I texted Dennis to join me and he was immediately followed by the doctor. The official diagnosis was bronchitis and possibly asthma. (We weren’t convinced about asthma, but I’m sure I had asthma-like symptoms that day). I received a breathing treatment and four prescriptions. My urgent care visit ended up being quicker than the time we spent picking up the prescriptions because the pharmacy was so busy and short-staffed.
Boating is fun, but so is Breathing
Back at the lake, I stayed back to rest while everyone went on the water for a couple of hours. The water was cold, but it’s never too cold for the kids to enjoy, and the rest of the trip went swimmingly, pun intended. Dennis left a day ahead of us so that he would have Sunday to rest before returning to work that Monday, and my parents ended up leaving later the same day to get back home to Tennessee.
Back to Colorado for Me and the Boys, and DC for Dennis
Our road trip continued! We rode back to Missouri with Kristy to spend the night before leaving for home. We planned to make the trip back to Colorado in one day, with the option to stop in Kansas if necessary. By this point, that 11 hour drive to Iowa had been my longest drive ever. To get back home from Kristy’s, I was facing 15 hours on the road. But again, Dennis had just driven 17 hours from the lake to his DC apartment. And by this point, I dreaded the thought of stopping at another hotel for the night. I really just wanted to be back home in my own bed.
We weren’t able to find Ben’s headphones before we left. But as I was looking through pictures on my phone, I found evidence of him wearing them during the trip from Iowa to Missouri! So I checked with my inlaws and my aunt who were on the case. Luckily, my aunt found them under the bed that Ben slept in while we were there. And even though we’d be driving through St. Louis, her house was just a bit out of the way and we really wanted to get home. So she promised to mail them to us. That may sound over the top, but the virus that caused my bronchitis had already spread to my dad, Dennis and Ben, so that was factored into my excuse for not stopping as well. I couldn’t get her sick, too.
Oh, Kansas...
The drive back started out pretty uneventful; we stopped for Lion’s Choice in St. Louis again. In Kansas City, we got turned around. Twice. But then… Kansas. If you’ve never taken a road trip through Kansas, just know that you should get gas when you can. You’ll think to yourself, “I still have a half a tank, I’ll have plenty of time to stop for gas.” You may have time, but you may not have a station. I knew this, but flirted with disaster anyway. Before long, my fuel gauge was beeping at me, I had the nervous sweats and my AAA card was already out of my wallet, when I finally saw a pump.
It was like we drove through a time portal to 1979. At the tiny station, there were two pumps, both pay in advance. I could have sworn the loiterer out front was an extra from the movie Dazed and Confused. The bathrooms looked like they hadn’t been touched since the 1960s and had been chain-smoked in until very recently. But something tells me this place gets a lot of relieved customers, just like us.
Once the car had fuel, we were next. I let Ben decide where to eat, and he chose Burger King. We were on an interstate, fast food places at every exit. Surely we’d pass a Burger King soon. We kept our eyes open at every exit we passed, and couldn’t find one. Google showed the next one at about an hour and a half away. We had plenty of snacks, so I wasn’t too worried. But the closer we got, the hangrier we got. But I wouldn’t settle. He wanted a Burger King spicy chicken sandwich, and by God he would get that sandwich!
Cursed by Toto?
We finally approached it in the last town before the Colorado border. We went through the drive through and I heard from Ben in the backseat, “How much dog food was in this container, because it’s completely empty now. What?? It’s all in the floor! Someone didn’t put the lid back on!” Well that someone was him, because he’s the one who was feeding the dog, but I didn’t want to say that while we were all hangry. We were so close to eating! So I told him we’ll worry about it when we get home.
We got our food, but while we were stopped, I wanted to get gas again. Since the last pump was pre-pay I had no idea how much to get or what happens if you go over, so I played it safe and only filled up about ¾ of the way. I got out to fill up and the first pump didn’t work so I had to find a second one. When I got out that time, I stepped on, what I can only assume was a prune covered in super glue?? The wind had picked up and almost blew the car door off. I scrubbed the dead bugs from the windshield as much as my arms would allow, and we got back on the road in time for our final storm. And it was a doozy!
Lightning Show and Double Rainbow
The boys were on suspicious-looking cloud duty. They wanted me to open the sunroof shade so they could watch the lightning show, and I reluctantly agreed. I carefully watched the road and semi trucks while gripping the steering wheel with the force of a professional arm wrestler. But we survived, and were gifted with a beautiful sunset and a full double rainbow, sparking lots of “oohs and ahs” and “Double rainbow, what does it mean??”
We had Burger King in our bellies, the storm had passed, and we were about two hours away from sleeping in our beds. It should be a piece of cake. But now that the stress of being low on gas, finding a BK, and driving through the storm had passed, something had to fill the stress void that was left in my head. The void was filled with the thought of all of the things that could have happened to the house during our 11 day road trip.
Logically, I knew everything would be fine, and even if it weren’t, everything is insured. But while we were gone, I made the mistake of often checking our neighborhood Facebook page. By the looks of it, our quiet family-oriented subdivision had turned into a war-torn third world country while we were gone. Ring Doorbell videos of unlocked cars being rummaged and attempted home break-ins! Descriptions of hooligans running wild and swearing at the park! There was even a video of a busted sprinkler from my own street spewing water sky high. I didn’t get a chance to turn on the sprinklers before I left, but what if? WHAT IF??? Just how much of the water bill would I be expected to pay??
Remember when I recommended to build a local support system for emergency situations? I hadn’t really taken my own advice before we left. The neighbor I previously trusted to check things out had moved, and I hadn’t replaced her yet. So obviously, all that was left to do was to panic about every possible scenario.
Home, Sweet Home
But, guess what? Our road trip was over. We pulled into the driveway and all that I noticed was the foot high grass that I didn’t get a chance to mow right before we left. Everything was in place. Everyone was glad to be home. We left our bags in the car, Georgie inspected the house, Ben played some guitar, and we all went to bed. Our road trip gave us six days of quality time together and was a lot of work, but totally worth it.
I was exhausted after I read your Blog but it was very entertaining.
Exhausting for us too! Feels like we are still recovering.
I loved the story of your road trip! You should write a book. You have a way with words. I missed seeing y’all at the reunion, but I feel like I made the trip with you! Love you.
Love the Blog and hearing about all your family’s adventures.
I just love this! We missed you at the reunion but I totally understand how busy we all get with life! Thank you for sharing your blog with the family…you definitely have a way with words 💕
Thank you, I’m so glad you’re reading it! That makes me so happy. We missed everyone, too. One of these years we’ll make it back!