One stop was planned for this crazy long drive day of 7.5 hours – the Wichita Zoo. I had one goal, get there quickly so we would not be driving home at midnight.
Was this mission to be accomplished? No one could say, but when you have a marginally aggressive driver, 300 likely pee stops along the way and only 5 pieces of bread left, the odds would not look in one’s favor.
I was determined………
Rules:
- If you have to pee, you pee on the side of the road. No gas station (aka germ filled candy stores) to lead to distractions.
- No technology. 15 days into our journey, Andre had a giant tantrum after we were finished with him watching a movie. We noticed his attitude really changed after using the iPad or watching a movie, so we completely eliminated technology as an option for the trip.
- We are eating in the car. We had some turkey, PB&J supplies and cheese. We did this entire road trip without one stop at a fast food joint. We sure weren’t going to change that today.
- Don’t get a ticket. While we needed to “take-it-to-the-limit”, we didn’t come this far to pay money on the last day.
- Entertain the children with books, a ball and music. I get car sick when reading in the car, so Jeffrey was great for rule 5.
All went awesomely. Here is pretty much what the car ride was like:
Before we knew it, we had arrived at the zoo. It was a neat little zoo, and we had the privilege of seeing baboons “do it,” which was terribly disturbing. On a brighter side, we did get super close to this lady:
Here are a couple other pics from the zoo:
Yes, Owen is wearing 4T shorts!
Tip #26 – Keep relatively loose clothing on the kids when you have longer drive days. They tend to snack a bit more and their bellies fill up, which can make them a bit uncomfortable if they are wearing tight clothes.
After a couple hours at the zoo, we headed home. I was a bit saddened by this. I couldn’t believe it was over. All this planning, fun and adventure over. We arrived home around 7 pm and unloaded the van into the foyer.
It felt nice to come home to our own bed, but it was a little depressing to me to know we were not going to be exploring a new place in the morning.
But not to worry, something tells me we will be seeing the east coast in the very near future. Hope you will follow us on our next adventure!
