The time when I jumped off the blogosphere

Oh internet how I have ignored thee...

No, I am not stopping my blog. Just in case my long absense and/or the title made you think I was. Thanks for the encouragement for our travels. We arrived safely at my dad's house Saturday night. I ended up only stopping at one hotel because when I got to the second hotel in Amarillo it was only 5:00pm. Not only was I not tired but decided driving another four hours was the better option rather than trying to keep the kids entertained & go to sleep in a hotel room. Plus it saved me $40 and I'm all about saving cash when I can. The kids did great overall, much better than I had anticipated, and only had a few meltdowns/fits each. Here's a few random bits of what happened during our 18 hour (plus stops) drive. Notice there aren't too many exciting things, I'm find with little excitement (read: hair pulling chaos) on road trips with children.

• During the first hour a deer ran across a highway & about 2 seconds away from running into my car.
• A moment after reaching the other side of the road he (or she, can't remember if I saw antlers) ran back to where it had come from.
• I didn't realize deers knew how to make jokes or mock people.
• Every other (or more) radio stations along the way played country music.
• I mostly listened to my cd's as I'm not a big country fan.
• At the first stop for gas I was glad that I didn't bother cleaning out the car before making the trip.
• About 3 hours into the trip I started worrying I had missed my turn.
• About 10 minutes after that I found my turn.
• Having a bluetooth while in the car for long periods is great, esp while driving a stickshift.
• Toys, no matter how new & exciting, will only entertain children for very short periods of time - next time save some packing space and use the portable dvd player (loaned from a friend) the whole time.
• It's challenging to do 'good parenting' on a road trip.
• Just because you can hold it doesn't mean your kids diaper can.
• I found the lower part of the Canadian River! It's in Oklahoma under the name of "Southern Canadian River". Do I get some kind of reward?
• It's pointless to try keeping a car clean and/or organized while in it for so many hours of the day.
• Texas has two speed limits on their highway - 70mph during the day & 65mph at night.
• Texas is a very flat state.
• I want a laptop before my next road trip.
• And a new digital camera.
• Driving with two people (read: adults) is so much more fun & practical. It's tough being navigator, driver, picture taker, toy finder & food distrubutor all at once.
• I ♥ mobile instant messaging
• I'm no longer learning to drive a stick, I am a stick driver!

So there you have it. It was a fairly mundane trip without too much excitement, perfect while travelling with little ones. And no, I didn't talk to any strangers (outside of the hotel clerk, fastfood & gas station workers) if you were worried.