We're now settling into our new, temporary home, in Arizona. I took some notes at the end of each day of our four day drive from Virginia to Arizona. Here is a bit about Day 1:
Our road trip to Arizona
got off to a great start. The day
before, we went to a local Splash Park and wore the kids out with water, sun
and playtime with their cousins. I’m
convinced that helped us get through our first and longest day on the
road. We kicked off about 6:30am and
woke the kids just enough to dress them and throw them in the car. We stopped for breakfast a couple hours down
the road. I’ve found this makes a long
day on the road go faster than attempting breakfast
before leaving. Tucker, our Great Dane,
traveled well as usual, although he seems to be having more trouble getting
into and out of the truck. Landon and
Emmilyn shared applejacks during our breakfast stop (pictured above). Our goal for this trip was to only buy dinner
for two reasons. 1. To eat healthy and
2. To feel good. I always find on a road trip I feel miserable because of the food I eat, usually purchased at whatever stop we make. Saving money is
definitely a bonus. Traveling with a big dog gives us
limitations too. We can't go sit down at a restaurant or visit some touristy site. We can pretty much stop, eat outside, walk the dog, and let the kids play. I was a bit more lazy
packing food this time around but here is what we did pack:
-
Ham biscuits (Ham & swiss rolls with a Dijon
mustard/worstershire sauce. I toast them
in the oven then put one bag in the fridge and one in the freezer so it will
last longer.
-
Pasta salad – thanks to my Mom for making
this. Everything from pasta, peppers,
carrots, squash, salami, cheese. Lots of
fresh goodies that all four of us could eat.
-
Cheese, crackers, and pepperoni snack kit. The kind you buy in the store. Yeah.
Lazy. But as it turns out, the
perfect travel food!
-
String cheese, individual boxes of Horizon milk,
lots of water.
-
-Dry snacks put into individual snack bags.
Cheerios, pretzels, dried apricots, craisins, cheese-its, Belvita breakfast
biscuits, Applejacks.
We’ve had to stop for gas
often because we are pulling a huge trailer so we set up a lunch picnic in the
back of a truck stop parking lot. Sounds
classy, eh? The sacrifices you make
traveling with a dog and a gas guzzling truck & trailer. Our first day we
logged over 600 miles, 10-11 hours of driving time, and about 13 hours on the road total. The remaining days should be shorter.
Remember when I said I
was going to have this road trip all planned out before we left? Well…I didn’t. I’m not sure if it was part denial, part
laziness, or the realization that flexibility was the only way we would survive
a road trip with a toddler, baby, and a VERY big dog. We had sorta kinda looked up the route and
discussed it but ultimately we left Virginia without a single hotel booked and
we hadn’t yet decided which route we were going to take. Thanks to technology we discussed on the
first leg of the trip and searched hotels while driving down the road. Our plan as of now is to take each day with
this method. Decide on the road in the
morning how far we want to go, book a hotel for that night, and take the next
day as it comes.
Wow, perhaps I am
moving past my obsessive planning? I
guess kids will do that to you.
Ah well, here’s hoping
tomorrow is just as smooth.
Here are two more snaps towards the end of the first day.
Still happy and watching a movie. Probably Marmaduke.
We managed to also eat healthy for dinner. Check out the delish looking fish tacos!
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