SRMM's Excellent Adventure: Packing

Well, we're all packed and ready for our big cross-country adventure!

No, not really.  I have piles of clean clothes on my bed, though.  And so many prepackaged snacks on my dining room table, it looks like the Kwik-E-Mart.  I also have a three-week supply of diapers, Benadryl, and diet Coke.  And I found all our duffel bags. 

One of the duffel bags was never entirely unpacked from our last cross-country trip.  It still had the roll of tinfoil in it that I had packed as a crafty car activity.  Cookie used it to sculpt shoes for us while we the rest of us were semi-comatose at a Holiday Inn in Nashville. Oh, didn't you know?  Our last major road trip caused the global Swine Flu pandemic.  I'm still really sorry about that.  I wrote a whole apology and everything.

Anyway, I'm supposed to leave on this big adventure tomorrow.  I'm driving the kids myself from Texas back to Philadelphia to visit friends.  After we wear out our welcome there, the Absent-Minded Professor is going to fly out.  We'll drive up to Connecticut to see family, and then all drive home to Texas together. 

I know you're thinking, "wow, stark. raving. mad. mommy.  I thought it was just a clever blog title, but you actually are stark raving mad.  I mean, it's one thing to go on dates with strange women you meet on the internet, but a five day road trip with four kids?  You're positively deranged."

The thing is, I'm totally stoked for this trip.  Possibly because I am a relentless optimist, and possibly because my brain has been damaged from so many pregnancies.  Also, I just had a Frodka.*

I love seeing the country.  Not so much the scenery, although that part is cool.  Mostly I love crazy roadside Americana.  World Famous Beaver Nuggets?  Jerky Capital of the World?  Dude, I'm so there.  I will go see the "World's Greatest" or "World's Biggest" anything. 

Also, I love hotels.  First off, there is simply no expectation that I'm going to cook.  Plus, how great is it that fresh towels magically appear?  And the beds are always perfectly made with clean, crisp sheets.  It's like a wonderful, beautiful laundry elf has been there.

The one tiny little hurdle here, though, is that my van is in the shop.  Because I'm a wicked procrastinator I've been so busy, I kind of waited til today to take it in for an oil change and once-over.  It turns out two of my tires have dry rot (I can't imagine how that could possibly happen in the lovely south Texas climate) and need to be replaced.  They are supposed to do that first thing in the morning, and then we'll be off.  Hopefully.  (See how optimistic I am?)

Also, this means that I couldn't load up the van today, which resulted in me procrastinating the whole packing scene.  Instead of packing, I watched Run DMC videos on YouTube with Little Dude.  Also instead of packing, I organized the pantry.  Because rocking out to "It's Tricky" and discarding stale Wheat Thins are crucial steps toward getting ready for a five-day road trip.  Even while I was doing it, I was thinking, gee, this probably isn't the best use of my time.  Maybe I should, you know, pack.  And then my next thought was, meh.  Throwing out old boxes of crackers is weirdly soothing.

So tomorrow I will hopefully have the van back, hopefully shove all our clothes and snacks and vodka water bottles into the van, and hopefully get on the road before noon.  I have a fancy new-fangled cell phone, so I'll be tweeting and Facebooking all along the way, and I'll be posting on the blog every morning.  Hopefully.

*Frodka = Fresca with vodka.  I like to add a splash of orange juice, but you can also use whatever's left in that Capri Sun on the counter there.  According to 1971, you can substitute gin for the vodka.