A Jetta, a truck+trailer, 2 kids, and a cat hit the road...

... sound like a joke? Yeah, let's talk about that.

Friday May 30, 2014, 2:30am, the alarm goes off. Dylan and I pop up, clump together the sheets we’d used as a pallet on the floor, ready ourselves and pack away all of the last-minutes. We ready the car and Penske truck + U-haul trailer, prep the kids’ carseat straps for a quick getaway and turn back to the house for the precious cargo. But first we stopped on the driveway in the backyard and looked at the house, deck, big tree, and hugged one last time in Minnesota.

3:04am, kids are in, and 705 11th St is behind us. Shoot – we forgot the two blankets hanging on Paul’s windows.

sunrise in Iowa

After a quiet ride with a few sips of coffee and a beautiful sunrise, we stopped at a Hy-Vee in Randomville, Iowa for breakfast at 7am. Adeline had been swaddled up and so kept sleeping, and Paul slept the whole way, too, after the initial excitement of getting in the car and watching Papa drive a truck wore off. Mega Road Trip to NOLA with Two Kids: Part I was a huge success! We took a nice long break here, and right before getting back in the car, Paul started asking for Molly & Heidi – with whom we’d eaten at Hy-Vee. Aw, sad, little man.

8:30 got us back on the road, and until 11:30, Paul entertained himself with a rock, and Ada was happy looking around and sleeping … with a 30-min crying fit before giving in to said sleep. St. Louis! And Chick-fil-a! With a playground! (Hindsight observation: we heeded others’ advice about travelling early, early with little ones, but we still couldn’t really have a picture of what it’d look like, of course. Now that we know how well this worked for Paul & Ada, we should’ve called it quits here and done two days of equal length rather than a long Day One to Memphis and a shorter Day Two to NOLA. Also a big thanks to the moms who advised me to give Paul snacks, all of the snacks. We'll mark those $40 under travel expenses well spent.)

After St. Louis, I had Memphis on the brain. We stopped again around 2:30 or so (Ada’s made good, long stretches for nursing so far!) and then again at 5. Both times just at gas stations to fill up the tanks … and Ada. After the 5:30 mark, though, she decided she no longer wanted to go on a road trip and made sure Paul and I knew it. We arrived at the (very nice but unfortunately not-stayed-in-long-enough) hotel around 7. We hodge-podged an odd dinner of veggie purée, meat sticks, and a vegemite sandwich for Paul and got them both ready for bed. 

Considering the unfamiliar surroundings, they both went down great! In fact, I think Paul kinda liked his big ol’ bed to himself. I, too, liked those beds and could’ve slept and slept after such a long day, but just before bed, Dylan and I decided that we’d wake early again. So, the alarm was set for 3:30am.

4:30 saw us pull out of the parking lot and make a very tired journey up and down rolling hills with nothing but beautiful magnolia trees to look at until Jackson. I pulled up next to Dylan a couple of times to make faces through the windows just for something to do on such an empty highway at dawn. After Jackson, no more stops until New Orleans.

Ada fought sleep again (read: cried for a while long enough before caving in, poor dear), and we pulled up to 437 Belleville around noon on Saturday. It looked just like the pictures. Except that our tiny little 900 sq ft shotgun feels more spacious than expected due to the crazy high ceilings! And porch! And backyard! We started to get a little excited about being here … not to mention having 23 hrs on the road behind us, I with two littles and D with a cat. Thank the Lord for a safe and uneventful arrival! We had a little rain, a little construction, a little crying, and only a very little toddler-fussing. Grateful, grateful! Thank you for your prayers.