Road Trippin' to SC

As many of you know, Laura, my darling, amazingly talented sister will be graduating from college this May (yaay!)  As one of her graduation requirements she was giving her Senior Recital.  This was the reason we were taking our road trip to South Carolina.  Not that we don't want to see her graduation ceremony, but compared to her Senior Recital, it would be soo disappointing, not to mention full of hoards of people that we don't care about seeing.  Not that they aren't fine people, but I'd rather watch one delightful person that I know rather than a thousand fine people any day.  

A Road trip with our family is always a special occasion of sorts.  (You can imagine all sorts of implied meaning with that last sentence.)  However, this road trip was going to prove to EXTRA special because we were adding an extra Hayden to the mix.  No, NO! I'm not pregnant, not that type of adding! (shame on you for going there!)  What I mean is, we were joined by none other than George Hayden.  Gramps.  Brian's Dad, my Father-in-law.  He flew into the Dayton airport on the morning of our departure and was going to drive with us down to Greenville, South Carolina.  Turns out, it was cheaper for him to fly to Dayton than to fly to Greenville and he decided it was worth saving money to take a road trip with us.  (Not sure if he'll choose to save money again like that but...)

So, after an exciting trip to pick up Gramps with Titus and Emily, we began our great journey to the south.  

And as all good road trips include sitting in traffic for an obscene amount of time, we began ours as such. In Cincinnati.  For several miles.  Of course, I had to take a picture of the traffic.  Then, I digressed to taking pictures of the pattern of my sweater with my ipad.  Don't mind me, I wasn't bored or anything.  Its just the sort of thing a photographer does when she's trapped in a car with 7 other people, while surrounded with cars while standing still on the interstate.

How far is it to Greenville, South Carolina from Dayton, Ohio? According to Google, who obviously hasn't made the trip with 5 kids in tow, it was 463 miles and should take approximately 7 hours and 44 minutes. Give or take 7 hours.
BAH! Of course, that is excluding stops for food, potty stops, gasoline, and a couple of um, potty stops. (I even made sure NOT to fill Emily's water bottle to the top or even close because we allll know that Miss Mini Bladder can't go for long without a potty stop if she has a drink!)

 I think they should have a "Travel time with Kids" option on Google Maps.    Highlighting all public toilets, McDonalds, and Starbucks (for the parents) all along the route would be golden. Truly...on the money, people.

After our bout with the traffic jam, it was pretty much smooth sailing.  I can say we went over the river and through the woods, though we did not go to Grandmother's house, we did indeed see her.  She had already flown down to Greenville a few days earlier and was planning to remain there for a few days after we left as well.  As you can see, Grandfather was very happy to be driving along with the troop.  Especially happy to be able to stop at Chick-fil-a for lunch along the way too!  Just look at that smiling face!
One of the challenges of a long road trip is keeping the children occupied so that they don't end up arguing and turning the back seat into a boxing ring.  While I'd like it if they would just sit quietly and gaze out the window just aching to drive 100 more miles before stopping... Reality is, much, much different. I have several minutes worth of video of Emily singing the same song over and over and over again just to prove it.  I will not, because I like you, post that here and now. 

As we traveled through the "mountains", we couldn't help but to notice how much they look like the foothills of the mountains that we grew up around.  Our younger kids were astonished at how big the mountains were...Wow! oh, Wow!  While the rest of us were a little less impressed.  Not to say that we didn't appreciate the beauty of what we saw, we did.  It was interesting that even though the temperature was in the mid 50's, most of the waterfalls along the road were frozen falls of ice.  Just imagine that because I didn't take a picture of it.  I do however, have a photo of  a random semi truck, some hills, and clouds instead.  Maybe not, but that's just how I roll sometimes.

After many long hours in the car, we did arrive at our destination.  We were blessed with a wonderful place to stay, courtesy of the Brown Family.  It was truly exciting to be spoiled by complete strangers.  She baked our favorite treats and didn't even know it!  She stocked our favorite snacks!  The kids were in a wonderland of Ping Pong and bastketball, and I got to watch the Food Network!  
Next up!  The Greenville Adventure!