To Greeley & Back Again

Well, it's been a couple weeks now and I just haven't had the time to post the exciting details of my trip.  To make the long story short, due to some major car trouble encountered by Tara & the kids, my mom and I were off to North Platte, Nebraska on a Saturday afternoon.

2:22pm - I hit the road from Wahpeton, ND

around 4 - Mom & I left Oakes

12:30am - Mom & I make it to North Platte; Wade was a wonderful navigator.  We only took one minor detour in Pierre, SD, but in our defense, the road is NOT labeled clearly!  During our drive, mom and I hashed out a lot of options of what to do when we arrived, but the final answer was for me to head on to Greeley with Tara and the older kids and come back to North Platte for Mom and the youngins.

Around 1:30am - Tara, Mariah & a friend, Tylor, and I head to the mechanic shop to get the car seats and other stuff from the suburban.  Locked.  We are SOL on that one.

2am - we are off for Greeley in the dead of night.

6am - Arrival to Greeley as the sun is coming up.  I bring my bag inside and contemplate a nap. I use the bathroom, brush my teeth, and consider my options.  Sleeping couldn't be the answer. I would be dead to the world and not want to return.  Alas, I got a tour of their house and I hopped into the car with Wade to go get gas.  Wade kindly says, "I think this is the key for the suburban."  My response with wide eyes, "You think?!"  I was not going to drive 4 hours back to North Platte without the option of getting car seats for Noah (almost 2) & JJ (almost 4)!

6:45am - I was on the road and back to North Platte

11:00am (with the time change I believe) - I made it back to North Platte and the key was indeed the correct one.  I was sweating bullets pulling stuff out the suburban, but I got everything loaded and was back on my way to pick up mom and the kids at the hotel.

12:00am - Mom & I are on our way home to Oakes with Noah, JJ, and Gavin.  We got to Oakes at 9:30pm.  I will quickly just jot down a few of the "Fossumisms" and what I remember on the road.


*JJ - "I won the lottery!" as his feet are kickin' and hands are flyin' in the air holding his bright green piece of paper (which he had previously been using as he was writing down his imaginary customer's order for a cheeseburger).


*Gavin reading to Noah and JJ - it was so sweet to see Noah and JJ both leaning in their car seats  towards the middle as Gavin was reading.


*Noah looking at mom's book pointing saying, "Tire. Broke." on every picture of a vehicle.  And then he saw the tow truck in the book...


*The boys cheering when we got to South Dakota...and then Aberdeen....and then North Dakota.


*Singing along with Kids Live on Serius radio - and BINGO of course


*"When we cross the tracks, that's when we are really in Oakes," Gavin was explaining as we drove into the south side of town.  He continues... "Warmer, warmer...oh, they have a tire center here.  Warmer...We're Here!!!"  And the kids go wild as mom and I giggle in the front seat!  He was so calm and serious, and a little surprised when he saw Firestone.  These kids will never forget their horrors on the road.


*There wasn't a single, "Are we there yet?" or whine about, "How much farther?" The kids were troopers on the road!


*We can't forget mom's panicky moments behind the custom combiners or my passing the semi on interstate only to catch the green "Pierre, 1 mi" sign just as I'm getting to the front of it.  I zoom ahead and scootch over and take the off-ramp, probably only to tick off that semi driver!  But - I made the turn-off.  There were a few of those on the way home.  Wade was busy playing a basketball tournament so he wasn't able to offer his GPS skills on the way home.  We made it, though I'm not exactly sure how we didn't end up taking the scenic route!  According to the kids, we even took the shortcut! 


Once we got home, it wasn't 5 minutes and those kids had every one of Grandma's toys out!  Play dough.  Legos.  Trains.  Kitchen set.  Nerf Guns. They were so excited to be at Grandma's!  11:30 rolled around and Grandma and Grandpa finally got them settled down.  I stayed over night there and woke up around 6 to head back to Wahpeton.

In the end - hanging with the kiddos, quality time with my mom, getting to see Wade & Tara's house and visit with them-even if it was just a few short moments -....all in all - my weekend on the road was totally worth it.