Road Trip!
We recently made the crazy decision to drive to our next base instead of fly. The military covers either way, but with our dogs, we knew it would be cheaper to pack everything in our car & drive instead of paying to fly them. We were driving from Ohio to Colorado - which is a 21 hour drive, without stops - with our 2 medium sized dogs & rambunctious toddler. We later realized that we're insane.
We had every inch of space in our car occupied by a person, dog or bag. We packed a small thing of snacks and drinks for the drive, which didn't stop us fro, grabbing donuts & coffee at 2 of our first 3 stops that all happened in the first 30 minutes.
We had Greys iPad with movies on it for him, which was a great occupier once the books & small toys stopped entertaining him. We realized it was real once we got out of Ohio. And quickly realized we were headed through a whole lot of nothing.
Jumping on the bed is a perfect way to settle into your hotel room for the night. And of course yummy dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. Coolest thing? They have tablets you can use to entertain your kids while waiting for food! How sweet it that? Though, the biggest kid ended up playing with it more than Grey did!
Our second day was one of the hardest. It was the longest day in the car & Greyson was very unhappy about being strapped in again all day. There were some cool things to see along the way though. We passed over the Mississippi River, took a short detour & drove through downtown St. Louis to see the Arch & the Rams Stadium (my husband was excited to see all the football stadiums along our route) & some cool buildings, and then Kansas City.
Needless to say, we were all excited to make it to our hotel for the night & finally be out of the car!
Our last day was pretty uneventful in terms of scenery. The last it of Kansas & into Colorado is a lot of open space, with not much in between. We did get to see some cool wind farms along the way & I'm a nerd so I thought they were awesome! Reaching the Colorado state line was pretty surreal as it meant we were finally in the state! Once we started to see the mountains in the distance, we knew we were near the light at the end of the tunnel! Our pictures really don't do the mountains justice - they're so much closer than they appear & they're beautiful! The sight of them will never get old!
Things we've learned:
1. Indianapolis is essentially Cleveland.
2. Illinois was so flat & kinda boring along the southern route where we drove.. Grey and the dogs found it perfect for napping
3. St. Louis was cool & only kind of scary with racial signs hanging in windows
4. Missouri likes Adult Video stores, a lot...
5. Kansas was overly preachy via billboards
6. Colorado is very western with its open plains & tumble weeds! We realized we hadn't really looked at pictures of Colorado & didn't know what to expect it to look like!
7. Traveling 1400+ by car with 2 dogs & a toddler is insanity. If you're considering this, rethink your idea if you have another option!
8. We like Colorado!
It was an interesting trip & we are excited to be here to start the next journey in our life! We have so much exciting stuff happening right now & can't wait to share more very soon!
hahaha. You are nuts =) We drove from FL to CO when we moved out there when I was to Uni, without a kid though and it was quite the drive. The last bit is probably the same as a chunk of your trip...St Louis Kansas to CO. Lots of long boring stretches. I'm glad you guys liked CO though, we loved living there. Minus the cost of living. But, yeah that trip WITH a kid? Ouch. We did FL to PA and I have yet to get over the trauma of that trip.
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