I am kind of excited to tell you more about our trip. (I hope you are interested in reading about it, too!)
I knew that our drive getting to Perry would be about 11 driving hours, although we broke it up into 2 days, and the trip back would be about 14 driving hours since we were taking a 'detour' to Edisto Island beach in South Carolina. This trip was broken up into 2 days, too, with the first day being on Monday with 4 hours of travel and the second day was not going to be until Friday, but it would be the remaining 9 driving hours.
Last year, I had read a
post from one of my favorite bloggers and decided to try out her idea of making a bag of goodies to be parceled out during the long hours of the trip.
I didn't have much time to prepare, though, since we didn't really finally plan the trip til the week of, but I got 2 bags, one for Jo and one for Gabriel, at the $ Spot at Target and got a few goodies for each of them in their bags to be controlled and handed out by Elizabeth when the ride got too long and too much for our littlest travelers.
It worked out well, but I do think that next time I would like to take more time to plan out the trip like Tammy did. I think that this would help not only to prevent boredom, but also to let the kids know how much longer we had til we got there. The little dudes are still a little young to understand that passing of time, and Elizabeth is old enough to understand hours and miles, but by the next time we take a long trip like this, the kids' ages will be better suited to the kind of activities that Tammy had in her blog.
I had some pictures and memories that I wanted to share with you yesterday, but I was having a hard time getting things to download, so I gave up and I will put them here today:
The Trampoline. This is actually not a very good memory for me. The trampoline was at my cousins' house. Of the 5 of us cousins, I was the youngest by 3 years. One cousin, Bill, was about the same age as my sister, Cassie, and the other cousin, Chad, was about the same age as my brother, Aaron. That meant that they would pair up and play and I would always either be left out or allowed to join in because they were forced to let me play with them. That meant that when the 4 of them played on the trampoline and I wanted to join in, they wouldn't let me because they said that I was too little. Then they would all go off to do something else and I would be left to jump alone, which when you are visiting cousins, is not really that fun to do.
BUT...this time around, we made some new fun trampoline memories. This here is Jo jumping with her cousin Sam and his friend. The boys were actually very patient with her as she was really being quite annoying!
This is what I really remember...the sand! The church that we used to go to when we visited my grandparents was 2 doors down from their house so we would always walk there on Sunday morning. This was the era when jellies (remember those shoes?) were in style and they always filled up with sand on the way between the house and the church! And then, on this trip, I got to wondering...how did all that sand get there? There is not really a beach anywhere close...but that's just another geographical history lesson waiting to be uncovered, I guess!
Then there are the pinecones! We do not have many pinecones around the house here in VA, and it was really funny (for me at least!) because Gabriel was really afraid of the pinecones! I guess when you are that little and haven't really seen one before, they do look a little menacing! But he finally got over his fear and started collecting them once he saw them as a 'Little Boy' which is the name of one of our cats and which is what he calls all smallish fuzzy-ish things. 'Itta Bo!'
Of course, those pines cones must come from somewhere, and I always know I'm getting close to GA when on the side of the highway are the tall straight lines of pine trees! You can smell them on the drive.
But this is something that I remember, but do not cherish! These holes house ants. And they bite. Hard! Gabriel found that out the hard way. One got stuck under the strap of his sandal and he still has the red welt from it! That is a small animal that will NOT earn the title of 'Itta Bo'!
I always thought that this was strange when I was little and still do. All the grass is flat, like crab grass, except for these sprigs that stick straight up. The ends are covered with little black seeds. I used to think that they were bugs, and they really do look like it, but it is so weird to see them sticking out so high over the other matted grass.
And, of course, with all the pine trees, what to do with all the needles other than used them for mulch?
And then the sun. The hot, blistering, sweltering sun. That brings the sweat that attracts the gnats that swarm all over and get in your nose and mouth and eyes. That was not and still is not one of my favorite things.
And the AC units. Everyone has one, and they run. ALL. THE. TIME. I mean, it makes sense because it is so hot, but you see these houses with the huge yards and no life in them at all. No kids outside. No one sitting on the porch rocking chairs. No one. Anywhere. We were always the strange ones when we went there because we played outside and rode the bikes that were only brought out once a year when we visited. This time, again, my family was amazed that the first thing the kids did when they got there was to run outside and explore the yard and play only to come in for water.
The fields are big and open with pine breaks...
And the traffic moves relatively slowly...
past the cotton
and the tobacco...
and oh, the traffic! Look at that! I think another one just passed us going the other way, too! What are all these people doing out?
I want to tell you about the beach, too, but I've been told that I really must get to bed soon, so I will save it for another day.
But I will tell you how we chose where we were going to go after we left Perry...
We looked at the map, Elizabeth, Jimmy and I, and we looked online at SC State Parks, and basically closed our eyes and jabbed a finger in the general direction we wanted to go and landed at Edisto Island State Park.
To say that we knew nothing of it would be an understatement...
But I will leave it at that for now...
