Sunday, June 29, 2008

750 Miles, 4 Stops, and 3 Traffic Jams

Lovely wife and the crew headed off to visit relatives for the first leg of a family visit. So, hitting the road at the crack of stupid, 0630, the crew loaded in the Family Vehicle and headed East.

Traveling in the new age of high technology and rising gas prices allowed for some interesting stories from the road. There were even a couple of fun events on the first leg out.

With gas prices rising Lovely Wife reported that she saw gas prices in excess of $4.00 per gallon for regular unleaded. She even had to pay $4.10 for one batch. That is where technology has back fired on the sale. Most fuel pumps shut off sales between $50 and $75 dollars. Having a large vehicle this restriction doesn’t allow the purchaser to have a complete fill-up. I'm sure some of the restriction is to prevent theft through drive off's. This small inconvenience was overcome by fuel stop number two.

Princess Dabba was upset during a brief rain shower that her part of the car was not receiving the same amount of rain as the front windshield. Think about it, why should the adults up in the front get all the rain? That produced a story for The Book.

We had a MapQuest search from Home base to the travel vehicle. There appear to be three towns with the same name in Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. Doesn't sound like a big deal but when all three are on the same interstate route it can make progress tracking kind of fun.

George the GPS earned his keep on the trip by providing an alternate route around a major traffic delay. Now if we could just get him to see them as they are happening and rerouting that would be useful.

Please ladies and gentlemen get on your feet. Let's put those hands together for Lovely wife!!!!! There she stands with the cape flying in the wind. She achieved over 750 miles of driving in one day with four kids in the car. Referred only a few minor sibling disagreements, found routes around traffic delays, over came pesky fuel pump technology and high fuel prices. Unassisted in the driving with only a pesky husband onnthe phone asking his favorite travel question, "Are we there yet? Yes, I did, less than 10 minutes after leaving.

Let the standing ovation continue. Leg 1 of the Tour de America is in the books.

2 comments:

Rhonda said...

I am so excited to see all of you in 11 days! Hopefully, everyone will make it here alive.

Until then....

Jennifer (mom of four) said...

I am glad to finally be here!!!

Yippee