3488 Miles and counting

Since July 6th I have travelled 3488 miles with 3 kids and 1 husband in tow.  I don't suggest it really.  That means on average, in the past 15 days I've gone a minimum of 232 miles.  1,840 of those miles were travelled in a car.  And I'm not counting all the many miles I travelled by boat around BDA, or the incidental driving around MA or VA on non travel days.  It's been an extremely education journey.  I learned new skills, as well as new stupid facts that I will grace you all with...

1)  The first thing I learned is that I cannot function without a list.  I must use a list to pack or important things get left behind- like a wallet, diaper bag, 2 pairs of sunglasses, cell phone.  Currently I am 543 miles away from my wallet, diaper bag, cell... etc.

2)  The car DVD player will not occupy 3 children at once.  Either 1 or 2 children are not amused and the non driving adult will need to be a "playmate" or "Parent" (parents yell, playmates play- to clarify the difference as noted by my son).

3) On Route 301 there is a law stating that there must be a Golden Moo serving delicious "healthy" deep fried nonsense every 10 minutes.  By my rough calculations that means there is one every 8 miles.  Ok, maybe not a law.

4) In MA though, there is a law saying that there cannot be more than 100 meters between Dunkin Donuts serving delicious "healthy" deep fried nonsense and coffee.  I'm sure of that...  

5)  I did NOT know how many boats there are on interstate 95 until I had someone pointing them out.  "ISHEABOAT!!!  BOAT!!!  BOAT!!!", B yelled at the top of her lungs, much to the dismay of the people in our car.  (translated that means "I see a boat").  I also never noticed how many busses, "BUS!!!", trains, "CHOOCHOO!!!", or fish... yes, "FISH" are on I95.  I can no longer hear on my right side... or my left side...  because I am deaf from screaming joy over fish, boats and busses.

6)  The Golden Moo in Aberdeen MD has a really nice play area.  We didn't purchase food there, but H dropped us off there to play while he fueled the car.  It was one of our better ideas.

7)  There are more cops in MD than there are on the rest of the Eastern Seaboard.

8) The construction on 495 will never be finished.

9) Driving in a car for 11 1/2 hours is exhausting, even if you are not the driver for 6 hours.  Why is that?

and the number one thing I learned on my travels...

10) IF you brag about how great one trip length is, the return journey will be nightmarish.  On our return trip we left 40 minutes late, realized 2 hours into our drive that both of us "thought the other one" was getting the diaper bag, we hit traffic in CT (also a law), B had a melt down at the top of the Garden State Pkway, And another meltdown at the top of the Jersey Tpke, And another meltdown at the Delaware Memorial Bridge, and if you don't hit traffic in NOVA you obviously have pact with the devil.  We, sadly, do not have a pact with the devil so we did hit traffic in NOVA and cruised along at about 15 mph for about 15 miles.  We did still make it in under 12 hours, even with the 3 stops.