Before we even made it to Mt. Lookout Square Lexi asked "Mommy, are we almost in New Orleans?" Now for those of you who don't know, Mt. Lookout Square is less than a mile from our house. It was going to be a long trip. This is also the point where I realized that I forgot to give Kenzie Dramamine to prevent car-sickness. So less than 1 mile into our journey we had to detour to the CVS (which had about 10 elderly people in line all with 21 questions about their medication) to pick up some childrens Dramamine. 30 minutes later, Dramamine ingested, we were back on the road. Just in time to hit Cincinnati rush-hour traffic. It took us about 30 extra minutes to get past downtown and over the brige into Northern Kentucky. During these 30 minutes the girls asked at least 30 times if we were almost in New Orleans. It was going to be a very long trip indeed.
But thankfully things improved. Traffic strated moving and we made it 127 miles before we had to stop at a rest stop for a potty break and to get some quick exercise. After we got back in the car, both girls fell asleep for a while and we made good progress. After the girls woke up we played the cow spotting game. Basically you look for cows and when you see one you call out the color, "Black Cow! Brown Cow! White Cow! Spotted Cow!" This game kept them entertained until we were almost to Nashville. We passed through Nashville and I saw a sign for Franklin, TN. I had heard great things about Historic Franklin so that is where we decided to stop for dinner. Luckily the historic part of town was less than 3 miles from the highway and we quickly found our way there and to a parking spot. We walked down Main Street and looked in the windows of all of the cute shops. When I asked the girls what they would like for dinner they agreed on spaghetti and meatballs. So then we were on a hunt for an Italian restaurant. After consulting with some friendly locals we knew exactly where to go. We enjoyed a delicious meal including calamari for an appetizer ... also selected by the girls. It took a bit longer than a McDonald's roadside stop, but it was so much more enjoyable.
Then we were back on the road as I wanted to make it at least half-way before stopping for the night. The girls watched some Mickey Mouse, played for a bit with their baby dolls and then drifted off to sleep. We made it Cullman, AL before I started to get sleepy and we stopped for the night. Checking into the hotel solo with 2 sleeping girls proved a bit challenging. I carried my half-asleep girls inside and set them down on a couch in the lobby while I checked into a room. I then carried them back outside to get our bags - luckily we just had 1 small overnight bag, my laptop bag and their soft blankies to carry inside. We took our things up to our room and then had to come back downstairs to move the car - by now the girls were fully awake so I was worried that they would not want to go back to sleep. But they were very good girls and the 3 of us were soon fast asleep in a big king sized bed.
The next morning the girls were excited to be in a hotel. My 2 little monkeys spent some time jumping in the bed. Then they did some hallway laps before we went downstairs for breakfast. They thought it was pretty cool to be able to choose their own breakfast from the buffet. After we ate, the girls took their Dramamine and we loaded back into the car for the second half of our trip.
I was soon regretting the decision to stop the night before, wishing I had continued on while the girls were sleeping. This morning they were full of energy and not too happy to be back in the car. "I want to be at GiGi's house now!" "I don't feel good!" "Are we there yet?" "Why is it taking a too long time?" Then about 30 miles into the drive Kenzie said "Mommy, I realy don't feel good. I need my bucket." Uh oh, not a good sign. And sure enough a couple of minutes later she got sick in her bucket. Poor thing. So we got off at the next exit to get cleaned up. This is also when Lexi started complaining about a stomach ache. And for her it started coming out the other end. Fabulous. Over the course of the next 2 hours we stopped 4 times so that Lexi could use the potty. At one stop we went to the bathroom, got all strapped back into our carseats, pulled out of the gas station only for Lexi to say, "My belly hurts. I need to go to the potty again." So we pulled into the gas station next door, got unbuckled, went inside (thankfully to a much cleaner bathroom than the last).... rinse, repeat.
At one point Lexi said she had to go potty and we were literally in the middle-of-nowhere Mississippi. I promised her we would get off at the next exit, but when that finally came 10 miles later, there was NOTHING at the exit, so we pulled along the side of the road, got our froggy port-a-potty out of the back and Lexi happily relieved herself while sitting among the wildflowers. The girls actually thought this was hilarious and both Lexi and Kenzie took multiple turns sitting on the potty in the sunshine. I knew that potty would come in handy in case of emergency :)
Between potty stops, the girls colored, watched DVD's, asked me 1000 times, "Mommy, how do you get up there? how do you get down there? how do you get over there?" (This is their new thing, they are so curious about how the roads connect and how you get from the highway to the overpass, etc.) Eventually Lexi drifted off to sleep. Kenzie was still chattering away and was getting a bit whiny and mischevious. I was anxious to be done with the drive. Kenzie had a box of Goldfish crackers and a bottle of water in the back seat and started giggling. "Mommy, my fishies are swimming in the water! Mommy, I am getting wet. My shirt is all wet! Stop Mommy! I need a new shirt!" She had poured her water into her Goldfish box and it then leaked out all over her. "Honey, I can't stop right this minute," I said as I cruised down a hill and right past 3 police cars that had been hiding in a cutover in the median. "Shoot! How fast was I going? Oh no, that police officer is pulling out behind me. I must have been going too fast"
"What mommy? What is happening?!" Kezie yelled.
"Mommy is getting pulled over by a police officer."
"No Mommy! Keep going! I don't want to see the police officer!"
Of course I did not listen to Kenzie and pulled over. When the officer came to my window I pleaded with him, "Sorry officer. I am 750 miles into an 820 mile drive with my 3 year old twins and I just lost track of how fast I was going." Meanwhile Kenzie was screaming hysterically in the back seat. Lexi continued to sleep.
"License and registration," is all he said before walking back to his cruiser.
Whle he was in his cruiser Kenzie continued to scream and I tried to calm her down. Reasuring her that everything would be alright. The officer returned with my license and ticket in hand. "I wrote you a citation for going 88 in a 70. You have until June 13 to appear in the Pearl River courthouse or to pay your fine. Drive safely." Clearly he had no sympathy and did not undertand that girls just want to have fun. Big bummer. Mad mommy. Sad Kenzie.
We continued on our way, sure to keep to the speed limit. And while Kenzie had stopped crying, she was silent, terrified that the police officer would stop us again. She eventually fell asleep... exhausted from the whole episode.
Those last 70 miles into New Orleans seemed to last forever. At least the girls both snoozed until we were about 15 miles from GiGi and Pop Pop's house. So when they awoke and asked "are we almost there yet?" I could actually say, "Yes we are. We will be there in 10 minutes!"
"Yippee!" they cheered. We were all excited to pull into GiGi and Pop Pop's driveway. We had survived and even enjoyed (for the most part) our girls road trip! I was very proud of my girls for being such good little travelers.
We were in New Orleans .... let the good times roll.
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