Recently, we survived the most brutal trip back from visiting family up in Northern California. I hope that this is "the one" that goes down in history as the worst family trip we will encounter. Let me tell you what happened, and then I will let you know my own personal strategy of how I endured it. We were just beginning our second week of staying up north with family when my son, Kaden, came down with a cold. He woke up all sniffely and conjested and we decided that rather than risk driving back with all four of us at our worst stages of the cold in a few days, that we should go ahead and start home before this thing blew up. So, we ran around the house gathering all of our stuff that had been scattered and intermingled throughout the week and piled into the car to drive home. Probably should have taken a closer look at the step by step weather along the route home, but i think we have become spoiled Southern Californians that don't think about the weather posing an obstacle for us. Well, we were reminded of the challenges of driving the day after New Year with the rest of the people trying to make there way back before Monday began and they had to start up at work again. To top off that traffic, we were slammed with a horrible storm that closed all of the mountain passes that lead to So. California. Fortunately, we found out that the passes were closed while we were only a few hours into the trip and could still take a detour. After examining my handy dandy CA map, we decided to head towards the coast where it was less likely to freeze and try to go through the Santa Margarita pass on the 101 right before San Luis Obisbo. For anyone who knows the normal route, this is WAY out of the way. To get to this pass we had to venture out on 1 lane roads through the country side past farms and through foothills . As we inched along in the rain, Jaelyn, who I hadn't noticed had gotten increasingly more sick, vomitted all over herself 3 times. We are in the middle of nowhere inching a long with nowhere to pull over, turn around, or exit to. I turned around in my seat and tried to "wet wipe" the situation as best I could, and we had to endure several more hours of the vomit/candy cane smell coming from her. Once we made it through the pass (thank the Lord!!!), we stopped at San Luis Obisbo and ate and regrouped, changed clothes, and looked at hotel options. And then, my husband said, let just go for it and drive the 8 hours left to home (this was at 7pm). So we did! We endured more rain storms, stalled traffic, and the weariness that comes with traveling for 14 + hours with a sick pair of toddler twins.
So, how did I deal? As soon as we got the call informing us of the mountain closures from my awesome sister-in-law, who is always looking out for us, I "gamed up" and got into what I like to call the "Amazing Race" mentality. This dreadful drive was now a game of survival where there are definite winners and losers. the losers being the ones that give into their emotions and melt like a puddle. I was determined that I would not go down like that. NOT TODAY!!! :) There would be obstacles and puzzles thrown our way, surely, and our jobs (and part of the competition) was to not be defeated by those obstacles and to press onward towards our destination. So, my husband and I got into this mode of "Amazing Race" type strategy. We were both aware that we needed to be that power couple storming across the vast terrain being plagued with indecision and obstacles that you see on the show. :) Finding the correct detours, dealing with the vomit situation, sitting in traffic, enduring screams from our son, who could not get comfortable enough to fall into a good sleep.....these where our test and as long as we pretended we were in a game, then we could get through it. We are both competitors and I am so proud that we saw this as a game and stepped up to bat. We made it home sometime in the wee hours of the next morning all in tact and still with our senses about us. I have to say I did not think we would be able to get through this without some serious melt downs, arguments, or traumatic experience. But we did, and I can defintily say we are stronger for having done it the way we did.
So, as I start into my new experience of staying home with the twins this year, I think this was a good and meaningful experience to have. If I can "Amazing Race" it through the tough days of staying home with the twins and not lose my cool when all seems to go to crap, then I think this adventure will be a lot more pleasant. I look forward to hearing how other mom's do it. I am thinking that there has to be some commonality among moms out there where there is some sort of "game up" type strategies that helps us to get through the long days that are just brutal. I would love to hear other stories if anyone would like to share.
No comments:
Post a Comment