On the Road Again

   I think one of my most favorite things in the world is a road trip!  I've been on road trips that are at least 12hrs for as long as I can remember.  In fact I know that I've been on them since I was born.  That's what happens when your Mama lives 12hrs away from her family.  You travel back there, at least once a year. 
   I don't think I like them (road trips) because they are fun.  Don't get me wrong with the right people road trips can be a BLAST, (you know who you are;)  I think what I like about them is it's like going home, that place we always use to go to as kids, that old blanket that brings comfort. 
  Granted I'd much rather be the passenger than the driver.  Being the driver is stressful, you gotta watch the road, keep your shoes on, and absolutely do not put your feet up on the dash!  Yep, being in the passenger seat is where I grew up and where I like to be.  Honey, you can drive I have noooo problem with that!   Good thing my man likes to drive.  Now if only I could get him to stop!  Well pit-stop at least, come on! 
  I have been the driver lots too, with me being the Mama traveling back home with her babe.  Then babies who turned into kids.  Sometimes Josh came, sometimes he couldn't because of work. 
   When it was just the 4 kids and I it was pretty easy.  We'd just get up and go!  When I got my new 2007 van in 2007 it was even less stressful, since I didn't have to worry about head gaskets and what have breaking before we got there.
   Well in 2008 we added one more little traveller to our pose.  Since then I have not traveled back very much.  Maybe 4 times in the last 2 yrs. which is really unlike me.  It use to be once every couple months.  And I never made the trek further to my sisters even once since 2008.  Mom's is as far as I got!
   Tomorrow I will strike out 5 kids in tow to my Mama's house.  I will pick up my hubby and continue on to my Sister's for the first time in 2 years!!  Actually she moved this year even further so I'm actually seeing her new place for the first time ever!!!
   Today we are busy finishing up laundry, cleaning, packing and making a list of stuff we can't forget.  Enlisting people to take care of our pets and making sure there's enough food to go around. 
   Road trips were so much easier when I was a kid.  I just got in the car and we left, I think the only thing I packed was my pillow!   Of course Mom did everything else. 
   This is the only part of the Road Trip I wish wasn't a part of it.  Preparing the house for us to leave, yucky.  Can't we just pack up and go??  That would be so much less work. 
I guess we could, but do I really want to come home to week old dirty dishes??  UUMMMMM, not really. 
  I have been sick for 5 days so I'm a bit behind, plus I'm tired.  I'm saving what energy I do have for packing, so I am not washing the bedding, I am not cleaning bathrooms, nor will I mop the floor.  All that will have to wait until the day after I return and recuperate.  Sorry house but dishes will be the only thing done, and maybe wiped counters (no promises).  This could have been a different story had I not been ill, and I'm still not 100%.  That's the way it goes. 
     At least we still get to go on a Road Trip!