Road Trip, Part I

On Monday, Carter and I embarked on what will be a 3 week road trip in the South. Our first stop is Atlanta where we are visiting friends and family. Then we are moving on to Pensacola, Florida and finally to Savannah, Georgia and Hilton Head, South Carolina. For the first few legs of the trip, Carter and I are riding solo until Savannah where we meet up with Jimmy. It took us about 11 hours to get to Atlanta. We only had to stop twice which exceeded my expectations with a 2 year old. We stopped once at a rest stop in Kentucky to use the restroom and eat a snack and then we stopped in Nashville at a Chick Fil-A with a playroom to eat dinner and to give Carter a chance to burn some energy. It took us about 5 hours from Nashville to Atlanta and Carter was amazing. He didn't cry, whine, complain...nothing. He just alternated between watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on my phone and looking out the window taking in the scenery. Every once in awhile he would call out an airplane or a truck he saw but for the most part he was quiet and looked to be in deep contemplation (he must get that from me). I know most parents think their kids are awesome...but my kid is the awesomist (yes, I did just make up a word). We arrived at my friend Michon's house around 11 pm we both collapsed in the bed. Unfortunately, Carter was up bright and early the next morning at 7:30.

The next day, I unpacked our luggage and then decided to go for a run through the neighborhood.  I asked Michon about some potential routes and she nonchalantly said her neighborhood had some hills so I should get a good workout. I mapped out a 3 mile route on my phone, put Carter in the jogging stroller, and hit the street. When I came to the first street I was supposed to turn on and noticed that the hill was so steep I couldn't see the bottom of it, I knew this run was going to be shorter than I had anticipated. I also decided to skip that street and revise my route. Unfortunately, I quickly ran into a dead end and had to turn around and brave the hill. Just to give you an idea of how steep this hill was, there is an emergency brake strap on my stroller that you are supposed to wear around your wrist in case the stroller gets away from you. I have NEVER worn that strap around my wrist until this run. So I'm jogging very slowly down this hill and as soon as I round the corner I notice there is an equally steep hill going up. "I can make it," I'm thinking in my head. "Let's do this!" When I get to the top of the hill (or what I thought was the top of the hill) I don't go more than a half of a block before the street starts to ascend again. Now mind you, I couldn't see this second uphill because it was around a curve. As soon as I saw it, I knew the stop sign at the top of the hill would be my turn around point. On my way up, a police offer passed me in a squad car and waved. And then I saw him again on my return route. I know he was following me just to make sure I didn't pass out. Oh...did I mention it was 80 degrees and sunny outside.

We eventually made it back to Michon's house after running just over 2 miles in 23 minutes (I would normally finish 2 miles in more like 16-17 minutes) and I was drenched in sweat and felt like I had run 4-5 miles. I cursed out Michon later that day for not giving me a full description of "the hills" in her neighborhood. It was a great workout but I don't know if I'll be doing it again while I'm here. Definitely not with a stroller.

Today, we ventured out to the Atlanta Zoo. Michon has 3 kids, two boys who are 4 and 3 years old and a girl who will be 1 year old next week. Add Carter to the bunch at 2 years old and we had the age spectrum covered. We had two strollers (one a double stroller), two backpacks filled with packed lunches and diapers, and 4 kids excited to see some animals. We had a great time. We saw giraffe, zebras, a rhinoceros, flamingos, monkeys, a tiger, a bear, kangaroos, gorillas, and a panda. Carter did pretty well but I decided early on not to let him walk on his own. He was going every which way except in the direction we were going. Instead, I let him ride in the stroller until we got to each destination and then let him get out and look at the animals. He knew the giraffe, birds, and monkeys by name which was pretty cool to hear. After we took a break to eat our packed lunch, we headed over to the train for the kids to have one last treat before heading home. However, by the time we got there, Carter was knocked out in his stroller and I knew better than to wake him. He didn't wake up until we were almost back at the house.

We had a great day. Managing 4 kids proved to be sometimes challenging but we made it through unscathed. Tomorrow morning is swimming. That should be fun!

Here are some pics from today.