Andrea’s Weblog

Elizabeth and I ended up taking a last-minute trip up to Bel Air, MD to see my side of the family. We were hoping that Frank’s work trip to DC would coincide with our trip, but it ended up being a girls-only road trip. A girls-only road trip sounds pretty exciting–when one of the girls is a toddler, it’s definitely exciting.

Things were off to a good start when we rolled out of the driveway at 3:55 am – 5 minutes ahead of schedule. I was sipping a cappuccino that I’d managed to make before leaving the house, and Elizabeth was starting to doze off. I figured she would sleep until her usual wake-up time, giving me at least 3 hours of peaceful travel. As I sipped away at my cappuccino, I suddenly realized that there would be no way for me to take a potty break without waking her up. Suddenly, my cappuccino was not quite as enjoyable. We both managed until 7:00, when I pulled into McDonalds for breakfast. Somehow, in the short amount of time we were in the bathroom, a bus load of marching band kids descended on the McDonalds. So much for a quick breakfast.

We were back on the road listening to a book on CD I rented from Cracker Barrel (a great idea for $3.50/week) and Elizabeth was playing in her carseat. Then the crying started. There was about 20 miles of crying followed by a mile of puking. Fortunately, a rest stop was only a mile away, so I pulled in to clean up. You’d think it would be easy to clean things up at a rest stop, but it’s hard to do much without paper towels. I’m definitely for saving trees, but not at the expense of having a gross toddler. I had paper towels in the car, so I just doused her with water and did what I could in the bathroom.

The biggest problem was the carseat. The cloth cover was definitely dirty, and the straps and velcro stays were . . . um . . . chunky. Who knew velcro could be so problematic? (I’m still trying to figure out how to clean it.) I wiped off what I could, but the car smelled for the rest of the trip. In order to clean the carseat cover, you have to take out the seat and remove the cover, which can only be air dried. Who has time for that on a trip? Fortunately, Elizabeth dozed and looked around for the rest of the trip, and we arrived in Bel Air after 11 hours of driving. Whew!

On the return trip, she fell into her usual routine: sleep, look around, puke, repeat. We did stop at South of the Border, but only because she timed one of her bouts of carsickness about 5 miles from the exit. Next time we’ll definitely have more supplies – or at least nose plugs.