The Saturday "7" - Road Trip Edition!

Whoa! It's been three weeks since my last blog entry! Oops! Sometimes I have nothing to say, and sometimes I forget it's Saturday, but I'm back and better than ever with an epic recap of our Spring Break Road Trip. Buckle up!

As a refresher: we decided to go on a 4 day road-trip to some Midwest hot spots so Lucy could get in the last of her driving hours before her 16th birthday in May. 

Day 1: Columbus, OH

We left at 8:00 a.m. and Lucy drove us for two hours before I had to go to the bathroom. It's always me who has to go. This is one of the reasons I hate road trips. My bladder is the size of a pea. The drive to Columbus was supposed to take 5 hours, but it took more than 6 because of stops and because Lucy drives the speed limit. But we were prepared. The kids brought all kinds of things to entertain themselves, and I had gotten a few games to play.

Downloaded Netflix shows and Fast Food Sign Bingo

Crochet

This game is called "Shotgun" and was a lot of fun! 

This is "Splurt." You draw two cards: one with a prompt like this and one that says, "starting with the letter . . ." or "does not contain the letter . . ." Whoever shouts out a correct answer first gets a point. This one was hilarious, because the letter was W, and Levi very confidently yelled, "Washer and Dryer!" 

Lena rocking the motion sickness glasses.

We made it to Legoland in Columbus by 2:30. It was . . . underwhelming. Especially considering how much we paid for it. We took the kids to the Auburn Hills Legoland 7 or 8 years ago and they loved it. Apparently they're too old for it now! Lena wasn't feeling well or she may have enjoyed it more. But we basically sat around watching Levi build Lego cars and racing them down ramps for an hour, then left. 

I smoked Lucy in a quick game of Lego checkers while we waited for Levi.

On the Merlin ride

We did manage to get a couple of photo remakes before we left:

Next we checked in at our hotel, then went to Red Robin for dinner. Finally we made our way to Bookstore #1 of the Road Trip: the Book Loft in German Village. It's a pre-civil war house that has obviously been added on to a few times crammed from floor to ceiling with books. 32 rooms of books across 3 stories to be exact. 

It was lots of fun to browse, but I didn't end up buying anything because I'm a cheapskate and I won't spend more than $5 on a book. As we were walking back to the van, we ended up going the same direction as a man walking his dog. Of course, Levi fawned over the dog, so the man struck up a conversation with us about how he's a special Irish Terrier mix and there are only a few breeders in the world and he flew all the way to Portland, OR to get this one as a puppy . . . Then he asked where we were from and when we answered he said, "You better get out of here and go watch your big game!" Haha. We did just that - hurried back to the hotel to watched Michigan play in the NCAA championship game. Justin took Levi down to the pool during half time, but the rest of us were too full from dinner. 

Day 2: Buc-ee's, McKay in Knoxville, Gatlinburg

Rest stop shenanigans on the way out of Ohio.

Lucy drove us out of Ohio into Kentucky where we made a quick stop at the legendary Buc-ee's. None of us had ever been to one, but the kids at school say it's all the rage, so we had to see what the hype was all about. . . . Not gonna lie, it was pretty cool. The bathroom stalls have lights above them that turn green or red so you can tell if they're occupied or not. Everything was super clean. There was merch galore. And the food was surprisingly good! Levi said Buc-ee's is his new favorite restaurant, which is unfortunate since that's a long commute. 

Yummy pulled pork. 

Once we made it to Tennessee, we stopped at another rest area, and decided to take advantage of their walking path to stretch our legs and get a view of the mountains that were starting to pop up around us.

It was a steep path.

Then it was on to Bookstore #2 in Knoxville:

This location is closing in May, so I'm glad I got to check it out. I actually bought a few books at this one! Their prices were much more up my alley, but the kids got bored quickly so I didn't browse as long as I could have. 

Justin took over as we started driving through the mountains.

The only time our kids have seen mountains in real life is from a plane above them, so it was a fun experience to watch them marvel at the Appalachian foothills. Lena wasn't impressed and expected them to be bigger. Levi was delighted by all the fallen boulders along the side of the highway. 

I had reserved one night in a condo outside Gatlinburg for our Tennessee stay. It had gotten really good reviews and the pictures were beautiful. But I'm kind of dense because I didn't consider that the reason the views were so beautiful in the pictures was because the condo was perched on top of the mountain! The reviews didn't say anything about the narrow switchbacks with no railings that were required to reach the condo!! Lena nearly lost her mind and I had to close my eyes and pretend to be brave for her sake. Lol. We had planned on dropping off our stuff, then going out to get dinner, but we were not about to traverse the mountain again for food, so we scrounged for dinner and ate leftover Buc-ee's and road trip snacks. 😂 There was nothing else at the top of the mountain. A series of condos, a rec area with ping pong tables, a tennis court, an indoor pool surrounded by a beautiful deck, and one vending machine that sold cans of pop. That's it. Haha. The views sure were gorgeous, though!

From our balcony. Can you see how the condos are held up by telephone poles??

Looking down from the 3rd floor

Conquering our fears for a balcony-selfie!

From the pool house deck

Sunset tennis

I see why they're called the Smokies!

There were a ton of people in the pool so we decided to go back later. Instead, we watched the new David movie in the condo.

Of course, by the time the movie was done we were all tired and didn't want to walk back to the pool in the dark, so we just went to bed. 

Day 3: Pigeon Forge and Dayton

This was where I did a poor job of planning. Because of the time it took us to drive, plus stop at Buc-ee's and the bookstore, we didn't have time on Tuesday to do any sightseeing/hiking. And then on Wednesday we had to be to Dayton by 7 because I had pre-purchased tickets to the baseball game. I should've given us two days in Gatlinburg. I knew Lena wanted to do the Alpine Coaster and Lucy wanted to go souvenir shopping, so we decided to forgo hiking and just hit the touristy spots on our way out of town. First up was the Alpine Coaster. They don't allow phones on the ride, so this is the best picture I got:

Of course Lena was terrified as soon as we arrived, but once she realized she could ride with me she calmed down. It was $15 a person to ride up the hill like a roller coaster and then zoom down it around a series of twists and turns. It was fun, but over in 5 minutes. Haha. 

Then we went to The Island at Pigeon Forge - which is basically just a big shopping center with some fun photo ops. There are also a bunch of carnival rides, but we didn't do any of them.

Trying out some Ranch Dressing soda

The girls were happy to get some expensive souvenir sweatshirts and Levi was happy to get ice cream. While we were there I got a call from Expedia telling me that my hotel reservation for that night in Dayton was no longer available. 🤦 Of course they were happy to accommodate me by giving me some other options, but it was wicked loud and the customer service rep had a very strong accent. I was able to get across that we wanted to stay close to Dayton so we wouldn't have to drive far to the game, and we wanted an indoor pool. We didn't have anything on the agenda for Thursday, so I planned on staying at the hotel to let the kids swim until we had to checkout at noon. The lady said she'd make some calls and call me back. We were winding back through the mountains when she called and I had terrible service. The original hotel I had booked was only 15 min. from the baseball game, but the closest this lady could find was half an hour away. I asked if it had enough beds for all of us, if there was a complimentary breakfast, and if they had an indoor pool. Once she confirmed all of my conditions, she tried to send me a link but I couldn't get it to load, so I just said, "I'm sure it's fine. We'll take it."  

We left Pigeon Forge at 1:00. It was supposed to be a 4.5 hour drive to the hotel, but we ran into traffic and Lucy drives slow so it was after 6 when we got there. The hotel was brand new and looked really nice. But as we were checking in, the front desk clerk said, "I just want to let you know that our pool is closed. Is that going to be a problem?" 🤦🤦🤦 He said he could call around to some other hotels in the IHG conglomerate to see if they'd let us swim for free. I told him to try that before we checked in. The first hotel he called said no, and the second put him on hold to ask a manager. By this point it was 6:30, the game was starting at 7:05, and it was half an hour away. So I said, "Why don't you keep trying to find us a pool and we'll check in and figure it out later." We hurried up to our room, changed our clothes, then busted back out to the car.

The Dayton Dragons' stadium is right downtown Dayton - so different than our hometown Whitecaps who have their own parking lot and a view of the highway. Fortunately we found really close parking and we were only half an hour late to the game. And baseball games are long so it wasn't a big deal. We paid the big bucks for dinner in the stadium, but the meal I had ended up being my favorite of the whole trip! Loaded nachos. Yummmm.

Trying to catch a t-shirt

It was chilly once the sun went down!

Good seats! The game went to extra innings, but a lot of people left after the end of the 9th. That worked in our favor because there weren't many people near us when the mascot started tossing out hats in the 10th inning. 

Levi was thrilled to catch one!

I forgot about the pool thing by the time we made it back to the hotel at 10:00. And there was a different clerk working the desk in the morning, so I just gave up. I didn't want to drive to another hotel just to swim anyway.

Day 4: Dayton to Home

The kids were all arguing about what we should do on our last day before heading home, and they kept inundating me with questions about what was on the agenda so I finally said, "I planned everything else about this trip. I'm happy to just go home. If you want to do something else today, figure it out." They eventually decided on an escape room and Lena navigated Google to find something close by. It was just a few minutes down the road, but despite Google's insistence that their operating hours said they were open, it was all locked up and no one was home. At that point, I decided if I wanted something done right I had to do it myself, so I looked up a different escape room, made reservations online, and told the kids we had time to get lunch before our appointment. Lucy is the only one of us who has ever done an escape room before, so I didn't really know what to expect, but it was actually really fun! The kids all loved it, and Justin and I enjoyed it too. If it wasn't $25 a person, I'd be willing to do that more often!

We escaped with 8 minutes to spare!

Finally, it was back on the road toward home. Lucy drove the whole way and racked up a good amount of hours. Her birthday is one month from today, and she only needs 2 more hours to get to the required 50, so I think she's on track to get her license the day she turns 16! 

It's actually going to be really good timing for me as well, because we're about enter Crazy Season 2.0. Did I tell you that Justin is coaching the Varsity Girls' Soccer team at ACS? Plus Lena is playing on the Middle School team, and Levi is starting AYSO this week. Justin and Lena practice at different times every day, Levi has practices two days a week. Justin and Lena's teams usually play at the same location, but there are a handful of times that they're going opposite directions on the same night Levi has practice. I'm going to have to drive Lena, and Lucy's going to have to drive Levi. Of course, that's only actually possible if we buy another vehicle . . . But that's a problem for next week . . .

Thanks for reading to the end! I'll try to remember it's Saturday again next week.