Spring Break: Travel Day!

 We left Nana and Pop's Thursday.

We weren't in a huge rush. We stuck around for breakfast, packed, and goofed off a little.

Carrie showed off her new flip phone.

Pop and Nana gave Shane a newly sprouted peanut plant as we were preparing to leave.

Yes, you can plant uneaten food.

Some of it will grow!

I don't remember exactly what was happening here, but the odds are Carrie was doing a final bit of tech support (She likes to wear that hat).

The car was loaded and it was time to go, though. We needed to head out before lunch.

Nana and Pop came out to wish us a fond farewell.

Carrie's new hair color really showed in the sun! She was already anticipating her mother's reaction.

We stopped for gas at the border of SC and NC (the castle!). We used the bathroom one last time, bought some lunch, and settled in for the long haul.

I would have loved to listen to a family audiobook. However, Carrie was driving and what I got was a long explanation about how she didn't want to listen to a book while driving. She gave all sorts of reasons that I can sum up as "had made up her mind already." 

I was bummed. I had used up some of my credits on books specifically with her in mind! It made me wish I was the one driving, so I could invalidate her argument of "listening to books while I drive makes me sleepy, but music and movies don't." 

But Carrie wanted to drive and I didn't want her to be carsick. Shane played a lot of video games and I watched 86 on my phone. 

East of Greensboro, Shane declared an emergency. He needed a bathroom fast!

I went in with Shane to the rest stop while Carrie kept the car running. Shane used a stall and came out loudly declaring there was bloody, poop smeared on the walls!

"That's why you look before you sit," I said.

Shane made it sound like a crime scene, so I took a peek myself.

Yeah, there was something gross on the wall. No, it didn't live up to the hype (not that I was going to examine it up close! Ew!).

Shane felt much better on the way out. I had to pull him away from staring at a fountain.

Carrie wanted to make a pit stop on our way to Grandma and Grandpa's: An old farm.

Carrie used to board her horse Cash south of Richmond near Petersburg (You can see we'd been in the car for over 4.5 hours according to the trip statistics. We'd taken a wrong turn and had to turn around to find the place as Carrie was working from memory.).

Of course, it was pouring rain and no one was home. Carrie knocked on the house, checked the barn, and left a note.

From there it was a straight trip to Grandma's for dinner!

Bucket was worried when she saw us. She hid out in the office.

Shane hid out with her at first (He didn't want to put down the Switch or get drafted into any kitchen work!).

I told Shane we should play a game as long as it wasn't Monopoly. Shane likes money, so he wanted to play Life (with the 80's cover that looks like it's from the 60s).

It's not that Life is a good game (it isn't). It's the paper money.

Carrie joined us and we played as a family.

If you haven't played Life, there are very few choices. You spin, you move, and stuff happens to you. Lots of bad stuff happened to me, but I limped across the finish first. I had debts and there was no way I'd win normally, but Life allows anyone who finishes to bet it all on a single number. I put my money on 10, spun, and won big! No one else was allowed to finish even though they'd been worth far more than me.

We watched some TV and passed time until it was time to sleep. Grandma and Grandpa were getting up early in the morning to fly off on a trip, so we said our goodbyes then.

The next morning, we'd pack up Bucket and head home....but there was one more adventure waiting for us.

Bonus: Shane kept complaining about his loose tooth hurting. Carrie tried to convince him to let her yank it, but to no avail. The tooth will come up again in the future, so stay tuned!