Last Leg

Ooookayyyy, the last little bit of our road trip! The homeward journey. We took 3 days to come home, which was much more relaxed. While we packed up the van, the kids spent some quality time with our hosts, making Halloween decorations in their pajamas.

Joseph really bonded with their beautiful dog -- here he is reading the dog a story.

The first day of driving we didn't go very far -- just a couple hours to some friends' south of the Twin Cities (known simply as "The Cities" locally). The wife heroically allowed us to stay with them, even though she was recovering from a cold. They have 5 kids -- their oldest was a toddler at our wedding, and the rest of them are the same ages as ours, so everyone had a buddy.

These dads take their baby-holding very seriously.


We had a blast with them -- nothing like a house full of kids!

The next day was a long day of driving -- from Minnesota to Indiana.

Joseph found a moth sitting on his window, and he caught it! He was very proud of it and kept it on the bottom of his water bottle (see the gray speck) for a good part of the trip.

The longest part of the drive that day was trying to get off the tollroad in South Bend because it was the end of the day, everyone was tired, the baby was crying, we were ALMOST there, and THE STUPID UNATTENDED TOLL BOOTH ONLY TOOK CHANGE. Finally a real live person came over and helped us pay our toll so we could collapse happily at cousin Paul's.


Aunt Brenda was on retreat, and the two middles were visiting their Grandma's, so Uncle Paul just had his bookends. We arrived too late that first night for the cousins to see each other, but the next morning they got to play. The two big girls bonded while the grownups were rushing around repacking and getting ready for Mass.


We got to go to Mass on campus at Notre Dame. Way cool!


Paul & Brenda's newest baby is such a little sweetie. What a privilege it was to hold her!

We had a nice little visit, and wished we could have stayed longer. But that day we drove to Steubenville to spend the night at my godparents'. They graciously allowed us to stay in their house even though they were away -- we just promised not to use any water or electricity while we were there. :)

We got to spend a little time with Aunt Tatie which was really nice, considering she was in the throes of midterms. But she graciously spared us quite a bit of her time in between study sessions. :)


And finally, we were off on our way home! Because of timing, we realized that we were arriving in DC right in the midst of rush hour, so we pulled off the highway in Maryland to stop for dinner.

"The clustered spires of Frederick stand Green-walled by the hills of Maryland." (or maybe orange-walled?) --from Barbara Frietchie by John Greenleaf Whittier

We found a sub shop that was close to a park, which made creative use of old tires. Wish I'd taken a picture of the cool sea serpent made entirely out of truck tires. We were so glad we stopped, rather than push through the traffic -- this way, we breezed over the Beltway, and everyone was fed and refreshed for the last 45 minutes, instead of cranky and/or hysterical.

We were home! We made it! The house was still standing, and the only thing left to do was unpack...

Ahhhh yes. The Aftermath.

What a great trip. We were so grateful to everyone who graciously opened their homes to us and fed us. It was so wonderful reconnecting with the Midwest relatives again. Now that we know we can make this drive, and even have fun doing it, we're not totally dependent upon the whims of the airline industry to be able to spend time with the people we love.