I’m lumping days 6 and 7 together because we were just on a mission to get home. We got up Sunday morning and had some breakfast with the in-laws before taking some awkward pictures and hitting the road.
I have always loved maps since I was a kid. I used to read maps, draw my own maps and memorize state capitals, country capitals and the entire Interstate Highway system. I’ve always said I will never own a navigation system because I should always know where to go. Most everyone will admit that I’m good navigator. Unfortunately, like most things I’m good at, I like to try to be super creative at times at go off the deep end. So I saw a route back from Branson that might be faster, because the last 2/3 of the route looked faster. Well, I was right about that, but the first third ended up taking as long as what I thought would take 2/3 of the time. We weaved and winded through all sorts of backwoods Ozark country until we finally hit the interstate so we could kick it into gear.
With my little navigation delay compounded with an Amelia melt-down, we were running a little behind and were only back to Omaha by 6. We stopped at a Wal-Mart and grabbed some Subway and kept on plugging away. By this time, Amelia hadn’t napped yet at all when she usually naps once or twice by this time. So when she finally fell asleep as we were cruising past Sioux City, I thought, maybe we should just drive all the way home instead of stopping at Becky’s sister’s house just outside of Sioux Falls. It was a good thought, but when we got within 10 miles of the exit to Becky’s sister’s, Amelia woke back up again. So the decision was made – we have to get out of the car as soon as possible.
We got to Heather’s just a couple minutes before 9. To our surprise, most of the house was asleep. Becky’s youngest sister, Jess, was there and she was awake, but everyone else was either in bed or on their way. Amelia, of course, had other ideas about when she wanted to sleep, so she and I stayed up until 11 before I could finally get her down.
The next morning was a Monday so Heather and Jess had to head into Sioux Falls early for work. We got up early so we got to see them for a little bit, and then we got to hang out with Shawn and the boys until we left about 9. We finally made it home-sweet-home at about 2pm.
Overall it was a fun trip – we got to see some territory, saw some good shows and had fun at the amusement park and the car ride wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
Eric's space 