Day 298 – Timing is everything.

Doug says it takes 7 hours 15 minutes to get to our vacation spot and that the realtor where we need to pick up keys closes at 6PM.  So by his calculations he wants to leave by 9:30.  He says that gives us a whole hour and 15 minutes extra time.  Have the last 7 years of traveling with kids taught you nothing?  We will make potty stops at least every 2 hours and each of those will last at least 20-30 minutes (assuming people actually can coordinate their pee schedules which is not likely).  We will have to stop for lunch and by stop I don’t mean go through the McDonald’s drive thru.  Inevitably we will miss at least one exit or turn because you will be distracted or irritated by the boys’ behavior in the back seat and the last 4 long trips we have taken we have made emergency vomit stops because one of the boys has thrown up all over the car.  Oh, and don’t forget if you aim for a 9:30 departure it means we won’t leave until at least 10:00.  So, why don’t we shoot for 8AM departure?   This will be a soft departure time meaning that if we are not in the car and ready to go I won’t be screaming at people.  We can make 9:30 the hard departure if that makes you feel better (meaning at that point I will be either yelling and screaming or will have given up and just be sitting in the car by myself).  Finally, since they already have our money and the house is in the middle of nowhere mountains with no major worries theft or a break in, why don’t we call the realty company and see if they can just leave the key for us somewhere?  I love vacations.  I really do.