Holy cow, we live a long ways down here. Dale and Parker left Nebraska this morning shortly before 8. It's now about 10:30 and they're finally stopping for the night. That's 14.5 hours of time on the road, and they still have about 6 hours to go tomorrow. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.
I knew that it was a long trip, but having talked to Dale on and off during their drive all day, I've realized that there is absolutely no way Macy is going to make it in the car for 10, 12, 20 hours at the age she is now. If we even tried, it would be so stressful and we'd be at each others throats quicker than we normally would (btw, who doesn't get that way when you're in the same car for 20 hours?)
So I went ahead and made the decision to fly back to Nebraska for Christmas, taking both kids with me. Yes, it's going to probably suck a bit to travel alone with the kids, but I'm positive it'll be the least stressful way for the whole family in the long run. We're paying just $280 for two one-way tickets from Panama City Beach to Omaha. Subtract what we'd pay for a hotel and you're looking at just $180 to save 18 hours in the car with both kids. I'll gladly pay that $10 an hour if it saves me some grey hairs :)
And what about Dale? Well, he will just drive the car up by himself the next day. He'll have an easier time driving without the kids, so the trip up shouldn't be too terrible for him. He may even be able to straight shoot it.
We are going to be driving back to Alabama, so it's not like we're escaping all the drive time. My oldest sister lives in Branson and we plan on spending a few days at her house as we make our way back to Alabama. I wouldn't miss this opportunity for the world and although we'll still have a 20 hour car trip, at least it will be split into 3 days with a small break in between in Branson.
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