Loooooong weekend.

When hubs and I got married, we moved to North Carolina. Well, he had been there for 6 months, but same thing. LOVED NC. Almost went to school in NC. It was beautiful, green, friendly people, close to the beach, close to the mountains, just lovely.

His job had him working good 15 hour days and on call 4 nights each week, so needless to say, he was busy, making it hard to make friends as a couple. And somehow in that crazyness, I managed to get pregnant with Strip, so then we were on the hunt for couple friends with kids. We never really found our niche in NC, but throughly enjoyed living there for almost two years.

Hubs' cousin and his wife live about 40 minutes from our old house, so we loved spending time with them. Since we've moved (twice) we haven't been able to get together with them much, so we just decided to make the trip! It happened to be Cuz's birthday, so we used that as our excuse.

It's a beautiful 10 hour drive.

I couldn't see spending the money for the 4 of us to fly, plus we'd have to get a rental car or have Cuz or Cuz wife come get us, and our kids are such good travelers, we figured what the heck!

We tossed everyone in the car and headed out. Before the beach trip, Hubs upgraded to a new GPS, since I had told him MULTIPLE times that the Madge was trying to kill me and we didn't have our backup MA-gellan for this trip. Hubs loves the new GPS because he can make her speak with a british accent. I still don't trust her.

I'd already pulled out our route on my iphone, so gave Hubs the play-by-play of how to get there. He said he was cool. 3 1/2 hours in, it was finally close enough to lunch time to stop for a burger. Hubs got some gas, drove through McDonald's, and we were on the road again.

However, Garmin wanted us to go back the way we came, on the boo-lei-VARD, but that made no sense. So Hubs just kept going, and Garmin quickly calculated the new route.

"Turn right in .5 miles."

I'm looking at the glorified dirt road she wants us to turn down, and just as I'm about to laugh with Hubs about how "that can't be right," he jerks the wheel and away we go!

Two miles in, I dig through my bag for the vicodin. It's about one lane, up and over hills, cutting around corners in the middle of nowhere. Hubs is laughing about where in the heck are we, so I go to check the iphone.

No service.

At this point, a little voice behind me calls, "Ummmm. I don't really like this...."

Why Strip?

"It's too up and down-y and back and forth-y!"

Couldn't agree more. We dodged two oncoming trucks and Hubs told me to "take a good look around because we will probably NEVER be on this road again!" At one point, through a clearing, I could see the interstate we SHOULD have been on. It was like Cars, and we were lost in Radiator Springs and could see route 66.

Hubs claimed it was a shortcut, but it looked like we just tacked the 1/2 hour we had gained back onto our trip.

We made it safe and sound, but it was COLD that weekend. And it rained, so no swimming and playing outside. Cuz and Hubs still managed to play golf Sat and Sun, but the kids were nuts Sat from being in the car all day on Friday. Then Sunday, we took a mini road trip to visit our old house, and Monday we left. So I felt like mommy dearest with my cooped up crazy kids! I wouldn't be surprised if Cuz and Cuz wife NEVER invite us back and never come visit us because they probably think our kids are crazy, and I am a horrible mother.

I told Hubs no matter what, the next time we take a weekend trip that involves more than 5 hours in the car, we are flying.

On the plus side, we did have an AWESOME time visiting Cuz and Cuz Wife and adorable Cuz baby (who is SO no longer a baby)! AND I took the kids to visit all of our old favorites including our first house. So, I present, the Original Casa de Mommychick:

I loved our little shoebox! I remember right after we got married, we bought a Dyson, and I told someone, "It's great! I can vacuum the entire house without unplugging it! Hmm. That probably speaks more to the size of our house than the length of the cord!"

It looks like they've fenced the backyard (which I SO would have loved with June Bug there, but the landlord didn't seem keen to that), and the mailboxes are on the street now. That was one of my favorite things about this house! The mailboxes were on the house, so I saw and spoke to our mailman almost every day. And he was so sweet!

Strip asked if we could knock and see if we could look around, but remembering the large amount of homeless or crazies who came knocking, and the car that was set on fire in front of it, I figured they wouldn't be big on opening the door to strangers.

Maybe next time :-)