The Long Journey...from you know where Part 1

A couple of months ago, our friend Joel, called to tell us about his wedding in Ft Lauderdale Florida on January 9, 2010. I immediately got excited about it. Here are some of the things I was looking forward to:

-sun

-Barclay wearing some of his adorable hand me down smocked outfits that aren't gonna fit this spring or summer.

-having a wonderful time at the wedding dancing the night away

-sun

-swimming

-having a mini vacation with my husband and baby

-the hotel...and the free breakfast;-)

-the adventures.

You know...the normal sort of things.

We left last Thursday morning and it wasn't pretty.

Tuesday night, Noah came home and went to bed at 6, no dinner. Wednesday night...the night before we were supposed to leave, he came home and did the same thing. I should have known something was wrong.

So I had to prepare for the trip all alone (not that I usually have much help but still...) Of course I get it in my head that I want to prepare lots of healthy snacks for the road...So I spend hours chopping, baking, pureeing. I mean hours. Then comes the hours of clean up. Then I decided to make pancakes for breakfast for my sister who was spending the night. Then I have to clean that up. Then it's late and I need to sleep and we still don't have any actual clothes or toiletries packed.

Thursday morning:

I wake up at 6. It is so very very hard to wake up when your baby is asleep. Not something I like to do very often. I then start packing like a crazy women, all this time lamenting the hours I spent in the kitchen.

Noah is so sick and I have to get Barclay ready, everything packed, everything loaded, the house ready to leave...all by myself. In the background of all this frustration was the annoying sound of Noah hacking.

After getting everything ready, we are off and Noah feels awful and when he feels awful he is winy. I was on edge...and we left right at the time when Barclay likes to explore and play the most. We started off on our 14 hour trip.

Usually road trips are a time for Noah and I to reconnect, talk, plan...there was none of that. Just Noah looking worse and worse by the minute. I also learned that the last thing in the world I wanted to eat on a road trip was a gallon bag of radishes or....carrots. But I ate them anyhow to prove to Noah that my "wasted" hours were in vain. Just a few hours into the trip, we pull over for "Caribbean Mexican" . We found it on the GPS and even though we don't have the best of luck with that sort of stuff, we were hoping for a win. It was horrible. Like the cheesiest ( and by cheese I mean the cheap mozzarella kind). Noah got up in the middle of watching me eat (he was too sick) to go lay down. I then drove. Noah starts sweating. He proceeds to have chills, hack and sweat for the next 9 hours. I'm exhausted because I woke up early and went to bed late. We are just dying to get to our destination....which we were still trying to figure out 30 minutes outside of the city. We decided on a Ramada Inn near the church the wedding was to be held at. I walk in to check in because Noah is basically wet from sweating. It takes me nearly half an hour to check in because:

a. A man who looks drunk is trying to get a room without money and the man who doesn't speak hardly any English behind the desk is trying to explain..."No money...no room..."

b.They do not have computers and instead to everything by hand and with a filing system....Again, this is a RAMADA not a mom and pops place.

c. They had to photocopy Noah's license.

d.The man with broken English was telling me how cold it was (and it was very cold!)

e....right when our room keys had finally been handed over, I learn we are on the back side of the hotel on the 4th floor and their back elevators were broken.

So we had to load up everything...I mean I had to load up everything and make the long trek to the room.

The room was large but extremely dirty and yuck...but who had energy and patience to switch to what probably would be another dirty and yuck room.

If it had just been Noah and I...we would have fell into bed exhausted...but we had this little baby who had been cooped up for 14 hours who was DYING to get busy. So we watched me dance to the music that the "hotel channel" made. It was just slightly interrupted with the announcement that movies for your "adult desires" were available....

After about an hour we put him down in his pack and play...only to have him cry and cry for a good 20 minutes. Which was in turn echoed with someone banging on the wall next to us. I mean seriously people...do you think I want my baby to cry...I just don't know what else to do.

Barclay is too squirmy to be rocked. He doesn't nurse anymore...Nothing was working.

Finally we all fell into a surface sleep only to be woken up several times during the night.

One room with our baby does not =sleep