We made it. That is all I can say at this point. We left this morning & got to Santa Barbara late this afternoon. Checked in to the hotel, unloaded tons of stuff from the car & pod & then went to dinner. How can riding in a car all day be exhausting? By the time we were eating at Outback, I wanted to pull out my hair. It's my own problem. The kids were very good & most of them are big so it's not like there was a lot of the work of travelling with little kids or babies. Tate was pretty patient. He had his binder with maps, road trip games and coloring pages. He had my laptop and a new pair of headphones. We only heard "how many more minutes?" several times. Jake doesn't make us get in the car and go until our bladders explode so we stopped several times along the way - a couple of rest stops and gas stations along I-5. Tate was very glad to see that there were no flies in the bathroom at Jamba Juice as he was unable to pee at the rest stop with lots of flies. (Jake took him to a tree behind the rest stop so that he could pee fly free.) My problem is that the enclosed space of a car for 8 hours is not the best place for someone who overstimulates and then doesn't naturally re-set. At Outback, there were two boys kicking me repeatedly under the table, three boys tap, tap, tapping out various rhthyms on the table, one boy whining that it was taking too long for them to bring his food & a grown up 'man' chucking the cardboard coasters at the children. After the car ride & without time to decompress, I had had it. Luckily, we are at a hotel that has two rooms - Jake & Tate are in one & I'm in the other one. The other kids are in the hot tub. Now I get to re-set my meter & get ready to settle the masses in for the night. (I'll be sharing my toothbrush since I forgot to bring Tate's.) Tomorrow we will be dropping Matt & Chase off at UC Santa Barbara for EFY for the week, hitting the grocery store & celebrating our Independence.
Downside of the day: Driving on I-5 - what a long, boring road. Ick.
Upside of the day: It smells like the ocean outside.
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