A Christmas Road Trip
Dad checking in belatedly here.
Zoe took her first long road trip last month when we went back to Butte.
On the Saturday before Christmas we went to Gena's parents' house to celebrate Christmas with her family. We got a ton of snow making the drive to St. Cloud pretty scary. Gena and I guessed that we must have seen at least a dozen cars in the ditch on the drive up. After that we were more than a little concerned about the drive to Montana.
We left Sunday around 11 AM and didn't stop until Fargo where we had lunch. She slept for that whole time and was even good enough to wait to poop until we were out of the car!
Gena fed her in the restaurant which was her first foray in to public breast feeding. It would not be the last on the trip. We hit the road again and made our way to Bismarck where we stopped again for dinner. Up to that point we had experienced some pretty strong winds and blowing snow but we were able to keep up a decent pace anyways. We didn't get too far out of Bismarck before Zoe woke up again. We stopped at a rest stop to change her diaper and to give her a little more food and she went back to sleep.
With Zoe asleep for the night we drove on and around the time we hit Billings we decided we could go all the way. We pulled in to Butte at 4:30 Central, 3:30 local time. Zoe started to wake up just as we were clearing the overpass in to Butte. We couldn't have imagined that she would do so well on the trip.
We were barely in the house before my mom and dad and Miranda came out to see Zoe. They were all excited to see her (and us too, maybe). My parents built a wonderful new bedroom in the basement with its own bathroom. It was so nice to have our own little place and it made it much easier for us to keep Zoe on her schedule. Gena fed Zoe and we went to sleep. When Zoe woke up that morning I had the luxury of dropping her off with my parents and going back to bed.
We had a full schedule over the following days, we brought Zoe to see my mom's coworkers and my sister's as well. She did wonderfully, meeting so many people and giving them all smiles. She also went to get photos taken with Ashlynn and Miranda and did a wonderful job posing for the camera. Unfortunately in between arriving in Montana and Christmas Zoe started to get a very bad cold. By Christmas she was really feeling pretty miserable. She was still a sweetie but she was not herself. But we had a nice Christmas and the family all got to spend a lot of time with her.
We left Montana on the Sunday after Christmas and we again left at 11:00 AM. The road reports looked to be pretty good but for about an hour around Bozeman we pretty nervous. There would be a mile of clean pavement followed by a dip in the road full of slush and ice. We again were seeing a lot of cars in the ditch and we had one moment where I hit a slippery patch but knew the most dangerous thing to do would be to slow down so I just had to hang on. Once we got a little out of Bozeman the roads were fine for the rest of the trip other than some more wind and blowing snow.
We stopped for lunch in Big Timber and then for dinner in Glendive. Zoe wasn't quite the good traveler that she was on the way out. She got fussy a few times along the way which is especially challenging in eastern Montana because you can go for so long in between good places to stop. We stopped at a rest stop once and another time we just pulled over at a town so small that it didn't even have a gas station. When we got to Glendive I was feeling pretty depressed about the rest of the trip. It was 7:00 or so and we hadn't even gotten halfway. North Dakota was having ice storm advisories and Zoe hadn't been sleeping well... oh, and we were in Glendive which is depressing by itself. We finished up dinner and Gena fed Zoe in the car and we she was done eating she showed no interest in going to sleep. While we played with her a bit we debated how we were going to get her to sleep. We ended up just putting her back in her seat wide awake and hoping for the best. Fortunately she slept pretty well from that point.
We hit the road again and about the time we were approaching Jamestown neither of us had the desire to go on. Unlike the trip out, if we did an all-nighter to get to Minneapolis we'd still have to get up with her in the morning. So we got a hotel room in Jamestown a bit after midnight. Zoe again did us a favor by waiting until we stopped at the hotel to poop. She did that in the car while I was getting us a room. While Gena fed Zoe I unloaded pretty much everything in the car since I didn't want to leave so much stuff sitting out.
The next morning Zoe woke us up and we were lucky she did because we didn't realize we were back on Central time and only had minutes to make checkout. We once again rolled out around 11:00. We stopped for lunch in Fergus Falls and then made it the rest of the way to Minneapolis. She was back to being her good traveler self on that day.
I had the rest of the week off work and I had planned to send her to daycare a few of those days so I could get some work done but she was so sick that we decided to keep her home all week. I'm glad to say that is doing very well now, she doesn't even have a runny nose anymore.
I don't look forward to doing more long car trips with her but overall she did a great job and I think driving instead of flying was the right choice.
Zoe took her first long road trip last month when we went back to Butte.
On the Saturday before Christmas we went to Gena's parents' house to celebrate Christmas with her family. We got a ton of snow making the drive to St. Cloud pretty scary. Gena and I guessed that we must have seen at least a dozen cars in the ditch on the drive up. After that we were more than a little concerned about the drive to Montana.
We left Sunday around 11 AM and didn't stop until Fargo where we had lunch. She slept for that whole time and was even good enough to wait to poop until we were out of the car!
Gena fed her in the restaurant which was her first foray in to public breast feeding. It would not be the last on the trip. We hit the road again and made our way to Bismarck where we stopped again for dinner. Up to that point we had experienced some pretty strong winds and blowing snow but we were able to keep up a decent pace anyways. We didn't get too far out of Bismarck before Zoe woke up again. We stopped at a rest stop to change her diaper and to give her a little more food and she went back to sleep.
With Zoe asleep for the night we drove on and around the time we hit Billings we decided we could go all the way. We pulled in to Butte at 4:30 Central, 3:30 local time. Zoe started to wake up just as we were clearing the overpass in to Butte. We couldn't have imagined that she would do so well on the trip.
We were barely in the house before my mom and dad and Miranda came out to see Zoe. They were all excited to see her (and us too, maybe). My parents built a wonderful new bedroom in the basement with its own bathroom. It was so nice to have our own little place and it made it much easier for us to keep Zoe on her schedule. Gena fed Zoe and we went to sleep. When Zoe woke up that morning I had the luxury of dropping her off with my parents and going back to bed.
We had a full schedule over the following days, we brought Zoe to see my mom's coworkers and my sister's as well. She did wonderfully, meeting so many people and giving them all smiles. She also went to get photos taken with Ashlynn and Miranda and did a wonderful job posing for the camera. Unfortunately in between arriving in Montana and Christmas Zoe started to get a very bad cold. By Christmas she was really feeling pretty miserable. She was still a sweetie but she was not herself. But we had a nice Christmas and the family all got to spend a lot of time with her.
We left Montana on the Sunday after Christmas and we again left at 11:00 AM. The road reports looked to be pretty good but for about an hour around Bozeman we pretty nervous. There would be a mile of clean pavement followed by a dip in the road full of slush and ice. We again were seeing a lot of cars in the ditch and we had one moment where I hit a slippery patch but knew the most dangerous thing to do would be to slow down so I just had to hang on. Once we got a little out of Bozeman the roads were fine for the rest of the trip other than some more wind and blowing snow.
We stopped for lunch in Big Timber and then for dinner in Glendive. Zoe wasn't quite the good traveler that she was on the way out. She got fussy a few times along the way which is especially challenging in eastern Montana because you can go for so long in between good places to stop. We stopped at a rest stop once and another time we just pulled over at a town so small that it didn't even have a gas station. When we got to Glendive I was feeling pretty depressed about the rest of the trip. It was 7:00 or so and we hadn't even gotten halfway. North Dakota was having ice storm advisories and Zoe hadn't been sleeping well... oh, and we were in Glendive which is depressing by itself. We finished up dinner and Gena fed Zoe in the car and we she was done eating she showed no interest in going to sleep. While we played with her a bit we debated how we were going to get her to sleep. We ended up just putting her back in her seat wide awake and hoping for the best. Fortunately she slept pretty well from that point.
We hit the road again and about the time we were approaching Jamestown neither of us had the desire to go on. Unlike the trip out, if we did an all-nighter to get to Minneapolis we'd still have to get up with her in the morning. So we got a hotel room in Jamestown a bit after midnight. Zoe again did us a favor by waiting until we stopped at the hotel to poop. She did that in the car while I was getting us a room. While Gena fed Zoe I unloaded pretty much everything in the car since I didn't want to leave so much stuff sitting out.
The next morning Zoe woke us up and we were lucky she did because we didn't realize we were back on Central time and only had minutes to make checkout. We once again rolled out around 11:00. We stopped for lunch in Fergus Falls and then made it the rest of the way to Minneapolis. She was back to being her good traveler self on that day.
I had the rest of the week off work and I had planned to send her to daycare a few of those days so I could get some work done but she was so sick that we decided to keep her home all week. I'm glad to say that is doing very well now, she doesn't even have a runny nose anymore.
I don't look forward to doing more long car trips with her but overall she did a great job and I think driving instead of flying was the right choice.
