about our FL to NC drive

As promised, I shall recount for you the trip home from Florida.



If you were to drive straight through with no stops and no traffic from my grandparents house to Raleigh, it would take you about nine hours. This is, of course, impossible, unless you had a car that didn't need gas for 600 miles or a bladder that didn't need to be emptied. It is definitely impossible with a three-month-old and a dog that hates the car.

Nonetheless, we set out in high spirits from my grandparents at 11:15am with a tired baby that fell right to sleep for a nap and a Penny that resigned herself to the backseat for a long drive home.

Our first conundrum was that after you drive an hour from my grandparents, you officially leave behind the majority of civilization for the next two hours. We didn't want to stop after just one hour (don't wake a sleeping baby just so you can eat somewhere that's not sketchy!). But, we knew we wouldn't make it two more hours either. We figured we would press our luck and find somewhere to stop in the "deadlands."

Graeme took a long nap, but it was eventually time to stop so he could eat. We were hungry too. We came upon a McDonalds, and that seemed to be our only option. Unless we wanted to eat at "Grannie's Kitchen." Which we did not.

Now, our next issue was that it was 90 degrees outside in the middle of the afternoon. We couldn't (and wouldn't) leave Penny in the car. This meant we had to cart our things over to some picnic tables that this McDonalds had outside. Thankfully, they were in the shade under some trees. I poured Penny some water into her travel dish and started feeding Graeme. Aaron went in to the restroom and then came out and switched with me. I ordered food to-go and brought it outside.

We wanted Graeme to be able to stretch out after 2 hours in his carseat, so we layered a changing pad and a couple blankets on the picnic table so he could lay down and wiggle. He didn't seem to mind his strange surroundings. He did, however, kick over Aaron's ginormous, full-to-the-brim sweet tea that spilled all over the table barely missing our phones and keys. The boys shared the blame on that one.

We got back in the car after our McDonalds picnic and pressed on. I sat in the back with Graeme now that he was awake and we played for awhile. After another hour, he and I both fell asleep.

When I woke up again, Graeme was already awake. Aaron and I figured we should start searching for our next stop. I checked my phone and realized we had again passed all decent civilization. We were in the middle of Georgia with nothing much in sight for miles. We settled on a TA Travel Center after a few exits of Waffle Houses and Exxons.

This time, there were no shady picnic tables. Aaron got gas and then parked the car. He took Penny outside. I put some water in Penny's dish and set it in the cup holders up front. Then, I fed Graeme in the backseat. When he was done, I laid him down back there so he could stretch out, and I got in the passenger seat and leaned over to talk to him. When Aaron came back, we switched, and I went in to buy some snacks for us.

Upon returning, I sat in the driver's seat to eat my yogurt. Aaron was eating his granola bar. All of a sudden, I hear, "Oh no!" Aaron hadn't noticed Penny's water in the cup holder and set his phone down in it. It was only a 1/4 inch deep, and he has an Otter Box, but he freaked out anyway. I let him carry on, and went around the car to change Graeme's diaper. When I opened the diaper to find more than I bargained for, I quickly searched for the wipes with one hand while holding Graeme's legs and feet up out the mess. Aaron was still panicking over his phone. And then I heard a water-splashing sound. 

I looked up to see Graeme peeing all over his face. And the blanket he was laying on. And his shirt. While he laughed and smiled. Now it was my turn to freak out. "Aaron!!"

After a wipe down, literally, for Graeme, and throwing all of the pee-soaked things in the crowded trunk, we set off again. I took a turn at the wheel and Aaron sat in the back with the kids. I asked him to tilt the mirror that we have to see Graeme from the front because it had shifted in all of the mayhem. When he went to move it, it disintegrated. The straps that wrapped around the headrest fell apart. So there was that.

We drove on.

I asked Aaron if I could have one of his Pringles. He said "Sure, here you go." I reached my hand back blindly and smashed the Pringle to pieces all over the car. So there was that.

We drove on.

Our next, and what we hoped was our last stop ended up being at Wendy's. We tried to hold out for Chick-fil-a or Zaxby's, but it just wasn't in the cards. It was 8:00pm and Graeme was tired and hungry. It was cooler outside now, and we only planned on a 20 minute stop, so we cracked the windows for Penny and hurried inside. Of course, this Wendy's had just one girl taking orders and gathering everyone's food. So that took awhile.  We scarfed down dinner and made sure Graeme was full and dry. We started off again with just three hours left to drive. We thought he would fall asleep and sleep until we got home.

Wrong.

He would not go to sleep. He got himself so worked up that we even resorted to trying to give him a pacifier I had in the diaper bag. He wouldn't even take it (which made me happy in the sense that we at least broke him of that for sure!). After 20 minutes of non-stop crying, we pulled over and got him out. He was all smiles as soon as he was out of the carseat. I pointed out that the exit we had chosen had a very nice looking Holiday Inn. It looked very inviting at this point. But with less than three hours to go, we pressed on.

I sat in the back with Graeme again to try to keep him calm so he could go to sleep. He was much happier with me next to him, but now he was only interested in smiling and playing. Then, the hiccup monster came. That hiccup monster chooses the worst times to visit usually.

Graeme gets the hiccups pretty often and they last for-ev-er. At least, that's what it seems like. Especially after being in the car for ten hours. The hiccups got him all upset, and then I started to smell something strange. Seriously kid, again?

Yes. Again.

We pulled over, again, less than 2 hours away from home.

I changed Graeme in the car and apologized very profusely that he did indeed have to get back in his carseat. He started the most pitiful cry. I sat with him and held his hand until he finally fell asleep. At this point, it was 10:30pm. We pulled up to our house at 11:45pm. Just 12.5 hours from when we left Florida.

It was a long, long day, but we had so much fun laughing about all of our misfortunes and adventures. Poor Graeme got fed up with the carseat there at the end, but who wouldn't?!

What fun memories we made on our very first road trip together.

with die-of-cuteness Penny pictures

Even though it's not Penny's real birthday today, it is the day we brought her home two years ago, so it's a little more significant to us.

Happy Homecoming Day, Penny!

She pretty much makes me want to die from cuteness.

Anyone have a time machine?

Of course, she's still super cute...

But I do miss that sweet, tiny, puppy face sometimes.

a birthday post for Penny

Our sweet puppy turned two on Monday!

It's weird because we didn't actually meet Penny and take her home until September of that year, so her birthday seems like it should be that day instead. But, her actual birthday is July 8, 2011.

We aren't crazy, and we didn't have a celebration or anything, but we do love Penny and can't believe she's already two.

She sure has developed into her fun personality a lot this year. She went to school and learned some things. She went swimming for the first time in Florida, and quickly realized she was terrified of water. She loves to play, but she is becoming more and more happy to just lay on the couch. She knows so many words (outside, car, crate [unfortunately], toy, treat, bed, "Aaron's home," "Whitney's home," etc.)

We definitely don't know what we would do without her.

Happy 2nd birthday, Penny!

a Penny post

We went to get ice cream this past weekend, and when we were getting ready to leave they asked if we wanted some vanilla ice cream for our dog.

Well, who would turn down free ice cream anyway? Penny, of course, loved her ice cream treat.

a Penny post

We just love this puppy so much...

a Penny post

Do you ever feel...like a plastic bag? Drifting through the wind? Wanting to start again?

No?

I didn't think so.



Stupidest. lyrics. ever.

a Penny post

I went looking for Penny the other morning and found her ready to conduct her next meeting...

a Penny post

We sure are glad for warmer weather, especially Penny. That means she can go to one of her favorite places...

The dog park.

about Penny's car freak out and a Mexican diner

Just a warning up front:  this week will mostly be updates from our trip. Sorry if that gets annoying, but this blog also serves as our "journal," so, I try to keep up with things like that. I'll try to keep it as entertaining as always, of course. :)


Anyway, we've made it to Asheville!

After loading our rental car with supplies for what appears to be a months' journey, we were off.

We quickly learned that Penny was not okay with long car rides. After about an hour, she quivered and panted for the rest of the trip. We stopped once and she loved that. And she was fine once we arrived. But, she was not a fan of the car for some reason.

Nonetheless, the mountains and sunset were a welcome sight.

After getting settled into our room, we started discussing what to do for dinner. We experienced a small setback when my hair became horribly stuck on the button on the pillow.

But, after Aaron finally untangled me, we searched Yelp! for a fun place to eat dinner. We like checking out local places when we're out of town, and after some debate, we decided on what looked to be a winner. It had great reviews on Yelp!, Trip Adviser, and Urbanspoon.

Now, this particular restaurant decision was first amusing to us because we never choose to eat Mexican food willingly. I make tacos at home. But I would say they are very American. A Mexican restaurant we chose, however.

And not just any Mexican restaurant. A Mexican restaurant in an old diner. We just knew we were in for a good time.

And, guys, "Nachos and Beer," (yes, that's the real name) did not disappoint. I'm not being sarcastic either. The food was really good.

And the icing on the cake was the amusing decor.

Oh boy! What a fun diner!

That's an odd name for a diner...

And then it starts to make sense.

Notice the Sombreros on the shelf? They were next to models of classic cars.

Hollywood meets Fiesta

El jukebox y Sombrero

Piñata anyone?

Our first day was definitely a success. Tomorrow we explore Asheville in the morning before heading onto Sevierville, TN for the next two nights. I can't wait to see my grandparents!

a Penny post (update)

The saga continued...

Sunday, after Penny had a sleepy day with me, I went to the Journey Volunteer Christmas Party. A few hours later when I returned, I came home to giant throw up mess in Penny's crate.

Lovely.

So began our night.

Penny threw up from 11:30pm-8:30am every 30 minutes or so.

Another sleepless night for all of us.

Side effects from her allergy medicine were vomiting and diarrhea, so I wouldn't have been so concerned, but there was blood in her vomit. So that was scary.

I asked to come in a little late to work on Monday and we took Penny to the vet yet again.

Our friend Shannon, who is a doctor there, was working on Monday. She said we should definitely not give her the allergy medicine anymore, because that did seem to be the cause for her sickness. 

We decided to leave Penny there for a few hours so they could watch her.

Monday afternoon, Aaron got the call that he could come back and get her. She hadn't thrown up anymore, and they had given her fluids and medicine.

She was a pitiful mess Monday night.

We had to get her children's Benadryl because she was still so red and splotchy from her first incident. Plus she had two other prescriptions to take for her stomach and esophagus.

Good grief.

We finally had a good night of sleep Monday night. Penny didn't, but she didn't stop us.

Tuesday, she was finally starting to act more like her normal self.

And today she goes back to the vet today to get a final checkup.

Let's hope so, at least...

a Penny post

I think we could start a book about our many adventures with Penny.

Penny, the Havanese Puppy:  It's Always Something

I'll work on that title.

Saturday, we had a long day of being gone from home so our good friend, Robyn, and her family took Penny to their house for the day.

When we got home around 9:30pm, they had delivered Penny safely back to her crate and she was happy to see us.

We took her out and headed up to bed.

We had been awake since 5:45am, and we were ready to crash.

Of course, Penny had different plans.

We were finally tucked into bed and ready to go to sleep, but Penny was itching. And scratching. And shaking. And huffing. And puffing. And biting at herself.

She would calm down briefly, but start right up again in the next few minutes.

After about an hour of this, Aaron had enough. (I had been drifting in and out of sleep, although I was definitely aware of the commotion).

"What is wrong with her?!" He turned the light on.

I continued to try to ignore it. "I don't know," I said as I rolled over.

He pulled Penny up next to him. "She's all splotchy!"

I resigned myself that I was now going to have to wake up.

"What? Where?"

"She's got red spots all over her stomach!"

Indeed, she did.

We decided to get up and give her a bath. It was now after 11:30.

Penny hates baths, but we doused her good and made sure to scrub her skin and check her for fleas.

She seemed to look fine, other than her skin being abnormally red.

We dried her off and decided I would get up and take her to the vet in the morning if it didn't get any better.

At 12:11, we crawled back into bed with our now wet dog.

She was apparently too cold to scratch for the time being. But it didn't take long until she was dry and it started all over again.

She was on and off the bed, running around. She couldn't get comfortable, poor thing.

I was in and out of sleep, and I knew Aaron was too.

At 3:30, he finally spoke up. "I. Have. Only. Slept. One. Hour. This. Whole. Night."

"I know. We are going to have to put her down in her crate if we are going to get any sleep."

Aaron took her downstairs.

Sleep came for a little while, until her crying was so loud that it woke us back up.

It was another rough couple hours of her crying on and off.

Finally, around 6:30, I went and got her out of her crate and brought her back upstairs.

Nothing had changed.

We were awake for good at this point.

We decided that Aaron would go to Journey, and I would take Penny to the vet as soon as they opened at 9:00am.

She and I went, much to her dismay.

The vet said she definitely had an allergic reaction to something, but we have no idea what it could be.

After she took her allergy medicine, she crashed on the couch for the day.

Poor Penny.

a Penny post

Our little Penny girl has become quite the administrative assistant lately.

Last week though, she nearly got fired from being around any office supplies ever again...


We have been trusting Penny more and more lately to roam around the house out of her crate when we leave home. We have never left her for more than a couple hours at a time yet, and she has been doing great for almost two months.

Well, had been doing great.

Penny is quite mischievous (but cute), and has been plotting her secret plan for two months, obviously.

She waited until we trusted her absolutely, and when we went to dinner last week with friends for barely two hours, she made her move.

Oh, how I wish I had taken pictures.

We were greeted at the front door by our sweet puppy covered in black on her face and her paws.

It only took me a second to realize what had happened.

"PENNY!!"

She skedaddled under the couch as fast as she could.

"AARON! Penny ate a PEN!"

We went into panic and rushed upstairs.

There, on our white carpet, were millions (that may be exaggeration) of pieces of plastic, half of one of Aaron's fancy pens, and a big, dark, black, ink spot.

Aaron began freaking out about the carpet.

I began freaking out about the effects of ink and pen parts on the stomach of a dog.

"This will never come out!!"

"What if she ate some?!"

"Come help me clean the carpet!"

"I have to make sure our puppy isn't going to die!"

And so on.

After coming to the conclusion that ink is not toxic really at all and also concluding the pen had been chewed to smithereens but not swallowed, I became aware that Penny was downstairs still covered in ink.

I started the bath water and went to find her.

Her little tail was peaking out from under the couch.

"Penny, you are in big trouble."

I dragged. Dragged. her out from under the couch.

The bath was clearly the worst punishment she could ever receive. She stared at me with sad puppy eyes and trembled the whole time.

Thankfully, the ink came out of her fur right away.

After she was clean, I could finally turn my attention to poor Aaron, who was still soaking ink out of the carpet.

After 20 more minutes of soaking and scrubbing, our carpet had just the faintest tint of gray in one spot, but unless you were staring at it, you couldn't tell.

Penny sulked the rest of the night.

Her master plan might have worked out, but she got hers.



Back in the crate she goes for all of our outings for a length of time TBD.

Oh, Penny...

a Penny post

We have had a great time on our trip, but I am so excited to go back home.

There's no place like home, right?

We've missed our friends and family, but we have really missed Penny so much. She is having a great time with her Mimi and Grandy though. 

I can't wait to get home to our Penny girl today.