Driving from Pennsylvania to Utah is no joke.  A total of 2069 miles across eight states – and we planned to do it non-stop.  Because of that, we had to be strategic in our preparations.  First, I got advice from local friends who have done it before, and second, I stocked up on a lot of food.  Lots of candy and junk food, as well as healthy snacks and a cooler full of fresh fruit, cheese, yogurt, breakfast food and sandwiches.  My goal was to have enough food to get us through two days, so that if there wasn’t anywhere to stop for food, we would be ok.

We also were really careful about how we packed the van, making sure that all of the kids’ chairs could recline all the way.  We had pillows and blankets for each of them, and everything was set and ready for us to hit the road at 4:30 am.  I drove first, because I was wide awake, and Kevin was able to nap for a few hours before we switched.  According to the GPS, the drive would take 31 hours.

The kids were so very amazing for the drive.  They got along great, they didn’t complain, they switched off from watching movies, reading books, or to playing with a device.  We couldn’t have made the drive like we did, if they hadn’t been so amazing.

The drive itself went relatively well.  I did drive through a torrential downpour through the entire state of Pennsylvania, and Kevin had to drive through two hours of standstill traffic through Indiana.  Indiana is on the bad list.

Arthur fell sound asleep right around dinner time – probably because he never fell back to sleep when we got them up this morning and got into the car.  Oops.  Oh well.

We stopped for a late dinner in Illinois, and we were all so excited to find a Culver’s – one of our favorites.  And it just happened to be that their flavor of the day just happened to Caramel Fudge Cookie Dough – yum!  We all got one to enjoy.  (And interesting to note, this was the only time we stopped for food during the whole drive.  Awesome!)

I took over driving after dinner, and I drove until sundown – about 9:30pm, and then we stopped, had the kids put on their pj’s, we reclined their seats, and put them to bed.  I took out my contacts, switched with Kevin, and then I tried to get some sleep.  The kids slept great all night too, which was awesome.

At around 3:30, I took over driving and then drove until morning.  We drove through the entire state of Nebraska in the pitch black darkness.  I have been told that we didn’t miss much, as it is just flat and corn ;).

When we finally made it to Wyoming, we knew we were in the home stretch.  And we finally recognized our surroundings, since this stretch of I-80 was one we knew well from when we lived in Colorado.  Wyoming is really a very beautiful state.

But the best feeling ever, was when we made it to the I-84 turnoff to Ogden.  Almost there!

We made it to our friends’, Brent and Marilyn’s house by noon on Saturday – 33 hours and thousands of miles.  We really did it!  We were exhausted, really ready to get out of the car, and very ready for a shower, but were otherwise great.  And now we know that we can do it.  Pretty awesome!

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