Oklahoma Part 3: The Return

 The drive home wasn't as action packed as driving on the way up, but I think we managed to make the most of it. 

Chris and I spent a couple hours the day before we left doing laundry, packing, and otherwise preparing for the trip back. By the time bedtime rolled around, all that was left was to pack were our pajamas and toothbrushes. 

We followed the same procedure leaving as we did coming up. Woke up at 4am, got dressed, and moved the kids directly into the car. We were back in Texas long before they woke up and started calling for a bathroom break. 

Rather than the very nice semi-private state park bathroom we had had on the way up, we had to settle for a gas station bathroom. It was a single stall at least, so we didn't have to deal with people coming in and out, but it was not ideal. As I write this it's a week and a half after the fact, so I know no one picked up any weird diseases. 

I'm very thankful. 

Somehow or other we survived it. We hit the road and I made peanut butter and banana sandwiches up front and handed them back for breakfast while Chris drove. 

Then we drove...and drove...and drove. It was at this point that the audiobooks that I'd brought really came in handy. They take the edge off of boredom for the kids, and they're more tolerable for the grown ups up front than playing a movie. Because it's someone telling a story rather than a cast acting one out using visual storytelling, it's easier to ignore it and carry on a conversation. 

We stopped in a little town called Kerrville for lunch. We had looked it up ahead of time as a likely stopping point while planning the route, and seen that it had a very nice city park alongside a river. As we pulled up, we saw that not only was it on a river but it had a huge in-ground stained concrete fountain in the shape of a star that the kids could run around on. 

Sort of a pre-splash pad era splash pad. 

Owner of picture here. It was a lot less crowded than this while we were there.

Chris pulled the van up to a picnic area by a very nice playground, and I made sandwiches while the kids played and Chris watched the baby. We ate, then got changed into swimsuits in the public bathroom (which we had kept at the top of the luggage) and headed towards the fountain. 

We played at the fountain for a little while, then decided to go check out the river. It had a shallow rocky area perfect for swimming with small kids and a toddler.

That was definitely the nicest part of our day, and one of the nicer parts of the trip. Chris attempted to teach the older two kids how to skip rocks (largely unsuccessfully -- there were lots of ker-splunks), Bitty Baby took turns on my lap and her daddy's and splashed, there were ducks nearby, and there were scores of baby fish that came and nibbled on your toes if you stood still enough. 

We stayed for quite awhile before we realized we probably needed to hit the road and headed back up to the bathroom to change. 

It was at this point that I realized I'd had it easy in the gas station bathroom. I had both girls with me (Little Boy went into the men's room to change with Chris), a bag of dry clothes, and no stroller. 

In brief-- 

-a sincere thank you to the random woman in the bathroom who took pity on me and gave me a diaper for Bitty Baby. I had completely forgotten to pack one in the dry clothes bag. 

-automatic hand dryers are from the depths of Hell. 

-it's really had to keep an inquisitive baby from crawling under a bathroom stall door. 

-  a potty splashing baby will remain a potty splashing baby so long as there is a potty in which to splash. 

-don't bend over to pick up an errant potty splashing baby while balancing your nice new  sunglasses on top of your head. They will fall into the toilet. 

-Next time, it's worth it to take a slight detour to the van and go get the stroller first. 

We ended up spending at least two hours at the park playing. It was completely worth it. 

We left the park, and after a brief misadventure with a gas station, a set of confusing GPS instructions, and a re-evaluation of our route we headed home. 

We had planned on dragging out the portable DVD player for this bit, but we ended up not needing it. Both Little Girl and Bitty Baby fell asleep and stayed asleep for the three hour drive home. We managed to avoid the late afternoon witching hour almost completely. 

We got home, moved the bulk of our stuff into the house (and the stuff that needed to stay cold into the fridge), tossed together a quick supper with thawed pre-seasoned chicken I'd left in the fridge before we left, and then did normal bedtime routine with the kids. 

Moral of the story -- if you can manage to take the kids swimming partway through a big all-day drive, it is completely worth it. Just remember to bring a stroller for changing in and out of clothes if you have a baby.