Mother-Daughter Road Trip

Saturday morning, Shaling & I drove to Fairfield, Illinois (about a 3-hour drive) and followed that up Sunday by driving to Sullivan, Illinois. Our road trip consisted almost entirely of state highways…we didn’t get on an interstate at all on Saturday and only for the last 35 miles on Sunday. We drove on Route 29, Route 16, Route 128, Route 33, Route 45, Route 32, Route 36, and finally I-72. We saw lots of farms, cows, horses, trees, and flooding. It was quite apparent that the southern parts of the state fared worse than we did here in the Springfield area with all of the rain we got in April.

Though Shaling’s English has progressed by leaps & bounds, she hasn’t quite mastered the dreaded popular childhood phrase, “Are we there yet?” Oh, but rest assured…she has her own personal version of this particular parent pet peeve.

About 30 minutes down the road, she asked me, “5 more minutes?”

I told her no, that it would be more like 2 ½ hours. She responded with a disgusted and indignant, “What!?”

Every 10 minutes or so, we would repeat this routine.

“5 more minutes?”

“No, 2 hours.”

“What!?”

I did catch a break when she fell asleep for about an hour of the Saturday trip and nearly two hours of the Sunday trip. We discovered that she likes the egg sandwiches at Subway, but definitely NOT with their southwest sauce. She also likes their sweet tea (which surprised me, because she drinks her hot tea plain). She LOVES the grilled chicken sandwich from Wendy’s, even with their sauce. In fact, she wanted me to turn around and drive back 10 miles to get her a second one (that didn’t happen).

Our primary destination on Saturday was my youngest sister’s house. Aunt Nena & Uncle Bob have two adorable little redheads, Reaghan (5-years-old) and Kayden (almost 4-years-old). Grandma & Grandpa Barkley (my dad & stepmom) drove over from Carlinville as well, bringing along Aunt Heather & Uncle Shane’s kids, McKenzie (nearly 13-years-old) and Chase (8-years-old).

Chase’s presence was a surprise, or else we would have brought Preston along on the trip as well. Mom was thinking it was going to be an all-girls weekend. It was awesome he was there…this was the most time he and Shaling had ever spent together and they got along smashingly…getting filthy in the mud playing in the backyard for hours.

McKenzie was a big help with all of the younger kids, especially when it came to helping Grandma and Aunt Nena get Reaghan and Kayden ready for their dance recital. Their hair was partially braided and pulled back into ponytails and they got to wear make-up. I failed to get any pictures of all of the cousins on my camera and have been patiently waiting for Aunt Nena to share hers. When she does, I will post them here.

Shaling attended the dance recital (and I’m told she loved it) and then everyone went out to eat at a Chinese buffet. They tell me she worked hard trying to teach her cousins how to use chopsticks, giggling at their failed efforts. Chase eventually just stabbed his food and Grandpa pretended to have mastered the art by showing off a skewer of food and bragging about his “success”. Shaling noticed that Aunt Nena (who isn’t much of a fan of Chinese food) wasn’t eating anything, so she took it upon herself to go get a plate of shrimp and a bowl of egg drop soup and give it to Aunt Nena.

I missed all of the above fun, because I went to a trivia night fundraiser that evening with a couple of my friends that live in that area. I had a great time…though we played with only half a team (4 people, and most teams were 8 people strong), I believe we came in 6th out of 20 teams. When I returned to Bob & Nena’s house, nearly everyone was asleep…of course the one person still awake was my daughter. Chase & Shaling were lying on the floor in the living room, with McKenzie on the couch. The television was on and Shaling was watching it, but Chase & McKenzie were fast asleep. It was nearly 12:30, so I grabbed the remote and despite Shaling’s protests, turned off the television. I believe this had a lot to do with her sleeping so much longer in the car on Sunday.

On Sunday, we went to a baby shower at Jibby’s in Sullivan for my cousin Alison. Of all the grandchildren my mom’s mom had, I was the oldest and Alison the youngest. My grandma would have loved to have been there (she passed away in 2003) and we all thought of her during the shower. She would have oohed and aahed at all of the fabulous gifts Alison received. Shaling enjoyed playing and coloring with several other girls at the shower, including my cousin Jennifer’s daughter, Shaelyn. Yes, we have a Shaling and a Shaelyn. Yes, it can cause some tongue twisting. Shaling also enjoyed getting spoiled by spending time with Grandma Coonrod (my mom) and once again, told me she wanted to go home with Grandma.

The drive home from Sullivan is between 75 and 80 minutes. No less than a minimum of six times, I heard:

“5 more minutes?”

Followed up by a:

“What!?”

When it finally was “5 more minutes” and I told her, I think she held a celebratory parade in the back seat of my Honda Civic.