The New Face of Roadtrips

Road trips before kids required so much less thought and stops.  You left whenever, got food anytime and could control your bladder until the next rest stop.  Oh my how times have changed...

This weekend the kids, Tom and I went to Maine to visit family and to participate in a home-brew competition.  It's roughly a 3 hour drive.  On the drive there we only stopped twice, once to hit a drive thru and once at a rest stop to change Lincoln because he pooped his brains out requiring an epic wipe down and outfit change.  Even with the blow-out we managed to bang out the trip just over 3 hours. 

After a great weekend and a 4th place finish at the brew-off we headed home.  We headed out around eleven in the morning.  We realized that we would have to stop for lunch and so we did at the Kennebunk rest stop and a big shout out goes to the lady at Burger King for putting 2 toys in one kids meal!  We took the food to go to help the trip move along.  About an hour later we get the "I got to go potty, I got to go potty right now!" So we pull over onto the side of the road so Colby can pee because I fear we won't make it to the next exit.  As Colby finishes and I start to load him back up a state trooper pulls up. I explain to him that I had to tend to my son and that we were fine and he just reminds me to try to make it to the exit next time. Thank you officer, I'll remember that.  Then we get onto I-89 and Colby declares that he has to poop.  Great! We make it to an exit I'm familiar with and I rush him into the gas station and there is a line. My kid has issues pooping anyplace but home so the having to wait is not making things any easier. As I deal with the stress of having Colby poop and all that entails Tom is getting gas and changing Lincoln.   Tom and I were up to our elbows in parenthood so when we got back in the car and got moving was only when we realized we both had to pee. WTF. So, after being on the road for a good 10 minutes we stopped yet again so that he and I could both use the facilities.  This was our last stop before pulling into our house 16 hours later. No, not really but it seemed like it. Luckily we had dvr'd the Patriots game so we could watch it without commercials. Oh how road trips have changed.