All 50 Road Trip-May 12, 2018, Day 1

(click here for today's pictures)

Little Rock, AR to Tulsa, OK

Robby and I woke up at 6 this morning which is normally plenty of time to get ready for soccer and the Saturday morning. Today, though, is the beginning of the All 50 Road Trip where everyone will hit all 50 states. The kids are excited and didn’t take too long to bounce out of bed when Robby went around the house waking everyone up.

I got myself ready and then did what was left of my list. Our 6 page packing list went down to half a page and then back up to one page last night. All of the extra things were the zillion last minute things you do before you leave for a trip-turn off ice maker, turn off water, take the trash out, and on and on the list goes.

We were in the car headed to Raymar at 730 which is quite a bit early. Robby stopped to get doughnuts for everyone. It didn’t take too long for us to know that one stop today would be to take Whitman to the doctor this morning. He coughed and coughed the entire drive to Raymar. That was put on the agenda, and soon we were pulling in to the soccer fields for our last day of soccer (Reagan’s last, last upward soccer game as well.)

Everyone headed under the pavillion to eat their doughnuts while I turned around and headed to Camryn’s house to pick up Reagan from her sleepover. Amber had to wake her up and even fed her some breakfast while the other girls were still asleep. Reagan was quick to tell me though that she would take a doughnut or two as well.

Reagan and I made it back to the soccer fields in plenty of time to see the first folks run through the tunnel. Keaton, Whitman and Graham all played their games first. I spent most of the time watching Keaton and Whitman play. They were short a few players at first and bless their poor team only has one other strong player other than Keaton.

Keaton scored 2 of her teams 4 goals, but that was still not enough to win against the other team. Keaton thought that they might have won though. The exciting part of the game was Whitman. At one, only one, point during the game, he began kicking the ball, and he kicked it and kicked it! I took about a hundred pictures during those 8 seconds of the game. Now, he wasn’t dribbling the ball anywhere towards his goal, but he was kicking it!

On the other side, and I mean other side of the fields was Graham’s team playing their heart out. They ended up winning 3-1, and Graham scored. He could not wait to get back to me to tell me all about it. His team is much improved this season, and Graham really enjoyed playing.

When those games were over, I hopped in the car with Whitman and took him to the doctor.We wanted to have him checked out just to make sure that it wasn’t his ears. I actually kind of hoped that it would be so we could get some medicine, and he could be on the mend. It was not his ears; he just has a cold which is good.

We hurried back to the soccer fields, but did miss all of Campbell’s game. They ended up losing by quite a few, and our super star didn’t score any today. Robby thinks that she didn’t score because she stayed in the back most of the game defending the goal.

Next up was Anderson’s team’s turn. They did so much better today but still lost. Anderson did super and ran the entire game. He has some kids on his team that seem to be in space and just haul off and kick the ball whichever direction they are facing. Even though Anderson could have gotten pretty discouraged this soccer season, he kept his chin up and improved so much.

The kids ate lunchables for their lunches today. The first two games were perfect cloudy weather, but around the third game the sun came out. Robby is a bit red, but hopefully no one else is pink.

Soon it was Reagan’s turn.She has the best group of girls on her team. They seem to have so much fun together. The did win today, but the interesting thing was watching Reagan be goalie. She did not want to be the goalie, and she was nervous the entire time. It was quite entertaining watching her pace in front of the goal while hollering instructions to her teammates.

After her game, we sent Keaton and Whitman home with Nonna and Pops. They had showers over there and then waited on us. We hurried home with a quick stop at Dollar General to pick up a bag of chex mix. At least I thought Robby was going to pick up a bag of chex mix; he came out with more like 10 bags of chex mix! I hope that we like it!

Once at home, the kids fanned out to three showers and Robby and I followed after them. We unloaded from soccer and threw the last few things in the car before heading out. Robby had hoped to leave at 4, but we were leaving the driveway at 3:45.

We picked up Keaton and Whitman from Nonna’s house. They were clean and ready for us to show up. We said our goodbyes to Nonna, Pops and Jason, and then pulled out. We just listened to music until we made it to Conway. Then we pulled out our first move of the trip, Jumanji.

That lasted through our rest stop break near Russellville and also through our rice krispy snack break 10 minutes later.

We hadn’t been driving for too long when Whitman said, “I am so happy I could cry.” I asked him why he was that happy, and he said, “I am so happy that I could cry because I am going to Alaska.”

Just across the line in Oklahoma, we stopped at a rest stop to eat our picnic supper. Robby and I stopped at this rest stop in 2002 on our way to Oklahoma. I have a picture of me making lunch there, and tonight he snapped a picture of me again making a picnic but this time making it for 6 kiddos too.

It was a perfect picnic stop-plenty of grass to throw the football, bathrooms and nice weather. We stayed probably a bit longer than we should have but were soon on the road. Robby drove for a but, but then the tv stopped working. He crawled into the back to play tv repairman for a bit. He was wiggling a wire and snapped something which caused the problem. Thankfully, he was able to fix it, but unfortunately, I had to drive on into Tulsa.

It wasn’t a bad drive, and soon we were at the Praying Hands at Oral Roberts. The lights were off but we tried to take some pictures. We were commenting on how odd it was that it was dark and yet the lights were off. As we headed to the car, the lights clicked on so we had to go back for one more picture.

We got gas on the way to the hotel and then checked in. Unloading was a breeze tonight. The kids seemed to remember being quiet in the hotel. We always love when we are on the first floor since it is so much easier and much less stressful. Eight people walking around above someone, often causes them to call the front desk. We don’t have to worry about that on the first floor.

Once in the hotel, we all put our shoes in a spot and changed to our pjs. Whitman took a bath, and I gave him some cough and cold medicine while he was sitting in there. Though he did quickly have to get out since he needed to go potty. The kids played on their ipads for a bit and had a sip of coke before bed.

We decided that the one thing we forgot to bring in tonight is a little snack before bed. Tomorrow we will do better. Robby and I both enjoy planning and organization, so all of the details like a bedtime snack coming in the hotels each night in the yellow bag makes us happy! And I know that detail will make the kids happy too.

The plan is to wake up around 7 tomorrow since we have a 10 hour drive to Denver. We will see though since the kids laid down at 10:40. It all depends on how everyone sleeps and how little Whitman coughs tonight. Though Robby and I should get a decent amount of sleep since we didn't do laundry tonight and after the kids go to bed all we have to do is eat a Snickers bar and finish our computer work.

Today's mileage: 292