Road Trip (retrieving our son)

Joshua and I have always loved road trips. It has been over six years since we’ve taken a long road trip alone, so we were both looking forward to it. A 16 hour trip that we were going to make all in one day meant that we needed to leave at 5am. Ugh.

The night before neither of us could sleep. We were both so excited that we would finally be seeing Luke after four and a half weeks apart. We both got about four hours sleep and were on the road by 5:15am.

Here is the beautiful sunrise we were able to see since we were up at the crack of dawn.

There is not much to do in a truck for 16 hours. So, I took pictures.

And Josh sang at the top of his lungs.

What was he singing??

Yes, it's true.

And after a Red Bull......

The singing has hand motions!!

No hate to Arkansas, but most of our drive through it is boring.

However, there is a stretch of highway, where if you are lucky, you get to see this.

Crop dusters!

It is cool to see them pop up right over the highway.

We were able to see this one spray the field.

And there was apparently good eating on the side of the road that morning.

We love going through Tennessee and the mountains. This is by far the highlight of the trip. The mountains are beautiful.

But what I loved most about Tennessee was this.

RAIN!!

I was so excited.

Beyond excited really, so Joshua started this exchange:

            You know it’s not raining at home, right?

           Yes, but I had actually forgotten what water falling out of the sky looked like.

           Well, it is slowing us down.

We made it through the rain rather quickly.  And the beautiful sky returned.

Our trip was going by rather quickly.  Before we knew it, we were in North  Carolina.

This stretch of the mountains is great.  And here are a couple of reasons why.

First, a cool tunnel through a mountain.

And second.....

Yes, the Bat Cave.  Ever since Josh was a little boy, he has loved going by this sign because it pointed to where Batman lives!  And now, Luke loves it too.  Ever time we pass, he will say, "Let's go see Batman!!!!"

Boys are silly. 

And then, the sun began to set.

And here is where my picture taking stopped for the day.

We eventually made it to South Carolina, but it was dark and I missed seeing the sign.

Finally, at around 10:30 pm, we drove up the driveway of Josh’s parents. I saw a little shadow pop up off of the couch. I could not even wait for the truck to stop. I jumped out and ran up to the door, where I was greeted by Luke (who was dressed in a dinosaur costume!)

I scooped up the little dinosaur and began to cry. Luke cried too.

Not since the day he was born have I been so ready to see my boy. I finally let him down and he ran over to Josh.

The 16 hour straight drive, stopping only twice for gas/bathroom break, was well worth it in that moment.

Four and a half weeks without our Luke was a long time!