Day 4 - "Ugh"ing from Utah

There's only one problem with being around lots of family and it's a good problem; you spend way too much time gabbing. I can't blame my dad at all for taking advantage of the opportunity to talk to his brothers and sisters. We live far away and he doesn't get to see them often. But when we finally got on the road it was after 1:00 in the afternoon. A very long day on the road was ahead of us and Gary still wasn't feeling wonderful. Grandma had expressed her doubts that we would make it to Cheyenne where Jonathan and I had reservations for the night already set up. But what she seems to forget is that the Schofield family crest is very accurate; we're all bull-headed and stubborn to the bone. And Jonathan fits well within our family. Once he gets an idea in his head it's nigh unto impossible to get it out again. So I knew that no matter how long it put us on the road, Cheyenne would be the stopping point of the day. Now don't get me wrong: Jonathan is a very considerate driver. He stopped every time he was asked to without complaint. We took care of Gary and Gail as well as keeping in touch with Mom and Dad's car so that we could meet together for meals. Steven spent most of the day in the car with us watching movies with Gary and Gail or playing with them and when they were both napping, he would either talk to us or take a nap too. For the most part things were going great.

Until nightfall. Gary was starting to feel uggy again. To be honest, I wasn't feeling real great myself. I switched to the backseat to try to keep the kids content and sneak a nap. Jonathan likes to talk to me while he's driving and normally I love this time to chat together. But today I needed sleep. Having Gary sick all night had taken away several hours of sleep for both of us. Especially as he kept changing his mind on who he wanted to be with. I had planned on being a relief driver for Jonathan once we got to Rawlins, but it didn't end up happening. We stopped at a Village Inn with my folks and had dinner. My stomach was already starting to churn, so I decided I'd best stick to light, breakfast foods that wouldn't irritate me further. One sickie on the road was too many as it was.

We got back on the road headed for Cheyenne. It was late and everyone was tired. I sat in the back again with the kids, trying to keep them both calm. By now the novelty of traveling had completely worn off and the carseat was akin to the devil. Gail screamed as we put her back in the car and Gary whimpered and whined, "No. No. No! NO! NO!" It's hard to think with one child yelling at you. It's impossible with two.

Somehow I managed to get them both to sleep and I quickly took advantage of the silence to try to get a little more sleep myself. But they both woke up as we got into Cheyenne and the screaming match began all over again. We got to our hotel, gave Mom and Dad better directions to get there (I'm terrible with directions which is why I normally drive and Jonathan reads the map). Once inside, we tried to calm everyone down and get the to sleep. Tomorrow would be the longest leg of the journey and who knew what the next day would bring.

Tomorrow's post will be Day 4 - Yakking to York