A Long Trip

My grandfather passed away on Wednesday morning. He was such a wonderful person I'm going to miss the heck out of him.

But I don't think he really wanted us to leave the state of Indiana when the services were done. We left Friday morning at 7 or so and drove the four hours to Terre Haute, my mom, my brother, my two babies and I all stuffed into my parents' mid-size SUV. It was comfortable, I sat in the back with the babies which was nice so I could immediately take care of their needs rather than wait to stop like usual on our trips. We stayed in a hotel, attended calling hours which started at 3 and went up until the servie which started at 7, got back to the hotel, ordered pizza with my two aunts and two uncles who were staying in the next room and went to bed.

Central Indiana got 10" of rain that night.

The next day, the two aunts and two uncles went back to Columbus after breakfast, ran into some lane closures due to the rain. We went to visit Grandma and everyone in Shelburn one more time, and found out that since the others got through that I-70 between Terre Haute and Indianapolis was closed all together. And all county roads.

So we mapped a route that would take us an hour out of our way to the South that would take us through Bloomington to Indianapolis that way and left at about 2:30. We get that far and boom, road block. Talk to the highway patrolman, and all roads to Indianapolis are flooded. He suggests we find a restaurant and chill out for FIVE OR SIX HOURS and then check back. Um, two babies with us, not happening. Its hotel or find a new route. We start thinking of driving through Louisville because it seems like there's this line to the North when the flooding starts (and the flooding was bad). We'd been on the road two hours about then.

We stopped at the Olive Garden in Bloomington (by the way, the babies can sit in restaurant high chairs now!) and my dad who'd stayed behind in Shelburn for one more day found a new route, I-50 to Cincinnati and up to Columbus from there.

So at 10:30 we pulled into my condo. 8 hours for a 4 hour trip (counting dinner). And we were moving 90% of the time, stuck in traffic hardly at all.

The good news is, we had plenty of formula on hand and the babies handled it great. (And so did I, since I was the real worry with the way I usually break down on trips).

And since there was crazy flooding in their area but their house was fine, there's a chance my Grandma has evacuees as houseguests. I guess that's as good a way to deal with grief as any!