Virginia is for Crazy People

Reader Contribution by Benjamin Baer
1 / 2
2 / 2

Well, folks, we made it! We left Austin, Texas, at 5:45 a.m. CT on December 3rd, and arrived at our destination in Charlottesville, Virginia, on December 4th at 1:30 p.m. ET. The vehicle was packed, I mean, packed! Nothing else was fitting in our SUV. But, to be honest, considering we had three dogs, one cat, and a 6-week-old baby, it really wasn’t that bad. I still think my wife and I are crazy for this undertaking, and I’m sure everyone else does too, but here we are, safe and sound in Virginia! 

We did get off to a pretty rough start. …… Our baby wakes us up every morning between 3 and 4 a.m. Every single morning (ah, the joys of parenthood). So, I didn’t bother setting an alarm knowing we’d be up well before 5 a.m., which was our intended departure time. Well, guess who decided to sleep in for the first and only time ever? She actually slept until 5 a.m., which was totally shocking, and kinda amazing, of course, she hasn’t done that since, buy oh well. Still, it wasn’t a big deal, by any means, we weren’t in a rush or anything, it just got us off a little later than planned. But we got everyone loaded up, and were on the road by 5:45 a.m. 

Everything seemed to be going well, until we reached Waco, where we needed to stop because the baby was throwing one of her fits. This was the first of several backseat diaper changes, and this one, the first, was also the worst. It was one of the, as my wife and I have started calling them, “blow outs.” I will let your imagination paint the picture of why we may refer to a dirty diaper as a blow out, I don’t think that description is necessary here. Anyways, yes, the first diaper change of the trip was a blow out, in addition, something was going on in the back of our vehicle that had the dogs going crazy. So, while my wife is changing the blown out diaper, I decide to see what has got them all hot and bothered. Turned out, the tupperware container of cat food had come open, and there was cat food everywhere, and Freddie (you remember him, right?) was going nuts trying to chow down on it through his kennel, meanwhile, Brownford is trying to sleep, and Hershel is wondering what the heck are we doing?!

So, at that point, my wife and I were wondering, “What the heck are we doing? This trip is going to take us five days to make!” But, it didn’t, and from there, the trip got so much easier and was a really smooth ride! Our baby was so well behaved, she had her moments where she wasn’t happy, as any baby would, but for the most part she was great. The dogs must have sensed the stress my wife and I were under, because after that first incident with the cat food, they were great. Most of the trip you wouldn’t even have known they were in the back of our vehicle. Even the cat, who meowed nonstop for the first few hours, quieted down and was well behaved. I think he actually may have gone into some state of shock, because every time I checked on him, he didn’t look so good. But he was all back to normal after a few days in a home. A matter of fact, yesterday morning he knocked over the Christmas tree, which is actually pretty standard for him and this time of the year. 

  • Published on Dec 21, 2013
Tagged with: Reader Contributions
Online Store Logo
Need Help? Call 1-866-803-7096