God & Caffeine

As I had mentioned in my last post, Missy and I decided it would be best for Riley if we drove through the night to Michigan for Thanksgiving. We left at around 6:00 pm on Tuesday night. We promptly ran into a wall of traffice 10 minutes from our house. We were 25 minutes behind schedule before we paid our first toll. HOwever, from that point forward, it was pretty clear sailing. I had nervously anticipated this trip for several weeks. I was excited at the prospect of roadtripping with Missy, drinking bad coffee and 24 hour gas stations, and seeing the sun rise. The anticipation of seeing family that we had not seen for a few months also helped. I was also nervous as to how Riley would do with riding in a car..........for 12 hours..........backwards..........strapped in.

As it turned out, the trip went very well. I drove the first 9 hours or so with little problem. Missy jumped in and promptly drove for 3 hours in the rain. But she did great. And I think the big reasons for our great trip are listed in the title of this blog.......in that order.

We had a lot of people praying for us (including us) that our trip would go smoothly and we would stay awake. And we did. I could feel the prayers as we went. I could also feel the 32 oz. Coke I drank along the way. That kept me awake without any problems.

The problems came when we decided to take the same strategy home. We determined that to keep Riley's schedule as normal as possible (and thus keep us as sane as possible), we would drive through the night again on Saturday evening.

This time Riley had contracted what sounded like emphysema. I was sick (a lack of sleep on Tuesday night combined with sharing a room with a sick child did me in). The anticipation of seeing Missy's family was gone. No part of us wanted to leave on Saturday night. But still we left. And once again we relied on God and caffeine....in that order. I honestly had a bad feeling about going back. We stopped at a rest stop somewhere in Ohio to sleep for an hour. At which point, I was convinced we would become a CSI case. But we didn't. Riley had one coughing fit at around 4 am. This prompted us to roll down the windows to get him some cold air which was great for him but the frost on my hands just thawed yesterday. But other than that, the trip was even smoother than our trip out. We even stopped at Bob Evans for breakfast. And I got to see the sun rise.

I hope we won't have to make a trip like that again for while. I am looking forward to this weekend to finally catch up on sleep (though with a child that may have to wait a few years to actually happen). However, when we do have to roadtrip it again through the night, I know that we will be able to make it through because of God and caffeine.....in that order.