Dear Google Maps

Dear Google maps,

You lied.

You said it would take about 10 1/2 hours to get to Montana from South Dakota.
That was optimistic.

I even factored in two extra hours for bathroom breaks and unknowables, and yet . . .

It took us 19 hours to get here.

Maybe we should toss some variables into your calculations.

Variable 1: Vehicle

Because we're hauling a trailer, we were rarely able to break 60.

This white box contains all our earthly belongings.

Variable 2: Sightseeing

We pulled over in Mitchell, South Dakota to stretch our legs and see the World's Only Corn Palace! only to find it had closed an hour earlier. Thankfully, I was still able to get some pics of the exterior.

🤗

Variable 3: Food stops

We had very slow service when we ate at that Chinese place. (There goes an hour+.) Lesson learned. We had pbj's for dinner after that. Hellooooooo Skippy!

Variable 4: Sleep

Stopping to sleep for an hour and a half, because we had been traveling for 12+ hours and it was 4 IN THE MORNING. Yes. That was fun. Sleeping in the car. Said no one ever.

This is what we looked like at 1 in the morning: 

Variable 5: Bathroom breaks

See the coffee in Ethan's hand above? Yep. 

4 children x 4 bladders + 2 adults x coffee x 2 bladders = Drive. Stop. Drive. Stop. Drive. Stop. Drive. Stop. Rinse and repeat.

Well, considering our circumstances maybe you didn't lie after all, but still... 19 hours?!?

Sheesh. 

North to Alaska!

We arrived in Valdez this afternoon around noon. Ethan pulled an all-nighter last night, so we covered 1,200 miles in about 26 hours. (Please remember that includes potty breaks, cat-napping, pulling the van over to resolve disputes between the girls, etc.)

During the last leg of our trip, we kept track of all the wildlife we saw. The girls would see the animals, screech with delight, then Jasmine would ask, “Can I hold him?” We would chuckle to ourselves and respond by explaining how hard it would be to hold such big animals. That was sweet of her, though. : )

We counted 104 animals in all. I wrote down the animals as we saw them, along with how many were there, then added to the number if we passed more along the way. There were:

4 Black bears
8 Caribou
1 Deer
1 Porcupine
3 Rabbit
6 Mountain goats
59 Bison
8 Geese
1 Hawk
4 Horses
6 Ducks
1 Red fox
2 Moose

I included the horses because they were free-standing along the edge of the highway as we drove through. When Jasmine saw them, she declared “He has boots!” Well, it looked like he had boots on, anyway . . .