Last month, we had a fantastic opportunity to take a trip to the northern part of the US. This trip was unexpected and pretty much planned at the last minute, but it turned out to be a wonderful experience for our family. Amid all the craziness that has been this year so far, this was a bright spot for us!
When everything began shutting down due to COVID back in March, the building where Chris works was closed indefinitely. That meant a big change for our family as he had to start working from home. At that time, the company he works for also decided to suspend all travel for a few months, meaning all site visits that Chris and his team generally make throughout the year were put on hold.
After nine weeks of working from home, Chris returned to his office on May 19th. At that time, he was only permitted to work two days a week in the office, but travel was not yet being approved. However, that changed fairly quickly and some travel began being approved at the beginning of June.
One of Chris's team members needed to make a trip to Mankato, Minnesota, and for various reasons Chris needed to accompany him. However, the company would not approve for them to fly or drive together. When Chris found out he would need to drive his own vehicle, he decided to invite us to go along with him.
I wasn't sure about everything at first. I mean, for starters, we'd have to leave only a week after Chris brought the idea up with me. Also, he wanted to take some days and sight-see in the area, but we weren't sure of what would even be open and available at that time.
There was also another major factor playing into our decision. I'll write more about this later, but we are planning a trip to Disney World later in the year (the kiddos DO NOT know), and we have no idea if that's going to happen or not due to COVID and shut-downs. I didn't want to pass up an opportunity to take a trip this summer, then also not be able to go to Disney later in the year. Chris knows my love for travel and that it doesn't take much to talk me into taking a trip, so after just a little persistence on his part, I agreed that we should all go to Minnesota!
After a long evening of planning, I got our itinerary all put together. Chris had to be at the facility in Mankato on Tuesday, June 30 at 5:30am. It is a 9.5 hour drive from our house to Mankato, so we decided to make the drive on Monday, June 29. We had never attempted that long of a drive in one day since having all the kids, but we were feeling adventurous and decided to go for it!
Knowing from experience how a drive can take much longer than the "drive time", we determined to leave the house at 5:00am that Monday to ensure we would be arrive in Mankato that day.
We pulled out of our driveway at 4:55am! Win!
Once of the really nice things about leaving super early for a road trip is that the kids are calm for the first several hours of driving. We were able to burn up some road for a solid three hours before making our first stop. We also got to see the sun rise :-).
The kids had only known about the trip for a few days, but they were excited! We had been at home SO MUCH throughout the months prior to this, and we were all ready for some adventure. Tia had given them each a "surprise ball" for the trip, and just before 9:00am we told them they could open them. The balls were layers and layers of colored crepe paper with a tiny prize in the very center. They had a blast unwrapping them, and our van definitely came alive after that, haha.
So. Much. Crepe. Paper.
We drove north through Kansas City and into Iowa. At the first rest stop in Iowa, we pulled off to stretch and Chris tried to clean up alllllll the paper.
Around 11:30am, we stopped at a pretty, wooded rest stop in Iowa for a lunch picnic. The weather was perfect and the kids loved being to run around before and after eating.
First time in Iowa!
Brianna, Brooke, Brenson, Brecklyn
The Iowa Welcome Center was closed due to COVID, but we had to get a pic with the sign!
Even though the Welcome Center was not open, thankfully the bathrooms were. On our way to the bathroom, Brianna spotted some payphones and asked me what they were. This made me laugh so much! Her mind was blown, haha!
After lunch, we hit the road again for a full afternoon of driving. The kids were being great, but I came across this meme on FB and had to laugh. Sometimes, this is the TRUTH!
I thought the trek across Iowa would feel really long, but it wasn't bad at all. Mid-afternoon, we stopped at another rest stop for a bathroom break, stretch break, and to let the kids run off some energy.
Spelling IOWA with their arms :-)
It felt so good to stretch!
Just after 3:30pm, we crossed into Minnesota. Sadly, the visitor's centers in Minnesota were also closed, but we were able to use the bathroom and get a photo. We were making excellent time!
Brenson, Brecklyn, Brooke, and Brianna
Yay for Minnesota!!!
We arrived in Mankato just before 5:00pm. The entire trip was super smooth, and we were so grateful for that! We got settled into our hotel room, then decided to meet up with Chris's coworker, Eddie, for an early dinner. Because many places are doing carry-out orders only, we called a few places to find one that had their dining room open. We ended up going to Olive Garden as they were open with limited seating. However, we were a party of seven and they were not allowing that many to sit together. We had to split into two booths (that were separated by a curtain), so I sat with Brooke and Brecklyn in one booth while Chris, Brianna, Brenson, and Eddie sat in the other booth. I have truly tried to respect all the COVID policies that have been recently implemented, but this one just made NO sense to me and I was pretty annoyed. However, our kiddos love Olive Garden, so they were happy and ate well.
My dinner dates: Brooke
and Brecklyn
Once dinner was over, we headed back to our hotel room to relax. It was a long day of driving, but we couldn't have asked for a smoother trip. We hoped that day one was an indicator of good things to come on this trip, and *spoiler alert* it was!
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