Plus 900 more

Last weekend, Oliver and I took another trip east, this time to Charlotte for my friend Tricia's baby shower. We took the Civic instead of the new Subaru because it gets better gas mileage and we didn't really need the extra room the Forester would afford. And I planned the trip there over two days. We hit the road late morning on Thursday. In what is becoming mommy-Ollie tradition, we stopped at the Cracker Barrel for lunch (and same on the way back -- hey, they're everywhere in TN!). Ollie likes to get a side of green beans and even ate half a plain pancake (cut up very small). On Thursday we drove as far as Asheville, where we spent the night in the lovely Rodeway Inn. I had joked with Wes before leaving that I should put Oliver to sleep in the bathroom so that he couldn't see me after I put him down and would be more likely to sleep well. Prophetic words, I guess. We ended up in a handicap accessible room, which meant we had an enormous bathroom with a large shower stall and no lip. I wound up rolling the crib in there just before his bedtime and had him sleep in there with the door cracked to get some air circulation. This did pose a problem when I needed the toilet in the middle of the night, but he definitely slept better being apart from me.

We got back on the road Friday morning and drove to Davidson, where we walked around campus. I got to see Linda Gurley in the community service office, ran into Wes's baseball coach, and had lunch with my former German advisor. I even ran into one of my former English professors in the hall. I was astounded when she immediately recognized me, but I guess that's Davidson. The campus is only more beautiful than when we were there. Freshman orientation was two days underway, and it was funny to watch the parents walking around with their kids.

Early afternoon I took off for Charlotte by way of Concord Mills, the big outlet mall in the area. I finally reached where I was staying for the weekend by 3pm. I got to visit with Tricia's mom, sister, and nephew for a while before Tricia and her husband arrived after work. It was really nice to get to stay with Tricia's sister. Kathryn is a mom, too, and now expecting her second. She let me help with the shower (I did the games!), and staying at her place meant I got to see lots of Tricia and her family. Plus, since Kathryn has a son, all the kid-necessities were already there, which meant we could travel lighter. Tricia's husband kindly took care of Oliver upstairs while the shower was going on. They made an appearance for Oliver's lunch, but otherwise Trey kept him happily engaged for the duration.

The trip back was in one fell swoop. It didn't go as well as the trip there, owing, I'm sure, to the extra two or three hours of doing it all at once. We actually stopped 15 minutes from home at a Wendy's because Ollie was so worked up.

I don't have any plans to take another 900+ round trip by myself with the baby any time soon, but it was wonderful to get to see so many friends. For now, Ollie and I are putting away our traveling bags.