a long ride home

On Saturday, we left Myrtle Beach at 6:20 a.m.  We had decided to drive straight home instead of stopping like we had on the way down.  For the most part, the boys did a pretty good job behaving themselves.  We stopped for breakfast at a place called Biscuitville.  How could it not be delicious?  They were making fresh biscuits every 20 minutes.  They were so good!  The boys were taking turns using my husband's I Pad.  They had movies on it to watch and they were playing Angry Birds.  An occasional fight crept up from time to time, but a simple threat of taking the I Pad usually was enough to stop the tension.  When it was time to stop for lunch, Bob wanted to go to a "real" restaurant like Chili's and SJ wanted to go to McDonald's.  We didn't want to go to a sit down restaurant, so SJ won that battle.  The boys got food from McDonald's while my husband and I opted for Burger King.  An hour later (the Burger King employee was perplexed by my plain chicken order), we were back on the road.  When we got to West Virginia, the ride seemed to progress at a snail's pace.  We had to travel through all of West Virginia to get back into Pennsylvania.  After about 8 hours, the boys started to get restless again.  We stopped for dinner at another Burger King and fortunately the service was much better.  We ate in the car as we continued our journey home.  During the last four hours, SJ started to become very whiny.  We kept telling him to go to sleep, but he would not rest.  When it was Bob's turn to use the I Pad, the whining got out of control.  He and Bob started fighting and it got too much for me to take.  He wouldn't give the I Pad to Bob and Bob was beginning to name call.  I had to confiscate it.  They had a 15 minute break from electronics and we had some silence in the car.  It was wonderful.  At some point in West Virginia, we got out of the car to visit a bridge overlook.  We thought it would be good for the boys to stretch their legs and get some fresh air.  SJ wanted nothing to do with it, but we made him go anyway.  After 10 hours in the car, anyone can get a little cranky!  After we finished at the overlook, we began the home stretch of the journey.  We spent another 2 hours in the car.  The last two hours were difficult for everyone, but I could tell SJ was itching to get home.  When we passed into Pennsylvania, we all got a little burst of energy.  We started talking about our trip and what were our favorite things we did.  SJ and Bob both agreed that it was the go-cart riding.  My husband enjoyed swimming in the ocean.  Mine was getting to spend time with our extended family.  We pulled into our driveway at 6:30 p.m.  The 12 hour ride was over.  If the long ride is the worst part of a vacation, it is a well deserved sacrifice!