Road Trip Stories

Before our trip even began there was some excitement. Paul and Rudy were cleaning out the car. Rudy decided to help by moving the coins that were in Paul's car into the tape deck. Paul decided to try and get them out and in the process sliced his finger. I came home from work to find Paul bleeding and Rudy crying. Not a great start to our weekend. Fortunately Paul just needed a bandaid and we were off without too much delay.

Riding in a car for almost 6 hours straight with Rudy was certainly an adventure.
On the way down to VA Rudy did much better than we hoped. He fell asleep about 30 minutes into the ride and slept for over an hour. For the next hour and a half, he was entertained by all the cars and trucks and motos and bridges we saw. We stopped for dinner about half way through the drive and of course, Rudy decided he had to pee on the potty. Fortunately the bathroom wasn’t too bad and he actually did pee. For the rest of the trip he talked about how he was going to tell Patti that he peed on the potty. The last part of our trip, just when Rudy was getting tired of being in the car, was when we crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel. Rudy loved going up, up, up and down, down, down and especially loved the tunnel part. When we exited one tunnel he would say “again”.

The ride home was more eventful. About 30 minutes into the drive, after crossing the bridge and tunnel again, he decided it was time for us to sing. Grandpa rode home with us, so Rudy’s directions were “ABCs. Mommy, Poppy, Grandpa, Rudy a-gether. Ready?” Then he would wait for us all to begin. It was cute the first time, maybe even the first 3 times. After that it was just exhausting. We initiated other songs so at least there was some variety but all singing involved group participation (although there were a few instances when he would command just one or two people to sing). Then he started to get tired and cranky. We were only about an hour into our trip but decided it would be a good time to stop and eat so that he could fall asleep when we continued.

Rudy was in a great mood while we ate – excitedly yelling about the birds walking in the parking lot and the elephant on the wall in the restaurant. While eating he stood on the bench with French fries in his hand and his arms out stretched and said “Flying. Flying. Flying. Not working.” I’m not sure if he expected some magic to happen and he would suddenly take off for the sky like the birds or what.

Back in the car, we were all ready for a tired boy to sleep. We weren’t going to be so lucky. He cried and cried and nothing would console him. We kept waiting for him to just cry himself to sleep but it didn’t happen. After about 1 ½ hours of this, he just came out of it and starting talking about the trucks and tractors we saw along the road – sometimes he can be very Jekyll and Hyde like. We made one last stop for snacks and gas and continued on our last few hours. Rudy then hit crazy mode. He decided he wanted his shoes off and then on and finally off for good. Then he needed help from Grandpa to take his socks off. After the socks came off, the toes went up to his nose and we hear “stinky!”. I am not sure by this point if my Dad was more amused, exhausted or concerned about the sanity of his grandson. But at least the end of the trip was much more enjoyable. We’re now fully prepared for our next vacation – a long drive to North Carolina – and have some idea of the possible sides of Rudy we might see and what we can do about them.