The Beelers Take a Road Trip - The First Leg - World's Largest Bass Pro!

This past spring Mike and I decided it was time for us all to have a vacation.  We planned it very strategically to allow Mike to work during his busiest season of summer projects on campus and late enough to get the students settled after campus classes began.  We thought this was wise.  He ended up taking way to much guff for us being gone at all, even though it was on the calendar from April, and that stress will forever be something we combat that sullied the vacation a bit.  I thought about not including those sentences, but this is real life - and real life isn't always magical beaches.

Our vacation was booked for 6 nights in Dauphin Island, Alabama.  We rented a beach condo from some very sweet Church of Christ friends and it was a perfect fit for our family.  Lest I get ahead of myself, though, we drove to the beach in two days, so the first night we stopped in West Memphis, Arkansas.

We left at 5 a.m. Friday and drove hard - not because we needed to, but because there weren't any rest stops, and we didn't want the germs of congested gas stations.  Evalynn ended up with a cold the Tuesday before we left.  It seemed like it was clearing up, so we went ahead with our plans, but we also didn't want her to spread germs or get additional ones.  

We made it to West Memphis by 2:30 in the afternoon and our hotel let us check into our suite early. 

We stayed at the Comfort Suites, and while it had enough beds/sleeping areas in our suite for our family, it was not sparkling clean, and I wouldn't recommend it or stay there again.  It was "okay," not great, if that makes sense.

After we checked in, unloaded, and had a Wendy's snack (the children had done great eating out of the cooler and snack bag all day and were ready for some meat), we hopped back in the bus and drove over the mighty Mississippi River into Memphis, Tennessee to visit the world's largest Bass Pro Shop.

Memphis seemed pretty and I would have loved to explore more, but the kids were just tired and Ev was about spent, so the Bass Pro excursion was enough.

There was a lot to see in the Bass Pro, and the children had vacation money from both sets of grandparents, so they were eager to see it all and shop.  Luckily it was not busy at all and we never felt "close" to other people, including when we checked out.  We paid to ride the elevator to the top of the pyramid and see the riverfront from the sky.

Natalee used my phone to take some photos.  She had said she didn't want a camera (the other 3 bought one before vacation) and then regretted her decision, so I tried to share with her.

Mike tried to take a picture of me with the kids.  Such good posing.

All of the children chose toys at Bass Pro except Natalee who chose a shirt and fudge.

After this outing we headed back to the hotel to start a round of early showers.  They were eager to open their toys, and by this point Ev was spiraling down.  She actually spiked a fever that evening, and had me questioning every choice, including the wisdom of our vacation at all.  She was pretty snotty, and if you know me, you know that my kids being sick just makes me pretty all around anxious.  She and I ended up sitting up in a chair in the hotel room all night - she dozed and I prayed.

We let Ev play and unwind in the shower for a long time Friday night.

Ev seemed better Saturday morning, leading me to believe the fever was partly stress and fatigue related (rooted in her cold, I'm sure) from a day of travel.  We decided to go ahead for two reasons.  We were closer to the condo than home, and once we got there she could relax and rest with no demands.  It's very difficult for me to ever feel like anything is "just a cold" anymore and I know I overthought everything about her not be 100%.

We weren't up super early Saturday, but were on the road by about 8:30.  We got the kids a drive through sandwich, since our hotel (that was supposed to have breakfast included) was using COVID as an excuse to hand out a brown bag with a granola bar and fruit cup as "breakfast."

Saturday was electronics day in the bus and the children watched movies and played games.  I eventually moved back by Ev to help her be happy, and Xavier (her seat buddy) went to sit with Natalee to watch Wonder.

Our four oldest children were wonderful travelers.  Such good troopers and we were all really thankful for the space that the bus afforded us.

Day 2 of travel ended with a stop at Wal-Mart at about 4:00 p.m. in Mobile, AL for me to grab the needed groceries for the week, and then there was only about 40 minutes left of anticipation before we saw the Gulf of Mexico and arrived at the beach!