Destination: Isle of Palms

Our travel proved not to be quite the adventure I was anticipating, thankfully. While we did encounter a few bumps in the road, the drive took just around 9 hours, as projected.

We left at 7:00 pm after Roscoe was fed, bathed, pj'd, nursed, and snugly situated in his car seat--blankie, books, and all. We stopped at Starbucks for drinks and treats, and then jumped on I-95 where we averaged a speed of 17 miles per hour for about an hour. After that, we hightailed it to SC, arrived to a batch of hotels around 12:30 am and quickly realized why not booking ahead is a bad idea. Three hotels in a row, all full to their brim. We got lucky (if you can call it that) and squeezed a fifty dollar space out of a fourth motel located just before the on ramp.

It was raining, and while Roscoe had slept soundly for the entire 6 hours he woke with a fury when the car stopped, clawed at the blanket we had draped over him to repel the water, and then remained disoriented. He wanted nothing to do with sleeping separately from us, and we alternated for at least an hour between the swing and our bed with no luck. Even nursing was unsatisfactory.

By the time 3:30 am arrived, both Andy and I had submitted to the fact that perhaps we would not be going back to sleep, after all. In fact, at only a fifty dollar loss, we discussed getting back in the car and resuming the drive.

Then, without rhyme or reason (besides exhaustion), Roscoe fell asleep--I'm not sure of the time. By 6:30 am he was awake again, and so were we!

The last leg of the trip was just under 3 hours and Roscoe (and I) slept the entire way.

We drove straight into downtown Charleston, dipped into a fantastic fountain, ate lunch at a local bakery and eventually found our way to our home away from home located just a few steps from the sand. The rest of our family arrived throughout the afternoon, and the boys got reacquainted making the beach their private playground.