The End of The Middle

As a precursor to the whole Minnesota adventure, I had gone down to a Verizon kisok sort of thing here on base and added text messaging to our plan. So as I'm getting ready to leave Carol's, Jimmy texts me and says to make sure I do the Bismarck route we had discussed... where I stay on 94 all the way to Bismarck and then hang a right and go north on 83 the rest of the way home. I wrote back double-checking because I didn't want to get lost again. And it really did sound a lot easier than going the way I normally do, which involves a straggling diagonal across the state before hitting the 94.

I managed to hit the end of the rush hour traffic leaving St. Paul. A little nerve wracking, mostly because I have Lochlan who is crying in the background. Everything is going cleanly... light dustings of snow around St. Cloud and a little further. I stop to feed Lochlan. Get gas. Etc.

By the time I hit Fargo, I'm starting to feel just a bit weary. After all, it was around 10pm ish, maybe a little later, and I had been in the car forEVER. Jimmy texts asking if I had arrived in St. Paul yet since I hadn't responded to that question earlier. I wrote back saying I was half way home. Also around that time Caayn calls me. Sully is super super constipated (this had been a continuing situation of many days) and he was getting ready to go plunk him on the toilet so we got off the phone... (yes, my boy who is not potty-trained at all can poop on the toilet, even though he won't pee on it; how lucky am I?!) He called back to let me know how that went (I love being a parent, who else calls to talk about poop?) and he said, "Are you in the car?" I tried to act shady. Needless to say he spoiled the surprise and the decision was made that he'd stay up and wait for me.

Those last four hours were pure hell. I pulled over a couple of times at rest areas, thinking I'd take a nap. But by the time we'd be there, I was feeling more alert and awake, so I'd carry on. The last time I stopped, I was feeding Lochlan and saw the snow start coming. It wasn't heavy. But I figured I really ought to go on.