American History Road Trip 2016 - Pre Travel Day

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Pre Travel Day – Tuesday 22nd March 2016
"Get Set….."


Just to start, I'm Lisa - the planner and reporter. Ade is my hubby and he's our driver and there's Hollie who is 16 and Louis is 14.


This was so odd.
Going on holiday and it not being an Orlando adventure.

Following 4 family trips to Orlando it was time to change things up a bit. For details of why and how, see the pre trippie.

I have to admit, there was no excitement today.
I was wishing it was Florida again, as were Ade and Louis.
Hollie was the only excited one.
I was simply going through the motions, just to get things done.



Hollie and I had been and got our holiday nails done on Friday.
We were slightly worried about them lasting but it was my birthday weekend and we were busy, so it had to be that day.
Thankfully they lasted perfectly and as I write this 5 days after arriving home, we still have perfect non chipped or missing nails.



Everything was pretty much packed. I’d got a new bag and purse for my birthday. Yellow is my new favourite colour.

So, the kids went off to school.
There were worries about them going as they both had colds. Hollie’s was now in to week 6. It kind of went but not completely but had completely come back again on Sunday, I’d kept her off the day before despite her not wanting to miss school, but she couldn’t get out of bed. She had a fat face and was just totally full of it, but she slept most of the day and that seemed to really help.

Louis was just sniffly and heady. So they both went in fully dosed up. Not the best when you have a long haul flight in 24hrs.

The morning carried on as any normal morning.
I work for myself from home so worked from 6.30am.
Ade also works from home and had taken today off.
He had a dr appointment at 9.30am to get his ears done. I can’t even type the word as it makes me feel sick.

Louis then text that he needed a protractor for a maths test for his last period. Could I take one in?
Thankfully I keep an emergency maths kit in the kitchen cupboard, but waited for Ade to get home so we could both go.
It’s a nightmare to park at school, so he waits in the carpark and I run in to reception…..yes, you can tell this has been done a few times before!

Once we’d done that, we then went to the local post office so I could drop of my work post, we also picked up a couple of trashy mags for the flight and popped in to our mini Boots next door.

Home and time to get this packing finalised and time for the first official trippie photo.


Cheese!

On watching the weather forecast it was looking to be mid 60’s most days, so we opened everything back up and took out all the thermal socks, under layers and roll necks and fleeces. You just never know with New York this time of year.



Pointless taking them if it was going to be that warm…..taking up space of all the extra goodies we could be bringing back.

We decided to use some packing bags upon recommendation of some of my lovely Dibb friends.
They were really helpful with us doing a road trip.
We packed one large suitcase for week 2 which was to be at Dad’s. So that when we arrived at his we had fresh pj’s, undies and clothes for a couple of days knowing that the washing from the first week could be done at his.
Plus we had lots of treats packed for him.

We took 2 full size and 2 cabin bags to check in.
They weighed 20 – 20 – 8 – 8 kg.
Not bad going.

I collected Hollie from school at 3.20pm as she wasn’t feeling well and didn't feel like walking and Louis wanted to walk home with his friends. (We are only a 15min walk from school).

This was feeling odd again as usually we have the car packed up now, we pick the kids up and go straight to Gatwick for Twilight checkin and to stay at the Premier Inn.

I carried on cleaning and then Ade couldn’t find the locks for the bags.
We popped out and tried our local Boots, no luck.
Popped in to Waitrose, no luck.

So we left Yateley and went to the big Tescos in Sandhurst.
We never come here so had to ask as we were wandering around with no clue.

We were all ready for food when we got back so we wandered down to our local for tea. The Cricketers.

We love it here and come here a reasonable amount. It’s about 5 mins walk away from home and the food is great and it’s really friendly.



We play this game when we come in the Summer and sit out the front on the common.
‘Pub or Church? ’



The church and pub are next to each other and share the long gravel driveway off the road.
So as people drive up and park up outside the Church we like to guess which one they are going to.
Hours of fun!



It was feeling a little real now that we were actually going back to the States.
A ‘cheers’ was in order.
Rose for me and Bulmers for him.



And lemonade for them



There was a lovely new barman/server who we got chatting to.
We played another game of guessing where he was from. None of us won…..it was Spain..….he totally fooled us on that one.

Food was yummy as always.



Cheeseburger for Louis



Plain burger for Hollie.



Gammon, Egg & Chips for Ade.



And I went for Hunters Chicken. Chicken breast wrapped in bacon with BBQ sauce with melted cheese.



It came to £34.26
We wandered back in the dark at 7.15pm.



Louis got straight in the bath when we got back.
Hollie finished packing her hand luggage and tidied her room.
We then all watched the new Modern Family from the previous night together with a cuppa.

We had a taxi booked for 5am in the morning so it was early nights.
Louis went up at 8.45pm, closely followed by Hollie.

We made sure everything was ticked off the lists.
Showered and were in bed just before 10pm, which is really good for us. It’s not unlike us to still be up midnight-1am.

We watched some ‘Talking Dead’ from the night before but I couldn’t concentrate. I was feeling so anxious about this trip.

Louis just about summed it up tonight.
When I tried to get the excitement going and asked us all
‘What are you most looking forward to? ’’.
Louis’ reply ‘’Going Home! .’
Not quite what I wanted to hear……but Ade and I weren’t far off that either.

Without giving too much away…….no need to worry…..we had the most amazing trip EVER!

[OB1LukeLucas]

Really looking forward to this Lisa, I'll miss your balcony photo in the morning but how exciting to be discovering some new views.

[EJSakaAnna]

Looking forward to this, glad you had a great trip can't wait to hear what you got up to!

[The A team]

Great start, love the new bag and purse, so bright and summery. Look forward to reading the rest.

[disneylover]

Oh Lisa I can remember your lack of enthusiasm for the trip but I'm so glad you had an amazing time. Looking forward to reading more.

[Fuellady]

I've been looking forward to this one. Lovely bag and purse, so bright and summery. Yellow is also my oldest DD's favourite colour, she would love these so if you ever get fed up of them...

Nice relaxing pre travel day, your local pub looks nice and it's great that you can walk there too

Really glad to hear that you had an amazing holiday, despite your reservations. Can't wait for the next installment

[JoJo88]

I can't believe you've started already, I'm totally impressed

I'm so glad that the trip exceeded expectations, I do remember how unenthusiastic you were beforehand. I guess when you're not expecting much, it's a lot easier to be pleasantly surprised.

Lovely photos as always Lisa!

Looking forward to more x

[Jessika]

Looking forward to this and so pleased to read you guys had the most amazing trip x

[anji]

Great start and looking forward to the rest

[twinkleshmoo]

aw Lisa I'm so glad the trip turned out to be wonderful despite your apprehension. Looking forward to reading more xx