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Ahh….soccer road trips!! I remember when jumping in a car and driving 10 hours to Canton OH for Warrior Classic was no big deal. We’d do 5 hours to Chicago or 3 to Kansas City out and back same day because we were too cheap to get a hotel room. But then we had a couple kids, and the road trips tapered off. We still do Chicago and Kansas City, but now we spring for the room overnight.
So when Nashville was announced, I was torn. We have a family pact to go to every game within driving distance without work conflict. I’ve driven to Tennessee before and it was NOT PRETTY. The girl I was traveling with and I got into a huge fight, and what started out really fun ended up being an unbearable ride home and the end of our friendship. But 10 hours….it’s really just outside “reasonable distance.” And the game is on a Tuesday, which in my retail world is a GREAT time to go to a soccer game. Tempting…..
So I talked to the husband. The original plan was to fly into the NJ game, drive to Tennessee, fly back to Des Moines. Two problems: 1) Holy expensive Batman! 2) NJ game was on Saturday, the unfriendliest retail day to travel. Plan A: Scrapped.
Plan B: What if we just drove to Nashville and back? 10 hours each way? With 2 kids? Hmmmm….. Well, St Louis is on the way. We could spend a day there on the way out to break up the drive. That could work.
We put Plan B in motion. Now, I should know by now that people are not good with people who live big lives. I started to talk about the trip and got several incredulous “You’re driving 10 hours? To soccer?” (I mean REALLY? Is this shocking? I flew 24 hours to South Africa. I flew 14 hours to Korea and then I was 5 months pregnant. 10 hours in a car kinda pales by comparison, don’t you think?)
So I stopped telling people about the trip (including my parents apparently…. oops, sorry, Mom). And I started just getting the kids ready. Talking to them about the trip. Letting them get crazy costumes for the game (wait until you see them!) And I’ve been getting pretty psyched up for this trip, especially after the 1 – 1 tie vs Argentina yesterday.
So now, I’m sitting in a St Louis hotel room, listening to my family snoring, thinking this trip was a genius idea. We did 6 hours of driving, no music, no videos. Think about that. Six hours. Just talking with my family. When do I ever get 6 hours to just listen to the kids chatter about the world and play old school low tech highway games. (Hey Mom! How about when we see a farm animal, we call out what animal we see!?)
So Day 1, we’re more than halfway there, and I’m already glad I came. See you in Nashville, soccer fans!
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Soccer....Family Style 