Mama and Claire (prepare to) hit the road~

In a nice way, that is.

A while back I mentioned a good friend of mine that was hiking the Mountains-to-Sea trail in it's entirety.  (Which means, basically, that she is walking clear across the state of North Carolina.  It's a pretty big state. A long, long, long walk.)  Before she left, I offered to be her ride home.  Now the time has come.

I spoke with her a few days ago when she was relaxing a bit on beautiful Ocracoke Island in the Outer Banks, and we made plans for Claire and I to come out and get her this week.  She'll finish the hike Wednesday or Thursday and my plan is to leave around 4am Wednesday morning in order to arrive at the Park Service Campground early Wednesday afternoon, and then spend Thursday exploring the coast with Claire before turning back around and driving home Friday morning.  It's an 8 hour drive, so the day of rest and relaxation will be nice.  I'm a tad anxious about the long drive with just (a still backwards-facing) Claire and I, and hoping that the obscenely early start to our trip will enable her to snooze soundly through lots and lots of miles before our first of many anticipated stops.  I've got plans to pick up some special snacks and I am also borrowing a portable DVD player from a friend and hoping that there is some magic in that, as well.

I'm generally not a 4am riser.  Not even close.  So there's that.  That, and Mike won't be getting home from the fire department until 8am on Wednesday morning so he won't be there to help nudge me out of bed and motivate me to hit the road.  But I can do it.  Really.

So that's the plan.  To be packed and ready to go by tomorrow afternoon, hit the hay with Claire tomorrow night, wake up disgustingly early Wednesday morn and hit the button on the coffee pot.  Let it do it's thing while I pack the cooler and attempt to wake up.  Gently carry a sleepy babe to the car and hope to get her into her car seat without putting her into a state of being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and off we'll go.  Sounds pretty easy.  Right?




I'll be back at the end of the week(ish) to share photos and stories from our little adventure.