Day 899 - Hitting the Road: Our Family's Travel Week 1 🛣️ (FL, GA, TN, KY, IN, OH)

Sunday, June 11th, 2023 - Saturday, June 17th, 2023

First week of our 3-week roadtrip 

Sunday was just a day of packing. James tried chicken for the first time. More playing with it than eating. On Monday morning Mom had an ultrasound appointment and received the continued good news that our baby girl is right on track and everything looks good. Heartbeat is 158 BPM. She was moving around so much it was hard for the tech to get a good picture. 

Monday - FL 🚗 GA

We started on the road around 4:30pm and just wanted to drive a few hours. We ended up in Tifton, GA. Let's just say it was only to sleep. 😂 Originally we wanted to make it to Macon but we also needed to get to the hotel by 8pm to start his nighttime routine and Mom also needed to do her Lovenox shot at the same time every night. James needed oxygen at night and during naps in the car. Our portable oxygen concentrator was so much better than dealing with tanks or an extra large home concentrator. Unfortunately in the middle of the night James broke out in a fever. 🥵  We kept an eye on his temp, checking every few hours. We started Tylenol and Motrin around the clock. ⏰

Tuesday - 🚗 GA 

Tuesday morning we started to head to Blue Ridge, GA. If we did this trip again we would have skipped Blue Ridge because it was really out of the way for us and we didn't get to see much. Wednesday morning Dad had a work call while we had late checkout. Before getting back on the road we visited a local orchard. It was strawberry 🍓 season. We bought some amazing cider and baked goods. 🥧 We realized we wouldn't be able to do a drive longer than 5 hours which made us need to change our plans to stay on schedule. James needed constant entertainment and we didn't want to just put up the tablet. He didn't feel good and at time his fever was 103.5. It was better to do 2-3 hour trips with a break and then another 2 hours at max. Getting out of Blue Ridge took forever. There was a crazy thunderstorm, we were trying to get down a winding mountain road, James was screaming, and Mom had a migraine.

Wednesday - GA 🚗 KY

Originally we planned to go to the Cincinnati Zoo but we were only going to make it to Lexington, KY on Wednesday evening. We stopped in Knoxville, TN so Mom could go to a walk-in clinic. She had a sore throat and with James' fever she figured it would be a good idea to get checked out. Ended up being negative for COVID, strep and the flu. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Huge shout out to the efficiency of the Knoxville CVS Minute Clinic. Dad let James drive the car while they waited. We did get lost going there and ended up at a military base. Sometimes the GPS wasn't helpful. The hotel in Lexington, KY was brand new, nothing is better than a clean hotel. Another thing that you don't think of is the fact we required a bath tub for James. We bought his bath chair and sometimes hotels would only have showers, so it was just something we needed to request.

Thursday - KY 🚗 IN 🤗

🛣️ We had a long drive on Thursday! We needed to drive from Lexington to Indianapolis and then reach South Bend in the evening. Before reaching Indianapolis we stopped in Cincinnati to go to a grocery store to grab a quick lunch. James loved Wegmans. It was a nice stretch break. There is just so much to see at a grocery store! In the afternoon, we stopped the meds because James' fever subsided. We did however add the Farrell bag because James had been leaking too much. 

Around 5pm, we finally reached our first destination in Indianapolis to visit with friends. James met Aunt Robin's best friend Emily and her lovely daughters Maggie and Sophie. Mags was so good with James we would hire her to babysit no question and she's only 8 years old. 🌳 James was able to play on their swingset outside and scoot on their grass in the backyard. 🛝 This was his first time on this type of grass. We know we is allergic to Bahia grass but not other Florida grass like Bermuda grass or Timothy grass. We assumed that since the grass in Indianapolis was probably Kentucky Blue and was much softer that he would be fine. We got into South Bend, IN pretty late. Our room had two king beds but we walked in we only saw one. We didn't even notice that there was a staircase and a second floor with the second king bed. Crazy! We always needed to request two beds and one of us always slept with James on one with a towel rolled up underneath the sheet to create a makeshift bed railing.

Friday - IN 🤗

🥞 On Friday morning we had breakfast at the famous Original Pancake House in South Bend with Great Aunt Kay and Great Uncle Jack (Juju's siblings). James was very loud and was communicating with another toddler across the room. Afterwards we went over to house to visit and catch up. James just wanted to explore and scoot around the house. 

We briefly stopped at the hotel before visiting because we forgot the ice packs for his formula. We decided to stick to a schedule where we did 9 hours of formula at night and 9 hours during the day, both with ice packs. Then we would do 2 additional hours of formula in the evening, typically between 9pm-11pm. If you are following along that is a total of 20 hours of formula. He then gets the other 4 hours of water, typically in the morning between 8am-12pm. That's what we've been doing. James has been getting fed in his G and it has been leaking quite a bit. We thinks it's just because his button is a little loose. Also we think there is a hole because everytime we check it there is less water and it's cloudy (meaning there is stuff getting inside). 

We stopped by a restaurant and picked up dinner for our next visit. In the car Mom noticed that James had a pretty bad rash starting. We were pretty positive it must have been from the grass exploration the day before. 🫤 We started James on Benadryl right away. Next, we visited at "Aunt" Karen's house, Juju's best friend. James also met her daughter Mary and two of Mary's daughters Alexis and Brooklyn. James loved playing with the cat toys and scooting around on the floor. Mary gave us some much needed medical supplies and was able to help us out with additional Farrell bags. We didn't think we were going to use them and we didn't bring enough with us for a 3 week trip. 

Saturday - IN 🚗 OH

Saturday morning we headed to the South Bend Farmer's Market. 🌽🚜👨🏻‍🌾 James absolutely loved the local musicians playing guitar outside. 🎸 He also liked seeing all of the flowers, fruits, and vegetables. 🍎 There was a lot to look at! We probably bought too much because we already had a car full of snacks but it was hard not to! Next we stopped by Notre Dame ☘️ and took a couple photos and picked up The Shirt for James to sport during football season. 🏈

After spending a day and half in South Bend, IN we headed to Oberlin, IN to visit and stay at Dad's friend from his Front Row Dad community. The Smith family welcomed us into their home and 70 acre estate. 🏰 James met his two sets of twins, also IVF babies. The kids were so friendly to James offering him toys and playing with him in their massive playroom. We received a tour on a 6 seater mule which was like a souped-up jeep golf cart. We drove through their trails in the woods 🌲, saw baby racoons 🦝, drove by their stocked pond 🐟, an orchard 🌳, their bee apiary 🐝 as well as saw their new goat barn and chicken coop. James also met ducks 🦆 up close and petted baby chicks. 🐣 🐥 They cooked an amazing dinner for us with food right from their garden. 🍓 It was an great experience!

Tomorrow we will get back on the road! 🛣️ 🚗

Dried Mango 🥭

Tifton, GA

P.S. You can email James your love and support as often as you’d like. Mom and Dad read these email to James as they come in. We all love them! JamesWestonAbramowitz@gmail.com