More research is needed

I ended my experiement and found that more research is needed:

First of all I should have done a bit more planning. I would have found that it is really 380 miles to visit my brother, not 300 miles. I turned on the GPS in my phone and realized I was wrong. Crap. Not a good way to start.

Then I should have brought more water with me. I brought one little bottle and ended up having to buy water - I hate buying water because of they are all the single serve ones (which should be outlawed as far as I am concerned).

I also have some questions for the FastLane/EZ Pass people. In Massachusetts, they are 15 mph lanes. In New York, they are either 20 mph or 5 mph. There was one toll plaza which alternated 20-5-20-5. Go figure. I have no idea either.

If one wants to go shopping on their drive, one should make sure the stores are open. I stopped at one outlet center because it was right off the highway, I wanted to run one errand and it was almost 1/3 of the way. The store is listed on the outlet center's website but when I got there, there was a little asterisk which said *Coming Soon. There was no asterisk on line. A little truth in advertising, please.

Another helpful tip is to combine potty breaks with refilling the gas tank. Its stupid to make two separate stops.

It doesn't help if you bring yogurt to eat in the car if you do not pack spoons.

The weather should have cooperated better. It snowed from Albany all the way through Syracuse not really sticking but enough to make visibility fairly poor and to have crap being thrown up from the road by the other cars. (And the stupid pedestrian who was standing on the median strip on I-90 at mile post 234 trying to cross in the snow storm, I hope you are okay. I did call 911 for you.)

I found that I needed new wiper blades as they did not clear a round area right in front of the driver's face so I needed to lean right or left, or stretch up or scrunch down to see during the snow.

Oh and on being tired, did I survive. When I arrived, I was exhausted. My right arm and shoulder were fairly tired. It is hard for me to drive with both hands on the steering wheel the whole time. One handed driving seems to work better (except when in the snow). Once I arrived, I was happy not to drive for most of the weekend.

Running around after four kids did tire me out all weekend. My brother made fun of me for going to bed early (brat). But I had fun with the kids too.

The ride home I was very tired and found my husband wasn't feeling well. I rested and then went out for a few essentials. We both went to bed early and feel better, but its snowing very hard so we are going nowhere. A good day to catch up at home and spend some time together.

Before my next trip, I will do more research, bring more food and water, and make sure I have good wipers. I'm not sure how I will do on a longer drive, even without snow.