Why I love the Internet

As I was preparing for my drive to San Diego, I spent a little time online to make sure I knew how to get where I was going. Yay for mapquest and for googlemaps! I had to think about stops though that would allow for children to run free safely and not in a gas station parking lot. So I was able to find out stops that were about 2 hours apart and then looking through different websites I found parks within those cities that we could stop at. It was great! On the way south, we stopped at Cove Fort, an LDS tourist spot along I-15 that we've never stopped at before. We played in the grass awhile while I fed the boys banana and grapes and then went on a quick tour of the fort itself. I'm glad I did, it reminded me of the sites in Nauvoo(even some of the same stories like "Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite"). Then we stopped in St. George where I had found a little park just two blocks south of the gas station that we normally stop at in St. George. Ryan even found a bunny to watch until some older boys decided they wanted to try and catch it which chased it away. Then we made it into Henderson to stay with Grandma Betty for a short night. We left early the next morning to continue our journey. I was going to stop in Baker for gas, but then decided not to since the boys were sleeping and the next park stop was an hour away. Barstow. We found Dana Park and took a walk around the grounds a bit. The next stop was going to be so cool! Temecula Duck Pond! But I didn't have the heart to stop when the boys were asleep and we only had an hour until getting to our final destination. This happened again on the way out. The boys had fallen asleep so I did stop at the duck pond for only a minute before deciding to just grab some lunch and keep driving. (It was Friday afternoon and I didn't want to get stuck in busy California traffic--even though I still did). Barstow was calling my name again though by the time got too much further. I was so tired. So we found the park again and took out a blanket and laid down a bit. We were all so grateful to be able to spend more time in Henderson that night and next morning before having to get into the car for another set of 6 hours. We stopped at College Park again in St. George. No bunny this time, but a little girl that Ryan played with for a few minutes. These parks were life savers for me as well as the boys because I needed some time to close my eyes for longer than just blinking. By the time it got to our stop around Cove Fort, I just wanted to get home so I only stopped long enough to get gas and let the boys play on a giant rocking chair that I remember sharing with Oliver during our first few weeks of dating. Maybe Amber remembers...
That is why I love the Internet. Because I knew where I was going and how to get there and didn't feel clueless as I was driving which made me a safer driver(even if I didn't always do things safely-like taking photos of the boys while driving).