Well, that was a stressful roadtrip!

*A little break from Ds related posts*

I mentioned before that Saturday I went to man a booth for La Leche League at what I thought was going to be a baby fair. Well, as Paul Harvey used to say, "here's the rest of the story..."

Friday evening, Doug decided that the boys would have more fun staying home with him, so I was on my own for the little roadtrip with Ella. Sometimes, she's okay in the car. Usually if it's just a short drive or I time it with her naps. I had hopes that we'd get her morning nap on the way there and afternoon nap on the way back. I rushed around in the morning getting everything packed for the day and headed out the door 15 mins later than I wanted to. Ella was tired, so I figured she'd fall asleep a few miles down the highway.

She was content about 10 minutes, then started screaming/crying because she was tired. I kept hoping she'd fall asleep so I just kept the car quiet and whispered shh shh to her. Suddenly, it caught my eye that the low fuel light was on. Crap! Didn't think to check that before we left town! I pushed the dash button to display how many miles till empty... ZERO! Oh shizzle! At this point, I was half way to Wichita and had passed the last gas station by miles, with no more ahead for several more miles.

I grabbed the cell and called Doug.
"When it says zero miles till empty, how many more miles can you actually drive?"
"Um, maybe 2 or 3."
"F-bomb, F-bomb, F-bomb!"
"Where are you? Did you pass Haven?"
"I'm in the middle of nowhere!!! Yes, I passed Haven awhile ago. And Ella has been crying for the last 20 mins now! I can't pull over to console her because I'm afraid I won't get the car to start again! I don't know what to do!"
"Just keep driving as far as you can and if you don't make it call me and I will see if someone in Wichita can drive out to give you gas."

Now I'm in tears, too. I start praying to God that I can make to the next gas station. Yeah, I know, he has nothing better to do than grant gas-guzzling prayers. It was 38 degrees outside and I had just dressed Ella and myself in light coats. Wasn't too excited about the thought of hiking with a baby to a gas station along the highway.

Somehow we managed to drive 15 miles after that point to the gas station and coasted into the pump bays. Five minutes before I pulled in, Ella finally fell asleep, only to wake up when I stopped the car to get gas. When I got back in and started the engine to keep going, she realized that I wasn't getting her out and began crying again. After ten more minutes of crying, she fell asleep again just as I located the building for the fair.

I tried carrying her in without waking her up, but as soon as we got into the very noisy building she was wide awake. I found our booth and was amazingly only 20 mins late for the event, but luckily the other leader had everything under control already. PHEW!

My adrenaline settled down and I had a nice afternoon chatting with Katelin while our daughters played together. Unfortunately there was quite a bit of misunderstanding about the exhibit. It wasn't a baby fair, it was a breast cancer/health awareness fair. And we didn't have a booth in the main room with the other exhibitors, we had a separate room at the end of the hallway full of rooms where they were giving free breast exams. I guess that was the "boob wing" of the fair. So we didn't really get to our target market (pregnant/new mothers) and didn't get much activity in our room, other than a nice visit from fellow leader Maureen, who brought her three kids including 4 week old new son.

Ella setting up chairs in our booth. ;)

Katelin chatting with our translator.

Maureen's daughter, Rosie, checking out the toys.

Maureen with her sons.

(Yes, she's nursing!)

Our two little one year olds had a good time toddling down the halls and smiling at the other exhibitors, so the afternoon went really fast.

As we packed up for the day, Katelin and I both had our girlies in carriers and they both dozed off. Ella unfortunately woke up when I buckled her into the car, then went to sleep again about 20 mins from home. She had a nice nap with daddy when we got home, too.

you just never know how the day is going to turn out!