The Flight to Arkansas

A few months ago, my cousin Alex called and asked if my kids would be in his wedding. We were thrilled. The monsters LOVE Alex and Brooke. The wedding was scheduled a few days after Christmas... in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. 

Do you know where that is? I didn't. 

Eureka Springs is in northwest Arkansas. In the Ozarks. The only thing I know about that area is all I "learned" from watching Jason Bateman's show on Netflix. 

We worked it out to fly with my Dad. Mom drove her car (and most of the luggage) to Tennessee. The plan had been for her to drive from TN to AR. But we will get to that later. 

So on the morning of the 26th, we headed down to the airport to hitch a ride on an Aerostar. 

The flight was going to take a while. So we planned to stop in Alabama for a potty, lunch and stretch break. We hunkered down with our charged up devices, new travel neck pillows and blankets. 

About 5 minutes after we took off, nature was calling me. I kept declining to answer, but the call was persistent. An hour and half into the flight, my eyeballs were filling with water. It was time to reroute this flight and put the bird on the ground. We stopped in Tallahassee... It's sad that this is the closest the monsters have come to my alma mater. But that's a different story. 

The Tallahassee airport is gorgeous. We stayed there for a little bit... fueled up the plane, used the facilities twice, walked around, stretched out. And took tons of pictures!

My potty break cost us the Alabama stop, so we ate in the plane. I have to say, Publix subs in the air are delicious! 

Reagan and I both slept for part of the second leg. She slept for probably an hour and a half. 

Riley happily played on his iPad the entire time. He had his iPod playing tunes and his iPad for games. *eye roll* I don't think he'd survive without his technology. 

I love watching her capture her world... she has tons of videos and photos from this trip.

She's being a nut and flicking my shoes.

Unfortunately for us, we had a terrible headwind. Like a 50mph one. We needed to stop for gas or we'd potentially coast into Rogers, AR. This unscheduled stop was in a place called Clinton, Arkansas. 

It's hard to see, but there is a super cool, old barn in the distance (at the tip of the wing).

Clinton is not too far from our final destination. Riley was DYING to fly in the copilot spot. He asked Stu to give up the seat. Then Riley helped Grandpa take us the last little bit. I love how much Riley loves to fly. He chats Grandpa's ear off. 

Finally, we made it. 

It was FREEZING in Eureka Springs! Real feel was in the low single digits. Bone chilling cold. Our rental car had snow on the tailgate. We loaded up and drove to our hotel. 

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