Shopping: A new plan

So we did another marathon shopping trip today -- the details don't really matter, but I'll provide them anyway. We left home around 11:30, stopped in Inyokern so Rocket Boy could get some things at the hardware store, and went on to Tehachapi to go to the excellent German bakery (http://www.kohnenscountrybakery.com/) there (that's about 75 miles from Ridgecrest). We got bread to take home, and sandwiches for lunch, which we ate outside, and the kids played in the little play area there. Then back in the car and off to Bakersfield to go to Target (another 40 miles). Yes, Target. It was huge and crowded, and we managed to buy the twins some summer shoes, along with some other miscellany that I'd been wanting. Then on to Trader Joe's (maybe 4 more miles), where we bought pretty much ALL the cereal in the store. Bakersfield was so hot and humid today. Just dreadful. Then we drove back toward Ridgecrest and stopped at Murray Family Farms (maybe 20 miles) and bought a whole lot of fruit and the kids played in the corn pit (like a mini swimming pool full of dried corn kernels -- here's a photo from the last time we went there).

Then we continued on to the exit for Keene (11 more miles) and drove past the Cesar Chavez center and on to the Tehachapi Loop, which actually had trains on it, and is one of the 7 wonders of the railroad world (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehachapi_Loop), and TRULY fabulous and DEFINITELY worth seeing, except maybe not today, when we had driven 115 miles to go to Target. Also, it was still hot. Then we drove on a winding road back to Tehachapi, where we had dinner at the Apple Shed, and then back to Ridgecrest with only one potty stop by the side of the road (there had been one earlier too), arriving home at 8:20 pm. Total mileage: about 235. Total hours spent: nearly 9. Total money spent: about $400. Total boxes of cereal: I have no idea, I just know they don't all fit in our cupboards.

And that's normal. For us. Living in Ridgecrest.

And what's also normal is that Rocket Boy and I (especially I) got terribly tired and cranky, and the twins -- who are actually MUCH better than they used to be and real troopers on the long drive -- did not understand that when Mommy has been driving for more than 200 miles and doing all that SHOPPING, she does not want to have little people in the back seat say, "I have something at my painting house. Do you know what it is? Think about it," over and over and over.

And as we were driving home, Rocket Boy said, brilliantly, "You know, the next time we need to do a shopping run, you should go by yourself and I could take the twins on a hike."

And I thought -- oh my God he's right. This trip should have been two trips. One nice weekend, we could have driven to Tehachapi and gone to the bakery and seen the fabulous Tehachapi Loop -- and then gone home. And another nice weekend, I could have gone to Bakersfield and done a lot of shopping and Rocket Boy could have taken the twins on a hike somewhere. Oh, it's so blissfully simple. In the old days it wouldn't have been so great, because the twins were harder for one of us to manage all alone. But now it's much easier, and Rocket Boy loves to take them for hikes.

So we made a pledge, and I'm writing it down here so I'll remember it. No More Entire-Family Long-Distance Marathon Shopping Trips, if we can possibly help it. Let's see if we can do this.