Following the wind with a baby

Admittedly, it has become significantly more difficult to travel on a whim with a baby. For our first year most of our trips were to go see family members. It involved me being a crazy mother packing 4 bags, a stroller and a pack-n-play...just for my daughter. Dave became a pack mule having to lug all of these things to the car and try to figure out how to fit everything. It would take me another two hours to get out of the house and then we would stop about two times along the way. Don't even have me start on how I would get car sick just because I would keep looking back into the mirror to make sure our daughter was alright. Mind you, she would usually sleep throughout the entire trip. By time we would get to our destination I would be exhausted.
Yesterday my daughter turned 18 months and things have gotten better. We are down to two bags, and closer to an hour late. I figure that at this rate in another 6 months we should be down to one bag... and about on time??
Now that my daughter is a toddler I focus more on clothing since she seems to be able to find a way to get messy in no time. So one bag is devoted to that and the other is supplied with food, drinks, diapers, wipes, and other supplies. So far so good. The only problem now is the fact that she doesn't want to sleep on the trip anymore, she wants to see what is going on and gets restless after a while in the car. So we need to stop a little more often. But, this has become a blessing in disguise! We get to follow the wind in a whole new way. Instead of just stopping anywhere we look for something different. If it is time to eat then we look for a cute little place to eat at. If we just need to get out and walk a little we look for parks or little attractions. We have now been able to see even more this way!
So granted even though it takes us a little more motivation and time to get out of the house, once we are out we are getting to see things on a whim in a whole new way! This was the case with our Marblehead trip last week. Actually, thanks to her, we missed being in a huge storm! That will be explained more in the next posting.