Non-standard Measurement for How Long Does It Take to Get to Buffalo?

I could just tell you that it took us 3 days, about 30 hours of driving, and about 2000 miles to get to John's parents' house in Buffalo, but I thought it would be fun to use a few non-standard measurements.

How long did it take us to get to Buffalo, NY?

Approximately 18 rest stops/food stops (with 6 kids that feels like forever). Only one of the rest stops was disgusting. It was in Indiana on a toll road--I thought if that is what they're getting for their toll money, they are getting ripped off.

About 28 Fill-in puzzles and 40 Kakuro puzzles. That's what I did while John drove. For some reason, reading tends to make me car sick after awhile, but doing puzzles doesn't seem to have the same effect.

702 songs on the ipod. Prior to the trip I put all of our music on my new ipod and then when we drove out of the driveway of our house I just hit shuffle. We definitely had a wide variety-anything from classical to Led Zeppelin and lots of kids' stuff and church stuff in between. It was fun to see what would be up next. Definitely the way to go for music on a trip.

10000 oz of Dr. Pepper. I didn't actually keep track but between John and I we drank a lot of it!! (Mostly diet). The girls really enjoyed the Crystal Light packets that I got them for their water bottles. They were a big hit!!

2 nights at hotels. This time we booked ahead and got suites so that there was room for the kids. That also was the way to go. Both nights we got there at about 9 or 10 at night and we didn't have to worry about finding a room. The first place we went was all booked up because of a fishing and hunting expo (popular in Nebraska). We were glad we booked ahead. That room had bunkbeds for the kids in their own little room with a tv and table/chair set. They thought that was awesome!!

134 gallons of gas. The gas prices seemed to go up as we went east. John joked that it was going up a penny a mile. But really they weren't that bad, much better than over $4 a gallon like last summer. And our van got about 15 miles a gallon which isn't bad either.

9 states: Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York

And last of all, 1 Police stop. John got pulled over in Illinois for going 4 mph over the speed limit. The cop approached on my side and made John go back to the car with him while he checked his license. He also asked if all the kids were buckled which they were. The policeman was very nice and only gave John a warning. Our theory was that they were looking for someone in a white van because we were almost pulled over again about 5 minutes later. The first policeman must have called the other guy off. John was forced to drive the speed limit the rest of Illinois.