Annual Christmas visit to Michigan from Rachel's Point of View

Hi everyone, I am the guest blogger for the week, here to join the adventures and offer you yet another point of view of Jimmy’s world travels. For those of you who may not know me, I am Rachel, Jimmy’s younger (by 18 months) sister. I am currently in between undergrad at NCSU and waiting to hear from nursing school, so now I find myself having the opportunity to do some wandering around the world with  Jimmy, and living to tell about it.




My mom, Jimmy, and I take a yearly trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan every year to visit my Mom’s family for Christmas. Traditionally, we fly up December 26th and return on December 30th. This year’s trip began a new tradition: driving instead of flying. The idea initially came from my mom. Her rationalization was that between driving to the Charlotte airport, 2 flights, and a layover, it would only be a few hours longer to drive instead of fly, and would be much cheaper to drive than to purchase 3 plane tickets. For those of you who don’t know this, my mom is Dutch, and the Dutch are known for being cheap/thrifty/frugal. My mom refers to her family as her “coupon cutting family”, so I guess this was just her Dutch side coming out.




The original plan was to head out 7am on the day after Christmas. As you may have learned over these past few months, Jimmy is a night owl. His sleep schedule is permanently 3-4 hours different than mine. This is where his idea came in—why not just leave at midnight on Christmas day?, that way we can drive through the night and get there and have the whole day on the 26th in Michigan.  We all agreed that we could try this out. It was only a day later that Jimmy suggests why not leave at 6 or 7pm on Christmas day, instead of midnight? So, this was our final estimated time of departure, I’m not quite sure how I got talked into this.




We rolled out of the driveway at 7:15pm, with me at the wheel taking the 1st shift driving. A shift consists of driving until we go through a tank of gas. We are driving our Jeep, with the 3 of us, and our 2 dogs, Max and Bentley, with us as well. This was another benefit to driving rather than flying, the dogs can go with us. Bentley is a 18 pound mutt, and Max is a 75 pound lab, so this takes up quite a bit of room. After the first shift was over, my mom took the wheel, and I went into the backseat, where we conveniently had a Tempurpedic overlay mattress set up, and slept for that shift. Jimmy naturally assumed the graveyard shift, and my mom slept in the back while I sat awake in the front to keep him company. We arrived to my mom’s house in Michigan at 7:15am—a  12 hour trip, with only 2 stops for gas. My mom usually makes the trip in 14 hours, as a result of stopping at one too many TJ Maxx and outlet centers. Throughout the wee hours of the morning, Jimmy and I swear we can see the sun coming up and that it is getting light out. Dissappointingly, we realize the sun actually does not rise until after 8am, so by the time I laid down for a nap in Michigan, I didn’t see it rise.




Our trips to Michigan each year are usually fairly similar. Our favorite cousin Lindsey usually packs her bags and moves in with us while we stay here, she even took work off for it this time! Thanks Linz! Then we spend time seeing as much family as we can, as 3 of my mom’s 4 siblings, her mom, as well as all but 1 of our 8 cousins live in MI.




On the first day, after resting up, it was nice to be able to fit in a lot and see a lot of our family. First was “Aunt” Sue, who is actually our cousins aunt, who we ate lunch with. Later, we went to our my mom’s brother Tim’s house, where we got to see and catch up with our Grandma Char, Uncle Tim, Aunt Pam, cousin Allie, and cousin Lindsey. We all ordered a pizza, watched a little bit of football, and relaxed. My cousin Allie was dog sitting for the week, so we later went to the condo in downtown Grand Rapids where she was dog sitting and had a traditional game night with the cousins. We had a great time playing Sequence and Dutch Blitz (probably an unheard of game to most, but could be considered a mix between solitare and speed), which later ended when Jimmy became angry that he did not win.

Downtown Grand Rapids

The following day was the day for the traditional family Christmas party, which brought us to a day of baking. We woke up to snow (Michigan’s first of the year), which was a nice surprise, as North Carolina’s 60 degree weather doesn’t make for a promising snowfall anytime soon. My mom and I made baked ziti, broccoli salad, peanut butter cup cookies, and candy bar cushion cookies, all to bring to the family party. It is hard living so far away from our family because we only are able to see them 1-2 times a year, so this is a cherished time to see everyone. After visiting the past with the old Koeze family quiz, we ended the night with Grandma opening her presents, her giving a goat to a third world family on behalf of us, and Jimmy jumping on the “jumping bed” with our cousin’s 3 kids, Trevor, Payton, and Jaxson. 




Our day 3 began with sleeping in until lunchtime, when we met up with our Uncle Phil for lunch, which always entails hearing a few great stories. This year he had a great new  southern joke to tell, which would have to be told in person to understand, but probably wouldn’t even be understood by most of you southerners anyways. After lunch, we piddled around for the rest of the day until dinner, where we went with Lindsey and Allie to eat at a sportsbar named Uccellos. Jimmy and I decided to play their trivia, which we soon found out was impossible (in my opinion). Somehow I ended up with negative points, so I’d say it was unsuccessful. After a great dinner, we headed out for a friendly game of cousin bowling, between Jimmy, Lindsey, and I. Allie must have had more important people visiting her than her 2 favorite North Carolina cousins, because she didn’t make it to bowl with us! 3 fairly embarrassing and inconsistent games later, the only good that came from bowling was that Lindsey bowled a turkey (which is 3 strikes in a row, who does that?).

Someone ordered this at the restaurant we went to.

Day 4 of the trip is Thursday. Usually, we fly out on Friday, but due to our new and improved traveling system, once again, we plan to leave Thursday night after dinner and drive through the night. With a few more items in tow on the way back, it took even more strategic arrangement to fit 3 people, 2 dogs, and a mattress, along with the luggage. We rolled out of the driveway at 9:55PM. My mom took the wheel first, then Jimmy drove (while I slept), and on the third shift, Jimmy volunteered to drive again until he got tired, which ended up being never, because he drove the rest of the way home. Jimmy claims that one time he put cruise control on and didn’t hit the brakes once, all the way from Raleigh to Marion, so he is going to try to do the same thing now. This time, he claims made it 2.5 hours before hitting the brakes. Keep in mind that this is at 2am, so there are few cars on the road, one of the perks to night driving.




On the drive home, I rediscovered my 10 second timer on my camera, which made for some funny family pictures and entertainment, of which you can also get a glimpse of our cramped arrangement for the drive. 

Jimmy always says that when you stay up all night, times get tough just before the sun rises, but once it rises, you get a boost of energy. At 7am, we passed through Knoxville, and started coming into the morning traffic as the morning sky begins to appear. I’d have to agree with him, seeing that I didn’t sleep at all once the sun was up.




Final travel time: 12/12.5 hours each way, 3 tanks of gas (at appx. $60 per tank), for a total of  $360, and the chance to bring the dogs with us.  Arriving in our driveway at 10:15 am, with no speeding tickets or other impeding factor, I’d say driving was an overall success, and if asked if I’d do it again, I’d probably say yes, as long as Jimmy is there to talk us into it.