Day 2 – On the Road
Still trying to figure out where we stuffed things in the RV. That mad dash to pack before we departed left everything in a mess. Ethan and Autumn were great help loading the RV the night before we left. They were up until 4am. I was feeling pretty guilty (as only moms can do) until I realized they stay up that late at sleepovers all the time!
Today, my wonderful helpers have turned back into teenagers. They weren’t nearly as interested in helping.
Ross only slept a few hours last night before he hit the road driving again today. We’re all a little tired and impatient.
At least it was exciting to start seeing new landscapes and scenery, as we drove across Oklahoma and northern Texas.
The canyons fascinate me. There’s no pattern to them. You can be walking along, and all the sudden, you’re looking over a cliff. (Or, if you’re walking too fast, you’re at the bottom of a cliff.) There are small mesas that are a few hundred yards long and have dropoffs that are 20 feet or so. Then, in the distance, there are massive mesas that extend for miles and drop off hundreds of feet.…
Day 1 – We’re Off
We’re on our way . . . And we’re only 26 1/2 hours behind schedule.
We had a few setbacks in the last week. Six days before time to leave, our RV rental fell through. Ugh! (and a few other choice words.) After searching every dealer who rents RVs in a 3-hour radius, we discovered there were no rentals available.
Ok, Plan B. Let’s buy a used RV . . . in 2 days.
No problem. I didn’t have anything else to do. I was just trying to leave for a month-long trip.
In order to find what we needed on such short notice, we had to drive all the way to Fletcher, Ohio. That’s 3 1/2 hours from our house. And, we had to do the deal on a Sunday. Thank goodness that Mike at Poor Farmers’s RV agreed to meet us.
I knew that buying an RV on a Sunday was going to be problematic. I tried to pre-plan and account for every variable.
Of course, this meant there were glitches everywhere – from the bank’s new cashier check system not working to the printer in Poor Farmer’s accounting office being cranky.
After four hours of Mike’s time …
The Announcement
As a parent, you yearn to make your kids happy. To clarify, you don’t just want them to be happy. You want to be the instrument of that glee. You want the feeling of exhilaration that occurs when YOU put that smile on their faces. You want the credit. Maybe that sounds shallow. Yet, if you carried that baby in your tummy for nine months (or helped your wife through pregnancy or waded through endless adoption procedures), then you deserve a little reward.
When your children are young, it’s fairly easy to be the source of their joy – an ice cream cone, a lollipop, a trip to the zoo. As they grow older, it becomes more difficult to be the hero. By the time they progress into their teens, it’s darned near impossible.
I know this first hand. My children are teenagers. Well, at 12½ years old, Autumn (my daughter), thinks she’s a teen. My son, Ethan, is 15. So, he’s official. At these ages, it’s difficult to extract any response from them – unless you text them, of course.
Perhaps this is why I’m still basking in the glow of the day I told them that we were …
Dreaming of 4 Weeks Out West
I’m a working mother, who’s harried, hurried, . . . and hungry for some quality family time. (Sound familiar?) For years I’ve dreamed of whisking my family away on some of the idyllic, memory-filled summer vacations that I enjoyed as a child. (Ah, remember those days? – no internet, no DVD players, … no seatbelts.)
This summer the dream becomes reality. My family will spend four weeks traveling the West – disconnecting from devices and schedules while reconnecting with nature and history.
We’ll set out to conquer as many Western sights as possible – from the Grand Canyon to the Grand Tetons, from the very alive Sequoias to the very dead Petrified Forest, from Yellowstone’s geysers to the yellow stars of Bryce Canyon’s night sky. We’ll be turning off the TV and turning on the grill; unplugging the iPods and pulling on our hiking boots. (Okay, Okay. The RV has a television, and the campgrounds have WiFi, but we won’t be using them all the time.)
In the end, we’ll see if my fairy-tale vision of a family getaway turns out more like “Leave It to Beaver” or Chevy Chase’s “Vacation.”
Please join us on this quintessential American vacation. Share …
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Day 15 – Still Wandering Nevada (and the Pioneer Center)
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Day 14 – Wandering Nevada (Virginia City mining)
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Day 13 – Yosemite (More Hiking)
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Day 12 – Yosemite (Unscheduled River Escapade)
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Day 11 – Yosemite (Phenomenal Views; Stupid Tourists)
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Day 10 – No RVs Allowed
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Day 9 – On the Road Again toward Sequoia
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Day 8 – Viva Las Vegas in an RV
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Day 7 – On the 7th Day, We Rested
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Day 6 – Zion Park & Tunnels with Windows