Take Off Day.....

It certainly is hard to get a good night’s sleep when you are leaving for 6 weeks the next morning.  At 6:15 I popped out of bed and got started.  We had worked hard on Friday to get everything ready to go.  Every last piece of laundry was washed.  Don’t ask me what we slept in because my kids wouldn’t want you to know that.  OCD me can’t leave with laundry in the basket!

Most everything was laid out, organized and ready to go, so it was just a matter of dressing and eating breakfast.  I whipped up some blackberry, chocolate chip oatmeal for three of us.  The towering boy had oatmeal with peanut butter and chocolate chips.  Unhealthy little heathen.  Harrison was slow getting going, but I knew I would use that to my advantage to get a little extra OCD in before we left.  Mike did the dishes, then I sent him out to gas up the car and mail the letters.  As soon as the door shut, I whipped out the vacuum cleaner and went to work…..again.  I had already cleaned the house, but I wanted to leave it perfect.  I gave the sinks a polish, wiped the toilets down with antibacterial wipes, and swept everything.  Mike was back quickly and caught me…….He is a good husband.  He knows this makes me feel better and usually even helps me clean so I can rest easy.  I know he thinks I am a crazy, weird wife, but probably figures that it is better than a mean wife.  J

A week ago, I took inventory of the pantry, 3 freezers, and fridge.  I made a menu for the week that used every single thing that needed to be used up.  There was one tortilla left this morning.  Down to the last drop of milk that perfectly filled Harrison’s glass of milk this morning.  Hey, people.  That takes skill!  Bonus score, the freezers were defrosted and cleaned out.

Empty Fridge
 

 

We delivered the small Wal-mart bag of trash to the park dumpster.  Then Harrison took the wheel and drove us down to the Elevator to weigh in.  Whoot!  We are good on weight.  Mike wanted to stay under 6800 pounds.  We really ended up bringing everything.  Even the lawn chairs, two stand alone fans, a heater, and 2 seasons of clothes.  We are good to go! 

Elevator Weight Scale

 

Almost out of town, Mike realized we were missing our St. Christopher medal.  My mom gave me this blessed clip for my visor when I first got a car.  St. Christopher is the patron saint of travel.  Having this medal in the car is like a prayer asking St. Christopher to keep us safe in our car travels, to intercede on our behalf with God to protect us.  It must have fallen off.  So we circled back home to get Mike’s St. Christopher medal out of his truck. 

Ready to Roll

 

Happy Driver

 

Can a teenager actually stay this happy for 6 weeks?

We spent the first several miles praying the rosary for safe travels.  Then it was all 80’s on 8!  Sirrius Radio was on for Memorial Day weekend!  We love 80’s on 8!

Harrison drove (he is still driving under a permit) all the way to Peoria, IL.  With Mike co-piloting in the front.  I realized a few months ago, that Harrison wasn’t going to be able to ride very comfortably in the back of the car with his new long, long, long, long, long legs.  So I packed for the back.  I have a whole little office set up back here.  Computer, check.  Nook, check. Camera, check, Telephoto lens at the ready for any great things that come along out the window.     Phone.  Purse/suitcase.  Secret Chocolate.  Water bottle.  Plus, it is a relief to pretend like my son isn’t driving because it is really hard not to worry about crashing off the side of the road or into an oncoming semi. 

The first day is like magic on a big trip.  There is lots of excitement and good will.  No one is uncomfortable or irritable yet.  No disappointments have occurred.  Smooth sailing…..albeit a little boring.  This is why we are making this such a big trip.  The scenery through the Midwest is pretty boring from the interstates.  It all looks like Indiana.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love Indiana and take pride in being a Hoosier.  Indiana has some great scenery, but not from the interstate.  Like wise in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska……..It takes a day of driving to get to something different. If we tried to go to each National Park separately, it would take a million years to drive to each one on each separate occasion. 

Boring Scenery

Natalie and I are shipmates back here.  I saw her pull out her journal.  I was so excited she was going Ito write about our trip.  I glanced over……and saw she was keeping tally marks for how many slug bugs each person in the car calls.  I plan to call zero of them.  And McDonalds. She is counting McDonalds that we drive past.  Hopefully, she will write a little about our trip too.

We stopped for lunch and a stretch our legs break by the Mighty Mississippi.  Onward to the West! 

We thought it was the Mississippi  (I wasn't watching the map! We aren't usually that stupid!)

Lunch Break at a Park

The Real Mississippi

 

OK  Here we start to spiral down, down, down.  I thought the drive was supposed to be 6 hours.  In actuality it was supposed to be 9 hours.  So that was a downer as I thought we would arrive at 3:00 PM.  Mike laughed and said, “No, it is supposed to be 6:00PM.”  At 6 PM, for some reason…..maybe Google directions?  Mike said that it was going to be 2 more hours! I couldn’t get the atlas because it was buried in the back.  And the real crapbag was the bumpy concrete highway gave me intense whiplash in the backseat.  There was something about the waviness of the road that bounced the camper, which in turn bounced the hitch, which bounced the car…….For hours and hours then 6 hours more.  Every bone in my body felt like it had ridden a roller coaster by the time we arrived at the Onawa, IA campground at 8:00 PM. 

Erosion Control in the Fields

We had to set up in the middle of wall to wall campers……otherwise known as an audience of people sitting in their lawn chairs watching us wrangle our camper up.  We kept our voices low key and worked quickly.  It wasn’t too bad.  It went up OK, but the new addition of the tarp covering the camper like a tent, slowed us down.  Our previous set up time was 10 min. which now stretched to an hour.  So it took me until 9:00PM to have dinner on the table…..no easy feat.  Everything was in the way each time I turned around.  We could have copped out and had McDonalds, but that isn’t what this trip was about.  So we had a nice dinner of Salmon, baked potato, butter, salt and pepper, and strawberries, and peppers.  The strawberries were only a little rotten and moldy. 

Dinner

 

Doing the dishes took another hour.  We even set up the beds.  However we shouldn’t have done that because then we couldn’t get  shower stuff and p.j.’s out easily. 

We walked around the campground quickly.  Exercise and healthy eating were supposed to be part of the highlights of the trip.  5 minute walks wasn’t really what I had in mind.

Next, we struggled to get our shower stuff together and shower.  I must admit to feeling exhausted and grouchy by the time I got to the showers.  As I was showering in the very clean facilities, I said to myself, “It was supposed to rain , and it didn’t.  That is a plus. We had a good meal.  Tomorrow we will be at Mt. Rushmore and everything will be good.”

I stepped outside the shower house and was drenched by the soaking rain falling out of the sky in a downpour.  At least there was no thunder and lightning?

I tried to work on my blog with the wifi we supposedly paid quite a bit of money to have…….I had internet for approximately 2 min. I couldn’t upload anything or send any emails, let alone work on the blog.  I was trying not to feel discouraged. 

Natalie was having an amusing time texting with her best friend Maria.  Natalie was really rallying in the cheerful department.

It was close to midnight by the time I gave up on the internet.  The bed was warm and soft.  The end. 

Up next:  Day 2……..Is it possible to have a better day……?????