A Picture a Day: Week 3

Day 15: Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs

A picture with each of my boys


Day 16: Kansas Sunset, Wakeeney KOA


Day 17: Playing in the pool, Lawrence, Kansas


Day 18: Corn


Day 19: St. Louis Zoo


Day 19: 'Posing' in front of the Gateway Arch


Day 20: Our Little Threesome

Day 21: On the banks of the Ohio

Day 22: HOME

A Picture a Day: Week 2

Some of these are viewed a lot better in the bigger form. If you just click on a picture it should open up bigger in a new window.

Day 8: I call this one "George Had a Booger"

Day 9: The Air Pillow, AKA, the coolest thing known to
kids and 'young at heart' adults everywhere.


Day 10: Big Timber Water Park, Big Timber, Montana;
AKA, The Rusty Nail

Day 10 (later): Yellowstone Wildlife


Day 11: Second day at Yellowstone,
Old Faithful with Rainbow


Day 12: Waking up at the Wyoming campsite
right next to the horses.


Day 13: Playing in the RV at the Fort Collins campsite


Day 14: Fort Collins, CO Flora & Fauna

A Picture a Day (week 1)

I wanted to do this as we were going along with the trip...and duh, here's the reason why I was able to do those two pictures that I posted but not the others: I figured out if I just try to upload one picture at a time it will work. But why not more? It has always worked before, anyone else having trouble with this? And ok, I lied, some days are going to have two pictures because there was just absolutely no way I could choose the best.

The Day Before: All torn up

Day 1: Still packing & saying our goodbyes

Day 2: Pretend grocery store, Museum of Play, Rochester

Day 2: Pennsylvania Welcome Center at dusk

Day 3: Up on the 'loft' in Elkhart, Indiana. Me doing the
computer thing; Jacob with his Thomas 'aputer'.

Day 4: Chicago, the 'kidney bean'

Under 'the bean', I can't remember its real name.

Day 5: On the bank of the Mississippi

Day 6: Beaver Trails Campground petting zoo

Day 6: South Dakota rest area, where two worlds meet.Day 7: The Badlands, hotter than Hell

The Facts

Favorite travel candy of our little trio: Hot Tamales!

Best food discovery: Simply Chex Mix - they left the cheese-powdered Chex and took out all that other crap. Combined with Ghardettos pumpernickel rye crisps, this would be the perfect food.

I haven't seen my lens cap since Chicago.

Jacob lost his entire toenail on Day 6.

We discovered that we are not city people.

I saw a Little Bear replica (something I had the God damnedest time finding on ebay) in a Walgreens just outside of Cleveland. I didn't even think to buy it as a backup until we were long gone.

The 'ice cream cake on a stick' in Chicago was not worth the seven tickets. It was made of wax.

Save for the glass bottles I was able to recycle at a Wisconsin rest area, we brought home every single recyclable material we went through on the trip. There was a fantastic recycling center in a parking lot in Colorado Springs, but each and every bin was already full to the brim.

The best thing I did in Wyoming was put my tiny orange pin on a map in the coolest little coffee shop.

Jacob got hot pink water shoes with sparkles before our trip. I never got to write about it, but I did have my title ready: "I talk the talk, but can I walk the walk?" He wore them everyday and Zach never complained once. Also, in Montana Zach suggested a we buy a shirt for Jacob and the one he (Zach) liked was purple. He did this unflinchingly so, and I don't think I've ever been prouder.

There were a couple days there in the middle of our trip where I broke through Jacob's psychological barrier and tapped into his split personality. I discovered if I called him by the name of another (made-up) boy, 'Pillow' (it was the first thing in his view when I asked him his name), that I could do almost anything I wanted with him (hug, kiss, talk to, but not take a picture).

Out of the blue one day Jacob got a his "sh" sound and "ch" sound. The whole trip we were amazed to hear all the words that were affected by this speech change.

Pretty much every place in Wyoming had the one or more of the following it its name: Buffalo, Native, Spur, Antelope, Indian.

We went a whole week without seeing one pizza place!

RV PTSD: Hallucinations

When we got back from our trip, Jacob and I spent the first night home in the RV. We liked it that much that we actually chose to sleep there, instead of the comfy bed in the house. The next night I started out in the RV, but soon got freaked out all alone and joined the boys in the big bed. Then, some odd number of hours later, I woke up to find myself very confused and I couldn't see anything. Zach sleeps through everything so I don't know why this should have woken him, but it did and he asked me what the hell I was doing just standing there in the middle of the floor.

"Where are we?" I asked
"In the bedroom."
"In the RV?"
"No. In the bedroom."
"The bedroom in the RV?"
"No. The bedroom in the house! What are you doing?!"
(Still confused and seeing only black) "I'm trying to figure out how the hell to get out of here."
"Go left, but watch the suitcase."
"Where's the bathroom?"

And it went on like that for another minute or so and then my eyes came back to me. I think I was sleep-walking, admittedly not a long distance though. And even though my eyes were open and straining to see, I must have been suffering from partial sleep-paralysis where I could move my body, but my eye parts weren't functioning. I don't really remember the conversation (Zach told me it in the morning) but I remember standing there, truly believing we were in the RV, thinking I was in this one spot, yet still not knowing how the hell to get out of there. It was just so funny though because I am usually on the receiving end of that sleep-craziness.

However, in keeping with his normal sleep hallucinations, Zach woke in the middle of the next night all freaked out and pointing with his arm completely extended toward the foot of the bed.

"Woah! What's that?!"
"What's what?" I asked.
"That. That open space with the light coming from it."
"The hallway."
"oh."

Because we didn't have one for three weeks. This is some convoluted form of culture shock. Oh to be a fly on the wall in our house...

An actual conversation we just had

"Mommy, I can't come with you to the beach tomorrow because I have a job to go to."

"Well your job will have to wait til we are done at the beach."

"But Muck is coming to pick me up in the morning and I have to go to the worksite!"

"Jacob, enough! Our activities come first and when you are done with those obligations you can go to your jobs with Muck!"

"Noooo! I have to help Bob with the pot ho-oles!"

"You're just going to have to call Bob and tell him you can't go to the worksite tomorrow because your mother is making you go to the beach. And that's the end of it!"


This is what we go through every damn time we have a place to be. The conversation has become so common and Jacob is so insistent, that it's actually made me believe it's true.

Instigator

Stella called up this morning at 8:30. She needed some milk because the jug she had just bought at the store is sour. So she came over and I filled her cup. It's actually the first time I've seen her since we've been back. I don't know why she wasn't over sooner, and I didn't have time to investigate.

Well before we left for our trip I made sure to convey to Stella that my cousin who was going to be house-sitting and taking care of the rabbits loves to talk (couldn't be further from the truth). I also told Stella that she particularly likes to hear old-time stories, etc. You're welcome, Kate.

Anyway, when Stella was over this morning she got a sneaky look on her face and started to tell me about how the day after we left a whole bunch people came over, parked their cars overnight, and didn't say hi back when she said hi to them. Then, in the morning, they all left, but not before brining out huge garbage bags and filling our can to the brim with the bags. Now I hadn't had my coffee yet, so I just kept looking at her with my brow furrowed and my head cocked to the side. "Are you sure?" I asked. She told me yes. "Then how come you're smirking?" She just kept on telling me it was true.

Then I made coffee and brought it on out to the RV where some of the extended family spent the night (my mom and Jamie really did have a sleepover with Jacob in the RV on the last night we'll have it). I told them them what Stella said and as the caffeine began to reach my brain, all the details of her story started falling around themselves. For instance, our garbage was full to the brim of scrap construction materials when we left...

Why the instigating?

The Numbers

Drumroll.....

We spent $1928.31 on gasoline to fuel the miles we trecked across this great (and I'm not meaning to be patriotic here, I'm simply referring to its size) country. We spent more on gas than everything else combined. Those numbers I have not yet fully calculated since the end of our trip, but from the last calculation, there is no way all the other expenses even came close to the gas.

One thing we did spend a grossly morbid amount of money on was Starbucks frappuccinos. I succeeded in making a caffeine junkie out of my husband, sneaking in extra espresso shots when I could, nurturing his blood stream with the sweet juice of life. Now I'm slowly weaning him off and hoping he drops the habit fast because man those suckers eat a hole in your wallet!

Besides the coffee drinks, and an occasional food purchase that didn't count as a meal, no meals were consumed in a restaurant. I did three grocery store trips and in that way we were able to save a ton of money.

We also saved money by spending, I'd say maybe six nights not at a campground. The total we did spend on campgrounds (and boy were they worth it) was $477.88. I'm not going to do an official total for the amount of money we spent on clothes and souvenirs because it will scare me. I know it's more than the campsites though, but still, nowhere near the gas cost.

I had been writing before about my little 'feminist rant'...that must have been before I ever drove the RV because I think after I posted that was when I got really mad and insisted on driving. So I did. And I drove for less than an hour. Then that was it. I didn't like it, and Zach did. I like being free to write, read, and do little detail things around the RV while Zach was driving. On one hand I think this is innocent enough because that's just they way we preferred it based on personality differences, but on the other hand, it is deeply disturbing to me. I think I will always be disturbed by that, but the fact of it is, I am 5'1". It just wasn't realistic for me to drive. It wasn't plausible. It's not because I'm a girl. And I'm pretty sure by feminist standards I shouldn't be referring to myself as a girl, I should say woman. But I digress...I think as time goes by and the memories become foggy, I will look back and tell myself that it was stupid that I didn't drive, that I should have. That there was really no reason I couldn't have. I will forget that it was not fun. So this is my record.

I realize that it's stupid to be so hung up on the driving thing, but the reason I am is because I think it really changed the dynamic of our 'vacation roles' and it certainly changed the integrity of the trip for me. I sat in the back, where it was bumpy and loud and I couldn't see out the windows very well. Just think about that. I could hardly carry on a conversation with either Zach or Jacob, and instead they chattered away with each other for five hours a day. Anytime something cool came into view, Zach would tell me about it and I'd jump up to see, only to have missed the sight by the time I made it to the window. I got carsick.

Anyway, that was just when we were driving...I'm not trying to complain. It was mostly fine because I did get to have a lot of alone time...hm, then on the other hand, I did feel lonely a lot. Oh boy, I'd better stop talking about this, I'm starting to feel sad for me. Oh, but part of my point is that Jacob picked up on all this and for the entire trip it was 'Boys' Club' versus 'Girl in the Backseat'. Jacob was absolutely mean to me. When we were at the zoo and I was observing the chimps, I thought back to all the accounts of Jane Goodall's I had read over the years. That's how the male chimps do it, how they dethrone one another...they slowly and gradually work their way up to top 'dog' by abusing and disrespecting (if you'll allow me to mis-use that term in relation to chimps) and beating up on the Alpha male. And that's what Jacob did. He really just let me know at every intersection of our interacting that he didn't need me. And I started to really dislike him for it. We were not close at all on the trip. I was bothered, but not as much as I thought I would have been. I just did my own thing a lot of the time. Near the end of the trip I really started to feel a longing to have him in my arms again but he wouldn't have it. And I started to get angry. I snapped at Zach and Jacob a lot because I was feeling hurt.

But now. Ahh. Zach went back to work today, and not a day too soon. Jacob woke up at 9:15 today and for the first time in over three weeks, he allowed me to snuggle with him. Infact, he wouldn't let me get up for 30 minutes. I thought I would cry it felt so nice. It's our unspoken ritual, something we've shared since the day he was born, and it is the best thing in the world.

Home Sweet Homecoming

Ahh....we're home and I'm too tired to write about it. So I just tried posting pictures here (again) and I'm still not having any luck. I was only ever able to post those two that I posted in the previous entries. And I guess there is some confusion about the picture of me and the chimp - I was outside the chimp enclosure, and the chimp and I were separated by a pane of glass. He/she was behind the glass in the picture, and I was on the other side of it with the camera. What I thought was cool was that we appeared blended together in the picture. I hope that makes more sense.

Anyway, I've got to finish writing about St. Louis, the Gateway Arch, and the states that came after that. And I want to post those pictures to my blog!! So if you were just reading here to keep up with our trip, keep checking back. Later today: The total gas $ tally!

The coolest picture I have ever taken and the link that will make you say, "Oh Lord."

OK, so I'm into taking reflection pictures a lot lately, perhaps you've noticed on my flickr page? Well I didn't even mean to do this one. I was just getting in tight for a close-up and I didn't even notice the effect until I uploaded it. If I have ever taken a picture that is considered *art*, this is it because it delivers a message. OK, OK, I've been having a lot of poetry, and 'art in general' conversations lately so I guess what I need to do is not tell you all why I think it's so cool and what it symbolizes to me, but God dammit, please comment and tell me what you think about its message.

I'm pretty sure it's ok to post a random link belonging to someone else...it's all public and I'm only saying good things about it. You know, so I was playing around on flickr the night of the unexpected internet and somehow made my way to this woman's photos. Oh Lord. I need to get a macro lens. They are stunning, frightening, spectacular and revolting all at once! Here is the link to the set that caught my eye, but of course all her pictures are fabulous.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/coyote/sets/40617/

Back to the zoo for a minute...

It was pretty cool. I’ve been to some great zoos before, and this ranks up there. It’s probably the first ‘real’ zoo Jacob has been to, but I’ve been to quite a bit. In addition to the regular amount of zoos every American goes to growing up, I had to go to a lot for some of my college courses back when I was going to be an Ethologist. I still don’t know how I feel about them. I mean, I know that these are animals who need the place to live, and that they are treated really well (if we‘re talking top-notch zoos), but I still can’t help feeling like an ignorant human gawking at the poor nature deprived animals, even though our $20 parking fee is going toward making their homes as nice as they can be. The circus however, you’ll never catch me there. As long as I can be respectful of the animals and use our time at the zoo as a learning opportunity for Jacob, and to teach him to be respectful of the animals then I guess I can rationalize it.

What this lady here is doing, that pretty much is
the coolest thing ever in my book, and what I
consider my dream job. Yes, Jane Goodall
is my idol.

Speaking of being respectful, let’s talk for a moment about all the people I wanted to kick in the head at the zoo. The person who first irritated me enough to send the auto-response transmitters to my brain, initiating ‘kick-in-the-head’ mode was the lady who wobbled, yes wobbled, up to the Chimpanzee enclosure and through her broken teeth cooed to her young child, “Look at the monkey! It’s a monkey!! Look at the funny monkey!” Way high up on my pet-peeve list is people who call chimps, monkeys. I had to leave before I made a scene. I just hope those chimps were over there on the other side cracking jokes at all the ignorant humans.

Then there was another back-woods group hanging out by the ducks and pelicans. This prize of a family included a wife-beater-donning, teenage loser who was feeding the pelicans mass amounts of cheese puffs because “uh-huh, uh-huh, ga-faw, it’s funny to see them there bir-dies open them mouths and choke on ma cheesy doodlers! C’mere bir-dies so I can try ‘an git ‘em in yer gully from up here on this here deck.” Did I get that right? I’m not so versed in Hick. Well anyway…I was there, circling around with my palms faced to the sky in question, “Shouldn’t there be someone who works here telling those IDIOTS that they can’t feed the animals, especially not cheese puffs?!” I was saying this loud enough so the idiots in question could hear me and it was all Zach could do to pull me and my fight face outta there before somebody got dumped in the river. If you’re one of my flickr contacts you can see the kid in action because he *got into* one of my pictures.

There were two different groups of teenage boys who were committing slightly milder, yet still as offensive, acts towards the animals. The first group of four, armed with their camera phones, had a pea hen (I can’t figure out if she was supposed to be out of the marked off area) cornered against a building and were taking turns bending down getting their pictures snapped face-to-face with the poor bird. The only reason I didn’t intervene was because I kept waiting for her feathers to get as ruffled as mine so she would peck out one of their eyes. That, I wanted a picture of!

The last group of boys, lacking in cell phones, were forced to revert to the primeval act of barking and slapping their forearms together in front of their chests, actually believing this would illicit a response from the sea lions they were gawking at. All it really did though, was make them look like a bunch of --- erg ---I really want to use a totally un-PC word, but I won’t. I am better than that.

If you’ve ever spoken to me in real life, maybe you’ve heard me say “Non-human animals.” This is how I refer to all animals which are not human. I do this because of the attitude that some ignorant people have that we humans are above all the other animals. I want to encourage the idea that the Earth and all its flora and fauna were not put here for humans to dominate over, and that we are, infact, just another type of animal, and I use my choice of language to convey that idea. In writing though, it looks a little awkward, so all you get on the pages are ‘animals‘.

Now you tell me who, on these pages, were the ‘animals’ at the zoo.

WWR I

Disclaimer: Written While Riding (WWR)
Implication: Most likely really boring, as author had many hours to type out every minute detail flowing through her head while husband was at the wheel and child slept
Warning: Do not attempt to operate heavy machinery or motor vehicle while reading, or for several hours thereafter.

When I last wrote we were in the parking lot of the TA…we headed out from there to spend the night as close as we could to St. Louis. We found a Walmart parking lot to spend the night in. Now I’ve never seen evidence of Walmart actually encouraging RVers to spend the night in their lots, but several people had told me so before our trip. This makes sense, as I figure it’s a good way to promote the ’Walmart is good, not one of the major factors in the downfall of the entire planet’ image. Thus it was my intention to spend at least one night in a Walmart parking lot and not spend any money there, while also not thinking any better of their company, just to stick it to ‘em. For more on my hatred of Walmart, see original blog-starting post. As an added (major) bonus, there was internet in the parking lot of Walmart! I don’t think is was specifically Walmart internet, which would have been a great contributing factor in my ability to ‘stick it to ‘em‘. It was just the ‘lynksys’ or whatever I’ve been seeing all over the place. Maybe I shouldn’t be saying this, maybe there are computer hackers reading this and now they know I was on that network, so now they can steal my identity. Is that how it works?

Well it was fantastic having this unexpected internet and I got caught up on a bunch of stuff I hadn’t been able to get around to. I was mostly caught up on my blog, save for some random details that I have had to leave out. I’ve been trying to squeeze in these random details where I can just so my inevitable mish-mashed smorgasbord-of-a-blog at the end of our trip isn’t too long. Zach read over my last few blogs and he tells me that they are confusing because I go back and forth a lot. I’ve been reading them over and it doesn’t seem that bad. Sometimes I do go back and forth but that’s because I’m trying to keep everyone on the same page as to what day(s) I am referring to. And mostly I think I’m trying to place the days myself because I really can’t keep anything straight now. Thank God I’ve been writing and recording every aspect of our trip or else I would never remember anything.

Now I know this is sort of contradicting the place I’ve been coming from in the months before our trip - with the complaining about being addicted to the internet and the musings on whether the obsessive need to ‘record’ all of life is getting in the way of my ability to actually ‘live’ it. However, this is different, this is not real life. This is (mostly) Heaven and I want to store up as much of it as I can for the years to come spent at home. Also, this is what I’ve been dreaming of ever since my AI (age of internet) life began. There’s my BC (before children), then a year or two of blur, then the ‘technology age’. Every day I use the internet, and every night I either stay awake too late at the computer, or simply fall asleep at the keyboard. And pretty much every moment of that is spent firmly planted in a field of guilt. Well here, in this hunk of an RV, there is nowhere to go and not much else to do (that second part is a lie) therefore I have nothing but time to be at the computer, living out my dreams (minus the internet part). So one would perhaps expect my blog posts to be fewer and farther apart while we are on this trip, but to the contrary, my friend.

End brain tangent.

Incase you couldn’t’ follow all that, I was saying I had time to get caught up on internet stuff. In addition to the blog, I got completely caught up (to the minute, practically) on flickr pictures. I had those suckers tagged, titled, signed, sealed and delivered. I had started to add some notes and descriptions, and had even begun to update my sets. Then it was morning and we were leaving the Walmart parking lot. I was satisfied. I could practically empty my memory card on my camera since all the pictures were ‘safe’ on the internet. And it’s a good thing I did because then we drove 30 miles to the St. Louis Zoo and the progress stopped. Ho-ly crap did we spend a lot of time there. I took 219 pictures. Yup.

At the zoo it was only in the, say, 90’s, yet it felt far worse than the 20 degrees higher we experienced in the Badlands. That’s humidity for you. It came back in Kansas, by the way, as did the bugs, and we said, “Well, we must be on our way back home.” We hadn’t seen bugs since that one rest stop in South Dakota when we opened the door and they all came in. For the next three days they took up residence in the RV and left their poop marks ALL OVER THE PLACE, which Zach and I used practically an entire container of Clorox wipes cleaning up various horizontal places. I’m pretty sure they were reproducing because no matter how many we shooed out the windows, the amount of them just kept becoming ’more’. And isn’t the life span of a fly only a day anyway? I’ll tell ya, that is one thing we did not miss. I know Stacey desperately misses the humidity after being away from it for a few years, and I’m sure I would too, but I did not miss it on this trip. Hell no. We also got to experience it last night on our 4 mile, round-trip, after dark, 90 degree walk to and from the St. Louis Arch. After that I decided I was done with this trip. That’s it, I’m spent, let’s go home. I finally admit to what Zach has been saying about me the whole trip. I cannot take the heat.

"We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto."

Yes, I've been waiting to say that for a couple days. Incase you're wondering, that's the sentence I was implying before, which I thought was so clever, but no one else thought it was funny. Now that we've traversed the entire stare, I only have three more words to add: Red Pickup Trucks.

Anyway, now that we've left Kansas, I am dying to go back. It's one of those states I've been told I'm not supposed to like, but I'll tell you, it's a helluva lot better than where we are now! I guess I only have a lot to say about the places I don't like. Maybe instead of finding words to describe it, I just let Kansas do the work, seeping itself into my soul, tucking the sweet energy of the cornfields away for a rainy day. So...if words fail me about Kansas, they're just tumbling out about it's neighboring state.

Missouri sucks (see prior post) for lots of reasons. The people in Kansas were the nicest people I have ever encountered. There's only been one nice person in all of the state of Missouri so far; the girl who sold me the 24 hour internet card inside the TA, Jess. She was also periodically going to the microphone and calling out Driver ID numbers, as their turn was up for the showers. How cool! I always wondered what the logistics of trucker life were. Now I know they go to these little TA (Travel Centers of America - I asked Jess while I was waiting for the thingy to formulate my pin number) for showers, load up on supplies, use the internet (probably not), and sleep in the parking lot. The last in that list is something we won't be doing, because I don't like standing there next to the people inside, let alone sleep in the parking lot by them. They smell, have missing teeth, stand too close (a big pet-peeve of mine) and look at me the whole time I'm standing in there. And they smoke inside the building! I am definitely sheltered. I didn't know there were still states of this union where it's ok to smoke inside!

Yup. I'm a clean, pale-white girl from the northeast with braids and shiny red shoes and I don't know shit about the rest of the country.

Vegetarian = NO MEAT!

Oh my God, this is worse than when we drove down south two years ago. They didn't have vegetarian options back there either, but at least they'd heard the actual word before. On pretty much this whole trip, there have been no vegetarian options. Even in Colorado, which is the state I always thought I belonged in, I still got funny looks. Perhaps I didn't go to the right places in that state.

At the KOA in CO the other day, the guy gave me a nasty look when I implied maybe they should have stuff without meat in it. Seriously, I am the one who should be mad, and I really am. I am so pissed off about this. It's a form of discrimination. Do not laugh at that statement.

Twice today in Missouri I have gotten confused looks, followed by a laugh. An actual laugh. I swear. The entire trip has been like that, but this place is the worst. At the gas station this morning they had pizza in the little case. Four pizzas, four different meat toppings, none meatless. It's not like I was out to get a pizza, but I was just wondering when I asked, "So do you have any vegetarian pizza?" Confused look. Rephrasing, "Pizza without meat?" Hahahahaha. F-you!

Then just now at the damn Taco Bell beside the gas station - I went in to get Jacob a Crunch Wrap Supreme, which is his new favorite, and ordered one "with just the beans - no meat."

The guy: (confused) "Just the beans?"
Me: "Yes. Like a vegetarian one."
The guy: "OK, so do you want beef on it?"

I swear to God!

Visits With a Friend

From Aurora (where we didn't get a campsite because the lady on the phone said we couldn't make reservations, but they had plenty of room...only to find out a different story when we got there) we headed to Colorado Springs for a visit with Jenn! It's been many years I've been waiting to see the place she so loves. We spent two nights there - the only time we stayed in one place for more than one night - and did lots of things which I will have to write about later because we're pulling out of the parking lot! Look for this post to be updated later.

We're driving through Kansas today, not sure how far we'll get. The campsites are all starting to blur in our memories. When we speak of past ones we have to say things like, "The one will the air pillow," or "The one with the petting zoo." Today's place will be known as the one with the rumble cars!!

A Visit With Friends

After Fort Collins we headed out to Aurora where Colorado changed. It went from beautiful to industrial. We went there to meet Stacey Lauren and her family. It was a long-overdue, or just long-awaited meeting. And the sky didn't fall from the atmosphere. How about that. Although there might have been some pigs flying around there in the background. Seriously though, it was really nice to meet them. Stacey and Lucas were very hospitable and I was so glad to get to see their house and neighborhood, put some faces and places to the names. Jacob and Reese played really well together they are both sensitive boys, and I know at least Jacob is shy, so I wasn't sure if it would be one of those times where Jacob didn't warm up until it was time to leave. Reese is just a few months older than Jacob so it was the perfect match-up.

Ruby was everything I expected. I told Kevin she's just like she is in the videos; Knows what she wants to knows how to tell you. She wasn't happy unless she could be right in the middle. But that's a baby/toddler, right? Ruby was quite the charmer also. Real cutie.

All in all, a very nice time. I hope we didn't overstay our welcome. And thanks for having us!

Not Hell, Just Kansas

Haha...actually, I kind of like it so far...actually, I kind of love it here. Apparently flat land really agrees with me. I was like this in South Dakota too. I can't remember the last time I was this happy, except for SD. There's something about the energy in these places. The land just sucks all the bad feelings right out of me. I'm feeling so laid back, especially concerning Jacob. If he's out of my sight for five seconds, it doesn't necessarily mean something tragic happened to him. For instance, right now Jacob is really quite upset he didn't get outside in time to "help Daddy empty out the poop!" Zach was getting out of the front seat and said with a smile, "Well, time to empty out the shit..I mean the poop." And then Jacob repeated it word-for-word. I didn't even freak out. I thought it was cute.

Anyway, I was making point here, drawing a comparison to bring me back to a few days ago, but I can't remember what that was going to be, so I'll have to go back and edit later. Oh, wait, it was something about feeling so sick...? We went a visiting to a friend's house on Friday.

I guess I'll just start back a few days ago. We left the campsite with the horses, went to a cool coffee shop in town where I got to put an orange pin on the map to show where I'm from. I've always wanted to do that. We drove to Laramie, Wyoming and stayed there for the night. This was the place where I couldn't get on the internet, which I'm sure I wrote about but I can't remember what all I said. In the morning the lady handed me the little card with the code and I got all caught up with the blog. Then we drove to Fort Collins, CO to see some places that Zach wanted to show me from way back when he trained there a couple summers. We stayed at a state park kind of campground, so it wasn't really a community campsite, but it was beautiful nonetheless. I took a million pictures of the flora, then we headed into town for Zach's new Frappuccino fix and I loaded up at Safeway. And we headed out of town...

Guess where we are now.

All my prior knowledge and current sentiment about the state we are in now can be summed up in one famous sentence which can't even be spoken until we have left said state. If you can read a map, or have any knowledge of United States geography, you probably have a good guess as to the state we ended up in after Colorado, but what is the sentence?

Where we're at...

So we woke up and fed the horses, evidenced by the many pictures on flickr. We must have stayed an hour past checkout before leaving. If we tried to pull that off at the place we're staying now, we'd be charged a hefty fee. We'll also be charged if my friend Jenn, who lives here in Colorado, visits with us for too long. Hold on, let me consult the thick booklet of rules we got upon check-in. We're definitely going to be arrested if they catch us emptying the gray and black water into the sewer because we DON'T HAVE A SEWER SEAL. So Zach and I snuck out in between the rounds (we had a ten minute window here) last night and I kept watch while he emptied the waste into the ground pipes. I felt exhilarated that we were breaking the rules! I've been trying to get Jenn to break as many rules as possible just to stick it to 'em. Get this, she ate dinner here last night! Even though she paid for it, this is still against the rules. And oh man did I want her to go in that special 'for guests only' heated pool. Would have been a bonus if I could have talked her into peeing in it!

They say pets are allowed, but as far as I can tell, there isn't really anywhere you are actually allowed to have your pets except in your camper and within 8 feet of your camper. Our neighbors over there are breaking the rules because they have an outdoor pen set up for their dog. Speaking of breaking rules, there are all these hoodlums running wild all the place - get this, there are children under 18 EVERYWHERE running amok without their parents' constant supervision. And they are DEFINITELY riding their faster than 5mph. Gonna get fined...That little girl over there is just asking for it because she left her bike partially on the sidewalk. Too bad we lugged our grill all over the United States because we can't use it here. If you're lucky enough to be in a site with an attached grill then you can use it, but not your own. If you don't have a grill then you have to eat the food that they serve, a different meal each night. When I asked if they have anything vegetarian they looked at me like I'd come from Mars. C'mon, this is Colorado for God's sake!

Anyway, we've had a busy couple of days. We drove to Colorado and stayed in a really nice park in Fort Collins. The flora and fauna were spectacular. I took about a million pictures. Actually, I think I'm up to over 1200 now. We had a couple different visits with friends, first in Aurora, and now in Colorado Springs, which I'll write all about later. We've been loving Colorado. If any of the places we've been to could be considered a main destination, this was it. We ended up staying at this campground for 2 nights. That's the first time we've stayed in one place for more than one night. I'm not really a big fan of the snobby, competitive atmosphere around here. Suddenly Big Timber, with its rusty nails and all, is looking a lot more up my alley than Garden of the 'Almighty' Gods.

Back to that other post...

Continued from here: http://xmas711.blogspot.com/2007/07/all-in-betweens.html

Well we got towed off the curb then on the road again headed 90 west to Buffalo, Wyoming. I was in the back doing something and kept getting distracted by all these flashing lights. I finally yelled up to Zach to ask what it was (I really can't see much unless I squat down to the level that they are at and look out the front window) and he answered that it was lightening. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. The land was still completely flat so the light was just bouncing off of all directions. I really can't put words to what it was like. There were streaks and flashes happening at the same time and in different parts of the sky. It was other-wordly. It appeared as if the entire planet was lit when the lightening went off. Yet it also seemed that the entire world existed in the expanse of plains we were traveling through. I was bent on getting a picture, so there I was with my head and most of my torso hanging out the window. I had my camera at the ready for when the lightening flashed and I was completely mesmerized. I don't know how long I was like that for, but I finally started to feel rain drops land on me (it had been raining for a while, according to Zach, but there's a slight overhang so I had no clue) and it occurred to me to get my camera to safety. Never did it occur to me that maybe I shouldn't be sticking half my body out the window in the middle of an electrical storm with a partly metal object gripped in my hands. I was that transfixed.

The storm got pretty bad and the wind was so strong that we couldn't continue driving. Zach got off an exit in the middle of nowhere. It had only a tiny little road that wasn't wide enough to turn around on and apparently not even inhabited because there weren't even driveways or parking lots to pull into. So what did we do? Just kept on driving - that's not all really, we were yelling at each other and arguing about the best possible option - I haven't really written about that much, but anytime you see me write about any sort of confusing situation, imagine our shouting matches pervading the RV.

Maybe six miles down the road we finally found a lot. We pulled in only to stay for 5 minutes because there was also something creepy going on there. Remember Pee-Wee's Big Adventure? Remember Marge and the Alamo and all that other freaky stuff? At many points in our trip I have felt like we are in that movie. Maybe I am just too sheltered.

Well, we got back on the road eventually and to our KOA destination at 2am. The boys had a pancake breakfast in the morning while I uploaded pictures and then we all went swimming.
We left at 1pm headed to Big Timber, Montana for another KOA and the Big Timber Water Park next door to that. I've been saying to a few people that at each campsite we stay at there is one completely random kids' attraction that you would not expect, yet it is the coolest thing. There was the petting zoo at one of our earlier campsites, and at this place they had the Air Pillow (or something, I can't remember it's proper name) which was posted about all over the campsite. It's one of 6 in the country and the biggest in the west. It was a giant tarp pillow on the ground blown up with air (I'm in a hurry, that's the best I can come up with). It was the greatest thing. We basically jumped on that thing til they kicked us off a half an hour after the posted closing time. Then we were back at that sucker as soon as it opened in the morning and once again before going to the water park. Ah, the water park. It was a shoddy kind of place, yet good enough for us. In the pool I almost got cut by a rusty nail sticking out of the side. And even though I walked away without needing a tetanus shot, both Zach and I did get cut at different times on the slides. The life guard was on her cell phone basically the whole time. She completely missed the fact that a kid climbed the life guard chair that she was supposed to be sitting in and then dove off the top (right next to the sign that read, "No Diving!"). There were people smoking all over the place (I realize this is a very sheltered statement, but at home it against the law to smoke in most public places really, especially where kids are). It was overall just not safe, but it was more funny than annoying. People were breaking rules left and right and I quickly realized no one cared, so neither did I. People were having fun, and so were we. Geeze, it feels good to not be so anal all the time!

Then we left for Yellowstone, which was supposed to be a one-day thing. We spent the first couple hours in town shopping. We got a little out of control. We wanted to buy things for people and these shops were really nice. We never spend money like that, but this is a vacation, right? We didn't get to Yellowstone until 7pm. We did a little hike and then headed back to the town we came from to find a place to stay. Well, that was the first time we had any trouble. A lot of trouble. We couldn’t find anywhere to stay and ended up at Canyon Campsite which was just a serve yourself kind of place and mostly tent campers (aka: real campers, not like us spoiled RV babies). The way we ended up hearing about the mountainside site was that I finally decided to go into a hotel myself and I took Jacob, barefoot and sleepy looking (for the sympathy factor) to ask if we could pay them to just park in their lot. The whole experience felt very ‘Mary & Joseph’ - No room at the inn, you know?

Canyon Campsite was nice though. The air was cool and crisp and the sky was clear and bright; I think it was the best night’s sleep we all got so far. Again we left much later than we planned and headed back into town to Yellowstone. We decided on the way that we would just take a ‘quick’ stop to a couple of the shops we hadn’t gone into the day prior. Yeah right. We spent a couple hours too long and more money than I’m prepared to admit to spending.

Finally we got back to Yellowstone and headed right to Old Faithful. I was sick the whole time from riding in the camper along the windy, bumpy roads. I didn't really look out the window at the spectacular views, lest I toss my cookies. I more or less spent the drive curled up in the fetal position in the bed, trying not to die from puking up my entire inards. Old Faithful was fantastic. I don't really know what to say about it. It was one of the things I was most looking forward to, and it came through for me, but I think also, it's going to be one of those things that settles in more when we've been home for a while.

More driving through bumpy roads - I thought I might die again, but I managed to stumble out of the car long enough to take some awesome sunset pictures of Yellowstone Lake. More driving, more construction sites, then FINALLY we stopped driving and that was the campsite with the horses. There. Caught up.

If you read my second post from yesterday before mid-morning today, go back and read it again. I totally got an entire paragraph wrong and then completely forgot to fill in some of the blanks I'd left. It bothered me all day that it was unfixed and out there in the world so as soon as I got internet this morning I fixed it. There. We are leaving now. Going to Colorado.

Still In Wyoming!

We can't get out of this state, it never ends! We were supposed to end up in Fort Collins, CO yesterday but the damn road just kept going. We were going to stay at a plain ole campground with no amenities or wireless, but there was just no making it there. We settled in at a campground in Laramie, WY and when we pulled in to the parking lot a big fat window popped up informing me I was connected to the internet and had an "excellent" signal! So there was no reason why Zach should need to inquire about it at check-in. But hey, when we call and say, "Do you have wireless?" that sort of implies that are planning to use it. So maybe you think they could say, "Yes, but you have to have an internet card with a user ID and password." Or maybe when you check in they could tell you? No, they leave it to you to try to log on yourself five minutes after the office has closed, only to find out that you can't get on and the little window that you had seen an hour earlier was merely referring to the big fat KOA web page that came up informing you of the need for a password.

No, I'm not mad. I was. I was pissed all night because this was the day we were going to leave a campsite real early to make up for lost time. There wasn't going to be time to wait for the office to open in the morning and get the password. I sat up real late punching in random codes, just hoping for a bit of luck. I had to be up anyway because Jacob was still awake. He's been staying awake real late, past midnight at least. I'm thinking as we pass back into different time zones we can use this to our advantage. If we could just keep him on this schedule, then by the time we get home we'll have him going to bed at the decent hour of 10pm!

Oh no, Zach just corrected me. It's going to be a DISadvantage. We are screwed. Pray for us.

Anyway, when I went in to the office at the crack of dawn this morning the woman handed me a neat little card and said, "Didn't you get one at check-in?" She told me they're just supposed to give it to you. Thanks. The one party they decide to forget to give the card to happens to be us, the most highly internet addicted family in all of the state of Wyoming. I'm pretty sure about that too because while I was wandering around aimlessly late last night, I saw a few people and asked each of them if they happened to know the user name, etc for the wireless. They all looked at me as if to say, "Why on the God's green Earth would I need the internet?" Then I got real desperate and saw a man who looked like he had just come out of the office. I thought maybe he had just closed up or something (because this was still just about 10:15). When I asked him if he worked here, he started signing and pointing to his ears. So I started signing back. I was so delusional that I actually still thought he might work in he office. With the sunlight upon me, and reality kicking in, I now realize that he was probably just making it up that he was deaf because I freaked him out, and maybe the reason he couldn't understand my ASL was not a dialect difference, but that he was lying to get me to go away. Either way, poor, deaf man for having bumped into me!

Well, later on will be Boulder and such, then the next day further south to visit a friend in Colorado Springs. I'm tired, Zach's tired, Jacob is tired but that's good because it means he'll take another long nap in his carseat. I wish we could just stay in one place for more than 12 hours.

All the in betweens...

Zach was bugging me to get out of here so he wanted me to wrap up the blogging...then we looked at my stats real quick and he saw that a lot of his friends and colleagues have been keeping up with the trip so he wants me to write more. I've got permission to keep at it til 1pm. So thanks for reading, guys!

So let's see....we woke up in the creepy campground in Wall, SD. Then we headed back to Wall Drug so we could take Jakie to the water fountain area. You know, it's one of those where the water shoots out from the ground and you have to try to catch it. Jacob friggin loved it. It was better than we could have imagined!

The day before we were in the Badlands. It was amazing. Just totally awesome. Later that day I realized that I've been an idiot about my camera though. I've gotten in the habit of using the same mode for every picture because the no-flash mode is really what I like the most. Then I started messing around with the landscape mode and the pictures from that came out ten times better than they were before. So I missed out on getting awesome pictures from the Badlands. But the ones I did take are up on flickr.

I guess it was the same day as Wall Drug that was the crazy day. Some of you already know the details because that was before I lost phone reception for two days. But here's what happened: We went to Mt. Rushmore. It was nice, but you know, just a little mountain with stuff some guy carved. I guess we're more into the natural phenomenon. We were actually going to leave and get some distance on the map because we still had a lot of driving time, but Jacob said he wanted to walk around the path. We put him in the pack and that was the last time we saw his little Bob the Builder toy we let him bring with us that day (we usually make it a rule to leave all the toys in the RV, and this was the most important toy). So when we were headed out of the park finally, one of us must have realized Scrambler with the little Bob atop him was missing. Holy Crap. We spent the next hour re-tracing our steps and trecking around the park to all the lost and founds. Finally we decided that it was just gone and we had to leave. Just as we were about to leave I spotted one last information center and decided to pop in to see about a lost & found. The wait in line was incredible and at one point I started to step out of line to leave, but I quickly changed my mind and waited it out. When I got up to the counter and told the lady my deal, a big smile spread across her face and she pulled it out of the drawer.

I'm a big fan of Mt. Rushmore now.

So there we were already two hours behind schedule. We left the park in search of a grocery store and the GPS lady was of no help. Infact, she got us lost. What is the deal with her? We'll be driving around and it's almost as if someone is playing a cosmic joke on us. I don't think there has been one time the lady has helped us out. Bitch.

Finally we found the best grocery store in Rapid City, a Safeway, and I went crazy in there. I really like grocery shopping. When I came out Jacob was just waking from his three hour nap at about the time he should be going to bed. Yay! We attempted to pull out of the back entrance to the parking lot because that was easier than trying to turn around a 31 foot RV. Well, it must have been the delivery entrance or something because the decline out of the parking lot was very steep. The skid plates got caught up on on the curb and the back wheels were just spinning in the air. Great.

Here's what happened right before we left the parking lot: Zach called and made a reservation at a campground 3 hours away. Since it was already 8pm we wouldn’t get there til after they closed, thus we had to pay in full over the phone. It was the first time we had paid before actually checking in, and doing so firmed up the Universe’s plan to get us stuck so that we wouldn’t make it to the campsite and we would lose our money. So I got on the phone to AAA. We are members, so there should be no problem, oh but there was. They wouldn’t cover us in the camper. Thanks for nothing. The woman actually said, “You’re on your own.”

We got the number of a local tow company and got on the phone with them. Before putting us on hold the woman said they would probably have to refer us out to another company as they might not be able to accommodate an RV. We thought we were shit out of luck and scared we'd be there all night. She got back on the phone and said they'd be able to help us afterall. The guy was there in 15 minutes - when have you ever gotten a tow truck within 15 minutes? That was awesome. The guy, actually two guys, got us out in 20 minutes and then only charged $20. What luck! The whole time it was happening though, I was just laughing my butt off at the hilarity of the situation. It was only a matter of time something like that would happen to us because things like that are the theme of my life.

The whole thing only put us behind an hour so we were set to arrive at the campsite now at midnight. Before we got there, there was yet another major bump in the road (almost literally).

Stay tuned for that story....and thanks for all the comments some of you have left. Please leave me more! Zach and I love to read about what you guys think, and send news from home. I'm starting to miss it :-(

Where have we been?

Speaking of creepy campsites, here we are at another creepy campsite. It’s not so much the campsite that is creepy, but the guy in the pick up who did a u-turn in the middle of the road at midnight to follow us into the Dubois, Wyoming KOA. When Zach stopped at the office to get out and pick up the map the woman had left us before closing up for the night, the man got out of his pickup and approached. He wanted to know if the office was still open. Even though Zach told him we had called earlier to make a reservation and it was too late to get in, the guy still went to the door and tried to pull it open. Then he came back and asked Zach what number we were at. Too freaked out to realize he should just walk away, Zach went ahead and told him. So there we were, driving around a dark campsite, shining a flashlight out the window to read the numbers and the guy was just circling behind, following us with his headlights off. Since we couldn’t find the spot the first time around, we went back to the front entrance to start fresh and there was the guy still following behind. Eventually we found our spot and even though we were considering just leaving because of the stalker, we pulled in just to see what it would be like. Then luckily the sheriff's patrol happened to drive by and we were able to tell them about the creepy guy. They chased him off and we settled in.

So I never intended to be away from my beloved internet spots for so long, but I really wanted to get some pictures up on this blog, instead of just flickr, so I spent the last day of internet access trying to upload (with no success) some of my favorite pictures. Then we slept in the middle of nowhere without the slightest trace of wireless, much less a cell phone signal, so I haven’t even been able to call people. I’ll be on my computer while we’re traveling, tooling around with the pictures and the little window keeps popping up, taunting me with its alerts about being within range of yet another (password protected) internet connection. So close, yet so far away. Then earlier today we were in Yellowstone with no chance of any kind of signals. Now here we are at the campsite and I'm not able to log on. Since the office has closed not I can't do anything about it. Damn the passwords. We have to remember to ask what it is when we call to make the reservations.

Well now it's morning and we slept next to the horse paddock. We thought this was the coolest thing and couldn't wait for Jacob to wake up. We just happened to have half a dozen apples and a bag of carrots in the fridge. How cool is that?? So at least the flickr pictures are completely updated now, set to public, but not titled yet. So go take another look and you'll just have to try to guess where we've been.

Here's a direct link to the "Cross Country" set I've been keeping. There are 651 viewable photos in there! At least 95% are public so go crazy.

Day 7

Actually, I'm not really even sure what day this is...technically this is day 8, but I'm not so sure how I've been doing the other posts. Well, from now on this is how it will be: Today is day 8, so when I write 'Day 7' I am referring to yesterday, since day 8 didn't really happen yet.

That brings me to another point though; I can't keep track of the days, or the time of day for that matter! I just had to check my cell phone to see what day it is. I could have sworn it was on Friday. And the time...well we just have no concept of it whatsoever. I mean, I'm not just talking the time zone changes - for the record though, we are now two hours away from where we began. The simple fact of having reliable clocks is what I'm talking about. The clock up front in the RV is wrong. It started out 2 hours and some-odd-minutes off of the real time, and now that we changed time zones twice, I have no idea where it stands. Zach and I keep saying that we'll fiddle with it the next time we stop, but we never do. There is a clock on the microwave and I set it once, but then I guess everytime we are stopped or without power it turns off and needs to be re-set, so there is no use in doing that.

I've been mostly relying on my cell phone to see the time, but it took me a whole time zone to realize that it self-updates and that threw me off for a while. Zach goes by his watch, which is EST (home time) so we are always coming up with different times of day. My computer still has home time = more confusion. We have no concept of meal time, bed time, or when we need to leave the campsites. We've never left a campsite on time as far as when their checkout time is.

Speaking of checking out of a campsite - Zach is so ready to do that now. We're at the Sleepy Hollow campsite in Wall, SD. We never intended to stay here, but after the Badlands (which was amazing and I will have to post the pictures another time), we went to Wall. I'd always heard of Wall Drug and didn't really know what it was all about. Well now I know and it's kind of crazy, kind of weird, kind of freaky. We're a little sketched out being here, but we can't leave in the same gory way that you can't help but crane your neck at the roadside accident. We stayed for hours and spent some money we shouldn't have. But it was nice to be luxuriant like that for once. Jacob was an absolute crab after the heat in the Badlands (boy was it hot! We're guessing it has to be within a few digits of 100 degrees) so we bribed him with ice cream in Wall Drug and then, satisfied, he fell asleep in the stroller. Then we found the good stuff (shooting water fountains and such) and tried to wake him. Nope. By then it was late, but we didn't realize it because we'd just changed time zones and instead of staying light til 10:30, it got dark at 8:30. I don't think either one of us wanted to actually stay in Sleepy Hollow (how creepy sounding is that?), but we had no choice because all over South Dakota there are signs that you can't park overnight and we really want Jacob to see just a couple things in town this morning.

So here we are, sort of a little afraid to even set foot outside...it is just that creepy, in a way I can't even explain. Zach wants to blow the joint so I have to wrap this up. I know I still have to finish some of the other posts, and I will do that later. I have to actually write in detail about the places we've been and I have to actually post pictures here. I'll do it all eventually.

--------------------

Update: I just got word that it was 104 yesterday and it's already 95 degrees at 11am! Did I mention I've been mildly sick all week? I've been going through the various cold/flu symptoms all week long...today begins the draining...mmm.

Day 6

I'm sitting here in Chamberlain, South Dakota and I'm thinking it's as close to Heaven I've ever been. I freaking love it here. I don't want to leave. We decided to treat ourselves and spend two consecutive nights in a campground. Not the same campground as yesterday, but one that costs money nonetheless. Of course they have wireless because that's the top-of-the-list-qualifier for any campground that we may choose. Last night the signal reached our camper, but today I couldn't get a signal so I'm under a shady tree near the communal area with my back against the coarse bark. The wide expanse of the Missouri River is in view off to my left, and the remainder of last night's moon is still in view above me.

Last night we met a lady from Arkansas, just as nice as could be. They just came from Mt. Rushmore, where we are headed today. That'll be after the Badlands, of course, something for which I am really looking forward to. It feels like this is where the trip is really beginning. I figure we'll probably end up parked somewhere for the night tonight, maybe still in SD. That'd be fine with me. I'm loving the flat landscape as far as your eye can see. There's something so cleansing, or freeing about it.

Since I've been sitting here typing, I also met a little boy, I'd say 7, from South Dakota. 'Cody' asked me to help him with his over-sized bike and then came over to look at my computer. He was interested in the pictures I was uploading. There was the picture of the peacock and he told me his dad hunts 'em. I made a sad face and his look asked me why that made me sad. I tried to explain to him that I'm a vegetarian and I don't believe in that kind of thing. "Well he does 'em," he explain, "shoots 'em and then throws him in the woods." O..k...I wish I could write that with the accent written in, but to be honest, I couldn't even understand half the words he was saying, let alone mimic them in writing. He thought I was saying he was lying, so I tried to explain about a person's individual beliefs and right about the time I got tongue-tied, he got distracted and up left me alone. But for real though, peacocks are probably one of those animals that you can't shoot, right? Jesus, I don't even know if they're native to this country.

I guess I'd better shape up and start typing my blog while we're on the road so that I can just upload it when we get to another campsite. I was doing that the first couple days, but now that I've settled into this vacation mode of ours, I've gotten lazy about it. I did just spend a couple hours uploading more pictures and titling the ones I had already posted, so go take a look at flickr again, and go back to the beginning of the vacation pictures though, cuz I tried to explain the location of things and other details.

But this is nice, this slowing down. And I'm not even homesick one bit.

Days 4 & 5

Day 4: The divided gender roles Zach and I have taken on since we started living together have been really apparent lately. I started noticing it in bits back when Jacob was born, but being in these tight quarters, out of our element and together 24/7 has felt like a very abbreviated case study in History of the Nuclear Family. I was always aware of the slow evolution of our personal family dynamic, and somehow ok with it. Right now, though, I feel like the bad example in a Womens Studies textbook.

I joke with my mom friends that before we moved into our house, I used to be able to put in a light bulb and Zach used to be able to remember to feed himself. They all agree and come up with equally absurd examples of what couplehood is like in their homes. But seriously, we’re a modern couple, and before that we were each modern singles living independently of one another. We think modern thoughts and have modern ideas, we’re raising our son to be a modern man (read: sensitive, thoughtful, and fully aware of the fact that there are women working on the construction sites too). As a teenager I was the one at home who mowed the lawn (and I can remember doing so well into my third trimester of pregnancy). When he was growing up, Zach’s grandfather taught him to cook. So why is it considered second-rate when I’m the one doing yard work, and why has Zach still not learned where things belong in the kitchen? What caused us to fall into a 1950’s-type rut?

Back at home before we even left, I did 98% of the packing while Zach was in the yard getting dirty with the machines. And before that everyone was telling us their RV stories. In half the cases, someone specifically stated that the husband did the driving and the wife never drove it. I couldn’t understand that. When we’re at home and we ride together, I am usually the one driving because I’m so antsy that I would get bored over there in the passenger seat. I was totally planning to drive this thing too. Afterall, I’m the one who’s better at staying awake.

Ack! We have to check out of this campground now! Beaver Trails Campgrounds in Austin, Minnesota....soooo nice! We've been to Chicago, slept at a rest area in Wisconsin, now we're heading out of this place to SD and Mt. Rushmore.

I'll finish my feminist rant later! Check the flickr link for more photos...I'll have to title them all later so you know what they are.

Follow link to pictures

I haven't had time to title them and tag them and all that obsessive stuff, but if you just can't wait to see pictures go here.

Days 2 & 3

Day 2, 6:30pm: We left our Rochester locale with a gas station in mind and found one within minutes of departing. So here I am waiting while Zach fills up, holding my breath to find out how much it’ll suck from our account. $95.71.…and we still had a quarter tank. We haven’t even traveled our anticipated daily average of 6 hours.

The guy who showed us the ropes when we went to pick up the RV was really good, but he was young and had spent many family vacations in RV’s like this with his parents, so maybe the reason he told us that we could make it to California and back on three tanks of gas is because he wasn’t the one paying for it! Or perhaps he just slept through all the fill-ups? Previously we’d been thinking that the gas was going to be the most expensive part of the trip, and we were doubting not only our ability to simply traverse the entire country, but also the ability to pay for the juice to get us there and back. Then when we heard him and re-heard him tell us (because I thought it was too good to be true and kept asking him, “Are you sure?!“) that the gas wouldn’t be more than $500 total, we were stoked. Riiiiight.

So now we’re back to thinking we’re pretty screwed.

As if the cost of gas wasn’t funny enough, we had to go in circles (literally) just to get to the gas pump. Zach estimated it perfectly and pulled right up to that sucker at just the right angle, only to find out the pump was out of order. Since backing up in this thing is a bitch, involving me getting out and shouting fruitless instructions at the front and most likely would end up in some kind of catastrophe, we went with the ‘damage control’ option of circling the parking lot repeated times to achieve the desired angle. I’m glad I got to be the one who could stay inside and save face.

After that I had my first big ‘motion drama’ involving something other than my body parts. Last night I learned my first RV lesson: Don’t walk toward the back of the RV at night unless you want to trip over the suitcase in the middle of the floor which you yourself just placed there 10 minutes prior in an attempt to keep the drawer under the fridge from opening and closing all the while you’re driving - and fall flat on your face. The lights from the cars behind your vehicle blind you and you can’t see a damn thing. Anyway, that’s what I call ‘motion drama’, any injury incurred while in motion. Today was ‘motion drama involving other objects’. I was filling a sippy cup with milk, fresh from the farm and in a glass bottle, for Jacob. When I went to put the bottle back in the fridge things got all crazy and items started falling from the fridge, rolling all over the floor. I got them settled back in their proper places and the bar holding the items on the door shelf fell off, releasing more bottles onto my toes. Lesson: Never turn a sharp corner or go over a bump without warning the standing person about the impending danger.

Anyway, it took me all of the rest of NY to write that. We’re at the welcome center in Pennsylvania now for a little stop. I've been typing this up on my laptop and when I get somewhere with wireless internet I'll post it.
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Day 3: At the Pennsylvania rest area I got out and took some pictures, we watched the sunset, had dinner in the RV, watched the Gilmore Girls, and went to bed. We didn't plan to stay the night but didn't end up leaving the place until this morning at 10am. We were so tired from all of everything leading up to the trip and really just had to wind down so we could have a clean break before really beginning the adventure.

Today we passed through Drew Carey’s city, and then got lost somewhere in Ohio the first time we actually needed to depend on the GPS my mom and Jamie loaned us. That 'lady' is so annoying. We talk about it like it's a person. We were driving around in circles (again) looking for the Tops that the GPS kept telling us we were driving through. 3 rounds later we started to realize that maybe the Tops just wasn't there anymore but the GPS lady didn't know that yet. So we settled for a Walgreens and there I had my sole Ohio experience. The lady who checked me out was sooo nice and had a slight accent. Jacob didn't set foot outside the RV for two whole states. He doesn't want to leave it! He freaks out when we have to, and he's just as happy as pie sitting up on the 'loft' playing with his freaking Bob the Builder machines. That's all he wants to do.

Now we're at a campsite in Indiana - our first campsite, and they have wireless! I'd like to just plop down here and stay forever. We took Jacob swimming when we got here, then to the playground. I've got to do laundry in the morning because Jacob peed the bed last night. Good thing I had those puppy pads! Ah, we're having a great time though...

Pictures tomorrow before we leave the sweet Heaven of internet accessibility.

Day 2

Well. We didn't leave until after dark. Ha! There was just too much to do and the yard was all dug up. We completely missed the graduation party we were in Rochester for. But at least we did actually leave before Day 1 was officially over. And it's ok because we got to spend some time with Zach's family today. Jacob was so damn excited that he stayed awake for the first half of the ride here. He's up in the front seat, by the way. The RV people told us this vehicle would take a carseat just fine, but as soon as we went to take a look at it, I knew it would be a problem. Besides the two front seats, all the others are side facing. Any carseat safety-obsessed parent of this generation knows you can't put a carseat side facing. All the safety features in a carseat are there to protect a child rear-facing or front-facing. So the AAA people decided that we'd have to put him in the front seat. Apparently you can't disable the airbag in the model we have. For real? They had to get on the phone with some kind of carseat specialist to figure out what to do, and I had to sign a waiver about them putting it in the front with an airbag. I know this sounds crazy, but you have to understand I'm convinced we're going to die in this thing and I want to do all I can to prevent that. So there's me in the back, with only a lap belt. Great, Zach and Jacob will be alive and well, but I'll be there with a broken back. Anyway, Zach doesn't have a head rest on his seat so I guess he'll have a broken neck. We'll be even. Our child will probably manage to get off with only a broken nose from the airbag.

This all sounds very dark and pessimistic, but another thing you have to understand is if I say these things outloud then it's like there's less of a chance of it actually happening.

Well, we did the Strong Museum with the M. family. I think Zach and I would both agree that we're already so tired, and we love our friends so much that we'd really like to just stay here the whole week and hang out with them. But oh boy, this museum is the greatest thing I have ever seen! We'd better hit the road now or we're never going to make it to Ohio or wherever it is we're planning for tonight. First we have to stop at Wegman's and load up on some stuff - the hot item on my list is air freshener for the bathroom because even though we haven't used the facilities in there yet, whatever is under there friggin reeks! Oh, and I've already had two minor accidents in the RV while we've been driving. I keep tripping over stuff. There's the sore wrist, the bruise on my shin and the scrape running the length of my ulner. Look it up.

I'll post pictures as soon as we get some wireless internet access!

Happy trails....