Rolling Nerd Fest

Repairs are at last complete on the motor home. As an added bonus, all the lavender paint got a brand new shiny coat. Now, where should we go next? Especially now that the weather is getting so nice in Florida…

In job-starved Provo, a piano move is very reasonably priced! This is how I spent Tuesday.

Because what are visiting relatives for if not for helping with your move. Good luck to Kristin & Josh in their new apartment!

Where else would the uber nerds go on a Saturday night in Utah Valley? The whole evening was dripping with hipster irony.

All the locals dressed in their most coffee-house chic skinny jeans, scarves, expensive canvas shoes, artfully wrinkled chambray, and the ubiquitous “nerd” glasses. It was like walking through a Pinterest board.

We ran into people we knew from years ago. Provo is a small town, after all.

Just before my alarm on Tuesday–an early alarm so we could drive to Provo to see my married kids and arrive before rush hour–a loud crash rocked the USB. Instantly I knew. “Someone hit us.”

Melanie ran out to attend to the person who hit us. Her small Volkswagen looked very broken up. No injuries, thank goodness, but the nine-year-old was very upset and took several hours to calm down. Thankfully, the rest of the family took care of him because I had too many other details to attend to.

Batman had flown back to Tampa on Sunday to testify on a case. I got to call the police, the insurance, the repair facility, and the roadside assistance folks. And I had to tell Batman that I broke our new toy. He refrained from yelling at me for parking in front of my sister’s house so my nieces could have a slumber party with me.

Luckily, all the little girls had already gone back into the house so only my kids were still aboard for the collision. My kids were already on the phone with one another explaining that there would be another delay before we could be reunited in Provo. Insurance doesn’t cover emotional anguish over travel delays, even if you haven’t seen your siblings in over a year.

I drove the USB to the repair facility. Mom picked me up and the phone work really started. It took some arm twisting, but we finally convinced some repair places to help us. The senior adjuster helped. The shop went from “We don’t have any openings for three weeks,” to “a day and a half,” to “we are working on it now, and now we are doing the parts of the repair we had previously refused to do, and it will be ready tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon.”

They will make it road safe, but ugly and I will have the body work done back in Florida.

The girl who hit us said she was reaching for her Chapstick. This repair is likely to be over $10,000 total. Her car looked really bad as well. Expensive morning. But, it’s just stuff. And no one was hurt.

We have been in Boise enjoying time with my mom and my sister’s family. My four nieces are the sweetest! Then my baby brother came up with his darling wife and daughter. Yay! A fifth niece to play with all weekend! Today we ran off and got mani-pedis. We followed that with thrift store shopping where we bought Monopoly Jr.

Then we HAD to teach the nieces the glories of capital acquisition. When they felt sorry for one player and tried to contribute from their cash to help, I lovingly explained that running out of money was part of the game and wealth sharing interfered with the natural progression of gameplay. They were still so cute comforting each other through their financial crises.

Other weekend fun-having:
Singing around the fire
S’mores
Muppet Treasure Island
Lego Movie
Wet Parade of Eagle, Idaho
Fireworks
Antiquing
Trampoline
Church together
Scones
Eric’s birthday at El Mariachi Loco
Sidewalk chalk
Slumber party in the USB

And this is how you lose a week of your life…
July 4 getting ready to drive
July 5 driving and getting ready to get sick
July 6 sick and getting ready to drive
July 7 really sick while Batman drives – West Virginia
July 8 still sick – Indiana
July 9 less sick and back to driving – Nebraska
July 10 driving like a ninja, albeit a drippy, sniffly ninja – middle of Wyoming

Batman took Jack into the city to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. And the American History Museum. And the Washington Monument. And the White House ellipse. Grandma & I stayed at the RV with the dog and watched the thunderstorms roll across the city. We rested our tired joints and treated Grandma’s blisters.

Our campsite overlooks one of the many playgrounds here at the park. Jack has been playing with the other kids from the other campsites. Kids visiting DC play differently, I’ve noticed. Tonight’s adventures included pretend British bombardment of a jungle gym standing in for Fort McHenry. Jack has given his stuffed animals tragic back stories involving war, loss, and military honors. Also, when he wears his new pilot’s bomber jacket, he speaks in a gruff, bossy voice and only answers to the call sign “Badger.”

I’m going to bed now. Tomorrow is my favorite holiday!

I continue to be surprised by things I thought I knew, but now realize that I had no clue, like when my second child was born and I went to put the two kids in the car by myself. Whole new experience. This was one of those days. I have taken subways. I have taken kids on subways. Grandmas on subways…whole new experience.

Grandma was an absolute trooper and let Jack & me drag her on a city bus, two Metro trains, through Union Station, and on a Gray Line tour, which included a transfer to the Arlington Cemetery Tram. And then we did it all in reverse because we had to make our way back to the campground. But she got to see everything she really wanted to see. And Jack was perfectly awesome.

Then we came home. I made dinner, did laundry, and went grocery shopping with Batman. Why do DC grocery stores not allow you to take the cart to the parking lot? That’s both weird and inconvenient.

Here are some pictures of Jack and Batman outside Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. The tour was mind-blowing and worth every penny and every mile out of our way to get there. The home and grounds are lovingly preserved by an army of skilled people who–and I did not know this was possible–love Thomas Jefferson even more than I do. I had a complete fangirl meltdown out on the lawn where, on July 4th, 800 immigrants will come to take their oath of citizenship. Once I had recovered, I took these pictures of my guys

I noticed the lady on the right edge of the frame. “She looks just like Steve’s wife,” I thought. Steve, a Scouting friend from Tampa, grew up in Maryland. We had spoken about how we were both going to be in the DC area at the same time. Scouting is a very small world, but this is ridiculous. Sure enough, there’s my Bobwhite buddy Steve in the blue shirt and navy shorts walking from left to right behind Jeff and Jack.

This next photo is of me and my sweetie and this very cool house. While taking this one, Jack said, “Mom, is that your first selfie? Good job!” He’s so proud of me.

After Monticello, we drove to Cherry Hill RV Park in Maryland, just north of DC. We had dinner at Timbuktu, famous for their crab cakes. They did not disappoint. My mechanical pencil is on the plate for scale. It does not fully convey the 3- or 4-inch height of the crab cake. Or the way the sweet crab and touch of fiery spice dance across your palate. Ooooh, baby!