Rolling Nerd Fest

So for this week, our teenagers are at church camp in Virginia. I am down to ONE child, and I have ONE grandmother along to help. Suddenly, there is all this extra space, and quiet, and food! Jack enjoyed having all the adult attention. He and Dad played ping pong and pool in the game room and had a quick swim before lunch. Grandma took him to the camp store, where he spent his money on a whoopie cushion. Since then we have been subject to the full array of nine-year-old-boy gas-related humor. We are talking the wide, wide spectrum. The unabridged anthology. The director’s cut. The whole toot, and nothing but the toot.

Today was a rest day. All we did was check our kids into camp, and drive to a nearby town for prescription refills, RV porch light bulbs, and package shipping services. Here are the promised pictures of our campsite:

Meanwhile, we will spend tomorrow making our way to DC for Batman’s technical conference.

In the RV world, it is common to describe the on-board motion as a “constant state of earthquake.” Things come apart. One expects a cupboard door to fly open, or a handle to work loose. I did not expect to be on a highway in South Carolina and see my youngest son crawling towards me from the back bedroom clutching his chest.

“The window shade…the blinds and the whole frame…fell…off the wall…and landed… on my chest ”

Sure enough, the screws holding the blinds and frame had worked loose, and the whole assembly had come crashing down. A quick lunch stop at Walmart in Columbia, SC, for some washers, screws, and toothpicks. Then I brought out my carefully assembled tool kit. Electric drill, check. Wood glue, check. Pliers, hammer, drill bits. check.

And all of it repaired while we were rolling down I-77.

Other than that, it was just a long day in the Universal Space Bus. 495 miles to the KOA at Natural Bridge, Virginia, where we have a perfectly lovely spot with full hook-ups, cable, wifi, and a gorgeous wooden deck with a large gas grill, fire pit, and adirondack chairs. Really nice. Pictures tomorrow when the light is better.

Batman, Jack, & Pablo cheering on Chile against Brazil in World Cup action.

How I met the celebrity hosts of a Lifetime reality show OR

What it’s like for me to buy a bra

Day 2
With the USB parked in Macon, two of us made a quick, surgical shopping expedition to a specialty bra store. Livi Rae is the store featured in the Lifetime reality show Double Divas. We got personal fittings from the experts there and invested heavily in some quality support. As usual, they had difficulty finding much selection in my size & color, and the celebrity owners came in to comfort me during my near meltdown. They promised to continue searching for my just-right item.

We finished the day at Skidaway Island State Park in Savannah. A lovely spot, and close to some lovely people.

We made it to Forsyth, Georgia, today. 367 miles. Batman did most of the driving, but I got a short stretch at the wheel. Henry spent that part on Grandma’s lap. It feels just amazing to finally be on the road.

I feel excited to see the results of all my planning. I can’t wait for the next meal or activity or need to arise, just so I can see if I really did pack EVERYTHING I need. So far, so good. The fact that some people forgot pajamas is beside the point, and probably not my fault.

We pulled out of the neighborhood around noon, and got to our campsite around 7:15. We stopped at a rest area and made turkey sandwiches and tomato cucumber salad. For dinner, I made pork chops with cream sauce and coleslaw, while Batman took the kids and Grandma swimming.

It was a beautiful evening, as I walked Henry around the campground. There were fireflies! The breeze was making whooshing noises through the trees and there were at least three different frogs singing. The single most pleasant trip to the dumpster that I have ever had.

I am waiting for a carryout pizza to take home to my clean house and feed my family, who are mostly packed. It has been a frantic past few days as we checked off all our lists. A small sample:
Picked up Henry’s shot record
Took the Enterprise in for new tires, oil change, & fuel service
Copied keys to the Universal Space Bus for all the passengers
Climbed on the motor home roof and caulked all the leaky bits
Super-cleaned the windshield
Pizza is here! Back to packing!

The Universal Space Bus is getting its final prep before the Big Trip. The nice folks at Alliance Coach in Wildwood are checking the brake lights after the hitch work they did 3 weeks ago. “Hitch work” means having tow equipment installed on the RV and on the tow vehicle, aka “toad.” Yes, I let them drill holes in the frame of my Enterprise (09 Ford Flex Limited).

The family spent all last week living in the USB while attending Cub Scout Day Camp during the day. We learned a lot:

How to keep cool running only 1 AC at a time.
How to cook outside as much as possible to keep the dampness out
How to check the fuses
How to sleep on the couch and let Meema have the bed!
How to find the best armadillo holes to dig out (actually, that was just Henry, video later)
How to run to the dump station after dark to empty tanks
How to find RV parks with sewer hookups so I don’t have to run to the dump station after dark
How to sleep in the waiting room at Alliance