Ramblings from the road

Okay, Hi!

It’s 10/10/2020 and its definitely time for a check in! We have been on a real roller coaster ride these past few days, more to come on that…..  But, we are currently checking in from gorgeous West Virginia. We rolled in to our campsite at Little Beaver State Park around 9 pm last night… something we keep saying we aren’t going to do anymore, yet CANNOT seem to avoid. It is official……traveling with this trailer is painfully slow and very, very challenging. The 3 kids in the backseat bench together is something new for them (and us) and they are now within arms reach of torturing one another….and there has been NO lack of that.  I will not deny them of their absolutely adorable and sweet moments together, those have happened as well, but there is certainly more drama than ever.

Before we left Atlanta, we sold my total mom dream of a vehicle (Yukon xl, with captains seats in the middle row and TVs), and we are pulling the camper with Matt’s beast of a truck.   It’s a strong, steady ox, but we are adjusting to a different way of travel on many levels.  No TVs, not much WiFi, and no barriers between them….  I hate to verbalize that we have come to rely on electronics as a means of survival for travel, but we have… Removing these little mind-numbing devices was one of the challenges I was looking forward to on this journey…..( I am making this sound a little dramatic. On past road trips, and there have been many, I usually make them spend the first half of the ride on other activities like reading, coloring, music, games, before giving into an iPad or movie) In general, I want to get rid of some of the unnecessary modern luxuries and force us all into knew ways of doing things. But, so yes, go ahead and call me batshit crazy, but I can’t really stomach the idea of them glued to a screen at any point of the car time, and missing the live movie unfolding outside of their windows as we travel into new uncharted territory for us. But anyhoo… it has been exactly…..  challenging.   In addition, all of our past RV travels have been in Class C’s ( the type that you drive the whole unit, not tow), and those are certainly what we prefer. I have actually made dinner and served it to the kids at the table while we were driving…. they have unrestricted access to the bathroom for their q 30 min bathroom needs… they could crawl into their bunks and go to sleep when the mood struck them…while Matt was still plowing down the road…. I’m not sure any of that is legal, oops, shh, but it made traveling oh so easy. 
We purchased the travel trailer for this trip because we needed to have a car with us ( fill you in on why later).  So ALL of this jibber jabber is to just paint the picture that there has been more fighting, extra tears, and an unusual amount of drama…. and bathroom stops…but I am holding out the hope that everyone adapts, grows their coping mechanisms (myself very much included in this one), expands their ways of occupying their time,  and learns to manage the interpersonal struggles of a family of 5 in a truck cab.   

  So back to the trip

We had several amazing and beautiful days in Wilmington NC.   We were able to escape the wilderness for a bit and tame our feral ways in my mom and dads beautiful home. We did 100 loads of laundry, took just as many baths, and got some time with our beloved beaches and ocean.      We rolled in Sunday evening to the smiling faces of my mom, dad, sister and brother in law. This did not come without some heavy COVID anxiety.  We got tested twice before leaving Atlanta, but at this point had been a little more than a week on the road. We pretty much had only been with our family unit, but you just don’t ever know for sure, ya know? (The family we had visited with in Raleigh also had negative covid tests) So as cool as I thought I was with the plan to go stay in my parents house, I found myself panicking as we pulled into Wilmington.   Last minute we decided to try and find somewhere for us to all get rapid tests, and found a Medac urgent care that did them.  But they swiftly informed me that I didn’t meet any criteria for testing and we would be paying $180 out of pocket per test…. oh and a 90 minute wait..  so, no thank you… we decided to go on faith and the knowledge that we live as carefully as we can.   We got in just in time for one of Meems’ delicious home cooked meals, and we settled right on in to our Wilmington home.

First full day in Wilmington (10/5), we worked the first part of the day and then spent a relaxing afternoon out on the South End of Wrightsville Beach. (Henry got some really good waves, and we saw a little pod of dolphins). We gamed the evening away at my sister and brother in laws epic house/ garage, ate a delicious dinner picked up from Fish Bytes, and wine on the back porch with my mama and daddyo. 

Next day (tues 10/6)
Not super important, but notable, I got a drastic haircut with my girl Jenell, who is now a lifer friend and the only one I trust with my hair. After another bout of damn thyroid problems, all my hair has fallen out, and it was time for a chop. The kids played all morning with my parents who have been missing them like crazy.   In the afternoon, we drove out on the beach at Fort Fisher.   It turned out to be really chilly and I felt like a total wuss shivering under my beach towels hiding behind the cars, but that chilly air breathed some real life into the kids. They were so full of pure joy and energy and it was so fun to watch them run around and just do whatever their little hearts were telling them to do. There was hardly anyone around, felt like we had the beach to ourselves . Mom, Dad and Dee were out on the beach with us.   It was too cold to swim, but there was lots of running, kite flying, digging, sand drawing, fishing, and just straight up happiness.
We had originally intended to leave the next day, but maybe we just got to use to the easy life? Or maybe it was because we realized we had some work to do on the camper??? Either way we stayed one more day. We needed to replace the flooring of the camper so Matt went ahead and knocked that out, and I had a wallpaper project that I hadn’t gotten to in the bathroom, so I took care of that.   We ended this day with a boat ride over to Masonboro Island and a late afternoon spent there.  We found a big granddaddy horseshoe crab swimming around which I flipped over and let the kids examine.   Isabelle led everyone in some beach yoga and gymnastics, and the boys walked over to the beach side of the island to surf. Mom cooked some fresh flounder that night and we just loved on each other as hard as we could, knowing our departure was eminent.
I will leave you all here with all these beautiful warm fuzzies…. because things kind of take a turn after leaving NC.  Nothing too terrible and all is well, but we were put to the test and lost a little of that good vibing for about 24-36 hrs… stay tuned my lovies.