Saturday, November 7, 2015
Driving all day – WOW – I made it …..we made it! Safe and sound. Dawson said the DC traffic and driving in the city was harder or more stressful than the big hill inclines and declines. I sat on the couch most of the trip and was anxious most of the way but tried really hard to harness my mouth and not give Dawson so many “slow down” instructions for our mountain like journey over to Maryland. I did pretty well and Mena hung out with me on the couch and her fun spirit helped me relax and be in the moment and not worry so much. We prayed a few times along the route together – she is my little angel spirit girl and then we told stories, sang songs and looked out the windows.
We left out right on time a little before 10, after we met Battlezone Pete and Zapper his dog at the campground. Pete lives in West Palm Beach, FL - he shared his contact information. His dog was awesome, very well trained. We will have to send him an email and check in with him when in Florida. We didn’t attach the van initially and Dawson had scooped out a rest area along the side of highway about 30 miles down the road to hook up. I had all the girls including Summer with me in the van and we got our “redbox” movie stuck in the DVD player in the van – so the girls were really mad at me. They are worried about my “electronic” issues so far on this trip. It’s like I have a black cloud over my head with electronics. Franki was the hero – when we pulled into the rest area she jumped right out - got tweezers out of the RV and went to work on the DVD. She wwas able to get the dvd out – she was so excited! So the girls got to watch the movie “Pitch Perfect 2” from redbox - while we went over the crazy mountains – it kept them quiet and occupied and not fighting. Ended up being a good strategy.
I don’t know why I get so nervous on those roads – but this is my whole life in this RV and if anything would happen I would not be ok with it. But Dawson is getting more and more comfortable and doesn’t seem nervous. Which helps me – he does know my issues with the driving. And I appreciate that he is trying to let me know that he knows. I feel like once we do this today it will get easier for me to relax in the future. Like graduating to a new belt in karate or something.
It took us 5 hours to get here but we arrived at Cherry Hill RV park safe and sound – THANK YOU GOD and your army of angels for being with us during our journey! I feel your presence.
We just got her but we love this RV park already – its nice – well thought out and really big. I think the it has something like 400 slots for RV’s and Campers and then tent sights too. There is even a ball room here for events. Being a Saturday evening the ball room had some activity in it. Summer and I took 3 various walks in different directions through the evening to check it all out. Mena came with me one time to see the play area – it was getting dark so she didn’t play but it is pretty close to our spot. We are in spot 728, we are backed in and have a little brick patio with a picnic table and round table with chairs and a tree. It will make a great home for the next 2 weeks.
We all rested for a few hours after that drive. The cloud coverage all day mad me feel tired and well – I know I was just relieved to be here. Now I can relax. After awhile – we went back out for our 2nd night of Home Depot and Walmart adventures. LOL – we had so much fun last night we thought we would do it again. Really. We returned a few of the items we bought and found a few more. “Let there be light” is the theme – we are wanting to add some light to various areas of the RV and well if you know my hubby once he starts he wants to keep adding it here and there. So we bought a few options to see what will work best. I’m sure we will be back to get more before it’s all over....or he will order them online and have Amazon deliver them here to the RV.
Dinner was at Chipotle. Yummy and fast but fairly healthy. It was nice to sit and eat and not cook on the RV after being on it all day. We found a book store too for Q to get the 3rd book of the series. I will say this – as we adventure around these towns that we are not familiar with – sometimes it can be interesting to how I feel inside. I am cautious and realize that my suburban “sheltered” life style – comes out in me. It was interesting – because I felt out of place at the walmart. I didn’t want to take the kids in. I felt bad but at the same time my gut said not to go in. Dawson decided he wanted to go in and Q wanted to go with him. I was uneasy with Q going in but Dawson thought it would be fine. I will say that walmart was one busy place at that time on a Saturday night – I think it was around 7:30 or 8 pm. We drove out to the far part of the parking lot and sat and watched for them to come out the door. It felt like they were in there forever, and I didn’t worry until the girls said something about where are they mom. I spent the time waiting for them thinking through my mind how we are all people with the same issues and desires……I was pondering my thoughts and stereo-types and at the same time wanting to be smart and aware of our surroundings. The boys finally came out and had a fun story about a sweet lady named, Teresa that help them look for the lights we had found at a walmart in Pennsylavia the night prior. I guess she was funny and to some extent – she pointed out that they seemed out of place. It was a good experience for Q to be a man with his dad and help him out. Their experience inside eased my mind but I still felt we needed to move on and find a different walmart location next time. The camp ground said this is for the most part a safe area of town but we had traveld a ways away from the camp and while it is safe – it also has a guard and coded gate to get in and out of the park. What I have found is it can just take one turn and you can be in a sketchy situation. Just trying to be smart and not be too unaware of our surroundings….but also wanting to be “light” in the world. Different places are just different and well – my Johnson County comfort didn’t let me be comfortable tonight.
After the walmart - we found a book store in a mall for Quinten and we all went in this time. Q was excited to find book #3 with the help of a sweet young gal that worked at the store. She ended up asking Dawson and Q some questions –obvious that we were from out of town - and they ended up telling her what were doing here and in the RV. She loved it and wrote down our website. We didn’t catch her name but thank you Books A Million store clerk. We appreciated your kindness and help.
We came home and Summer got another walk around the RV park and I found this RVLOVE.com. It was an RV very much like ours – a Tiffin ALLEGRO – and they had the word “LIVE, LOVE, TRAVEL” across the top of the front windshield. If you all have been to my home in KC – I have “Live, Laugh, Love” written on our chalkboard wall in the kitchen. So I felt compelled to go back to the RV and look them up online. Their website is awesome – they are Julie and Marc and have been on the road for 18 months. I ended up emailing them on their “contact us” page. When I was down there it looked dark but when Dawson logged on to check out their site too – he was like go knock on their door. Well, I needed to get kids to bed and wanted to get comfortable myself. While I was doing my thing – cleaning up kids, making Q a bed and all – Julie ended up emailing me back – they are leaving in the am for North Carolina. It was close to 11 pm now but I want to meet them before they leave tomorrow. Julie said in her email that they wanted to take out early. We’ll see – I hope early isn’t too early. And maybe as we walk Summer in the am – they will still be here getting ready to go. It would really be fun to meet them as I think they would be good to know as resources and maybe new “friends on the road”. This is the busiest RV park we have been in so far and it feels good to have people around as we have been some what alone as we approach the off season in the Northeast. This feels more like what it will be like as we go south.
As I finally laid down for the night – I was very grateful for our safe journey so far and celebrating 5 weeks now on the road! God is good and we are doing this and getting better and better as we go.
I also had on my mind that we were going to meet Julie & Marc before they left. It felt meant to be.
Cheers!
Tiffany & Family
Driving all day – WOW – I made it …..we made it! Safe and sound. Dawson said the DC traffic and driving in the city was harder or more stressful than the big hill inclines and declines. I sat on the couch most of the trip and was anxious most of the way but tried really hard to harness my mouth and not give Dawson so many “slow down” instructions for our mountain like journey over to Maryland. I did pretty well and Mena hung out with me on the couch and her fun spirit helped me relax and be in the moment and not worry so much. We prayed a few times along the route together – she is my little angel spirit girl and then we told stories, sang songs and looked out the windows.
We left out right on time a little before 10, after we met Battlezone Pete and Zapper his dog at the campground. Pete lives in West Palm Beach, FL - he shared his contact information. His dog was awesome, very well trained. We will have to send him an email and check in with him when in Florida. We didn’t attach the van initially and Dawson had scooped out a rest area along the side of highway about 30 miles down the road to hook up. I had all the girls including Summer with me in the van and we got our “redbox” movie stuck in the DVD player in the van – so the girls were really mad at me. They are worried about my “electronic” issues so far on this trip. It’s like I have a black cloud over my head with electronics. Franki was the hero – when we pulled into the rest area she jumped right out - got tweezers out of the RV and went to work on the DVD. She wwas able to get the dvd out – she was so excited! So the girls got to watch the movie “Pitch Perfect 2” from redbox - while we went over the crazy mountains – it kept them quiet and occupied and not fighting. Ended up being a good strategy.
I don’t know why I get so nervous on those roads – but this is my whole life in this RV and if anything would happen I would not be ok with it. But Dawson is getting more and more comfortable and doesn’t seem nervous. Which helps me – he does know my issues with the driving. And I appreciate that he is trying to let me know that he knows. I feel like once we do this today it will get easier for me to relax in the future. Like graduating to a new belt in karate or something.
It took us 5 hours to get here but we arrived at Cherry Hill RV park safe and sound – THANK YOU GOD and your army of angels for being with us during our journey! I feel your presence.
We just got her but we love this RV park already – its nice – well thought out and really big. I think the it has something like 400 slots for RV’s and Campers and then tent sights too. There is even a ball room here for events. Being a Saturday evening the ball room had some activity in it. Summer and I took 3 various walks in different directions through the evening to check it all out. Mena came with me one time to see the play area – it was getting dark so she didn’t play but it is pretty close to our spot. We are in spot 728, we are backed in and have a little brick patio with a picnic table and round table with chairs and a tree. It will make a great home for the next 2 weeks.
We all rested for a few hours after that drive. The cloud coverage all day mad me feel tired and well – I know I was just relieved to be here. Now I can relax. After awhile – we went back out for our 2nd night of Home Depot and Walmart adventures. LOL – we had so much fun last night we thought we would do it again. Really. We returned a few of the items we bought and found a few more. “Let there be light” is the theme – we are wanting to add some light to various areas of the RV and well if you know my hubby once he starts he wants to keep adding it here and there. So we bought a few options to see what will work best. I’m sure we will be back to get more before it’s all over....or he will order them online and have Amazon deliver them here to the RV.
Dinner was at Chipotle. Yummy and fast but fairly healthy. It was nice to sit and eat and not cook on the RV after being on it all day. We found a book store too for Q to get the 3rd book of the series. I will say this – as we adventure around these towns that we are not familiar with – sometimes it can be interesting to how I feel inside. I am cautious and realize that my suburban “sheltered” life style – comes out in me. It was interesting – because I felt out of place at the walmart. I didn’t want to take the kids in. I felt bad but at the same time my gut said not to go in. Dawson decided he wanted to go in and Q wanted to go with him. I was uneasy with Q going in but Dawson thought it would be fine. I will say that walmart was one busy place at that time on a Saturday night – I think it was around 7:30 or 8 pm. We drove out to the far part of the parking lot and sat and watched for them to come out the door. It felt like they were in there forever, and I didn’t worry until the girls said something about where are they mom. I spent the time waiting for them thinking through my mind how we are all people with the same issues and desires……I was pondering my thoughts and stereo-types and at the same time wanting to be smart and aware of our surroundings. The boys finally came out and had a fun story about a sweet lady named, Teresa that help them look for the lights we had found at a walmart in Pennsylavia the night prior. I guess she was funny and to some extent – she pointed out that they seemed out of place. It was a good experience for Q to be a man with his dad and help him out. Their experience inside eased my mind but I still felt we needed to move on and find a different walmart location next time. The camp ground said this is for the most part a safe area of town but we had traveld a ways away from the camp and while it is safe – it also has a guard and coded gate to get in and out of the park. What I have found is it can just take one turn and you can be in a sketchy situation. Just trying to be smart and not be too unaware of our surroundings….but also wanting to be “light” in the world. Different places are just different and well – my Johnson County comfort didn’t let me be comfortable tonight.
After the walmart - we found a book store in a mall for Quinten and we all went in this time. Q was excited to find book #3 with the help of a sweet young gal that worked at the store. She ended up asking Dawson and Q some questions –obvious that we were from out of town - and they ended up telling her what were doing here and in the RV. She loved it and wrote down our website. We didn’t catch her name but thank you Books A Million store clerk. We appreciated your kindness and help.
We came home and Summer got another walk around the RV park and I found this RVLOVE.com. It was an RV very much like ours – a Tiffin ALLEGRO – and they had the word “LIVE, LOVE, TRAVEL” across the top of the front windshield. If you all have been to my home in KC – I have “Live, Laugh, Love” written on our chalkboard wall in the kitchen. So I felt compelled to go back to the RV and look them up online. Their website is awesome – they are Julie and Marc and have been on the road for 18 months. I ended up emailing them on their “contact us” page. When I was down there it looked dark but when Dawson logged on to check out their site too – he was like go knock on their door. Well, I needed to get kids to bed and wanted to get comfortable myself. While I was doing my thing – cleaning up kids, making Q a bed and all – Julie ended up emailing me back – they are leaving in the am for North Carolina. It was close to 11 pm now but I want to meet them before they leave tomorrow. Julie said in her email that they wanted to take out early. We’ll see – I hope early isn’t too early. And maybe as we walk Summer in the am – they will still be here getting ready to go. It would really be fun to meet them as I think they would be good to know as resources and maybe new “friends on the road”. This is the busiest RV park we have been in so far and it feels good to have people around as we have been some what alone as we approach the off season in the Northeast. This feels more like what it will be like as we go south.
As I finally laid down for the night – I was very grateful for our safe journey so far and celebrating 5 weeks now on the road! God is good and we are doing this and getting better and better as we go.
I also had on my mind that we were going to meet Julie & Marc before they left. It felt meant to be.
Cheers!
Tiffany & Family