Adventures in Moving

Aside from our slow start, we had numerous other adventures while we were traveling to help my parents move.

My sciatic nerve pain came back (and hasn't completely gone away yet either).  SO much fun when your leg goes numb while you are trying to carry a heavy box.

While cleaning out the shed, my hubby reached in and as he pulled out his hand this snake bit his glove.  Thankfully he had the glove on because it turned out to be a copperhead (no worries folks, it's now dead).

On our way back to Florida we had a caravan of 3 vehicles.  A Uhaul, a truck pulling a utility trailer, and a minivan.  My mom, the kids and I were in the minivan; my dad drove the Uhaul; and hubby drove our truck.  The thought with this arangement (aside from the fact that my mom and I didn't want to drive the big stuff), was so that if the kids needed potty breaks we didn't have to stop at truck stops or rest stops.  That worked out great!  The other reason was that we were going to be the "rabbit" and scope out areas ahead of the big vehicles. 

Driving 900+ miles in one day is just not feasible, so as the rabbit vehicle, we were able to find a motel that allowed us to park the Uhaul as well as our trailer near our room before the guys even got there.  The most important criteria for our stay was that at least one room be hidden away so we could run an extension cord from the trailer to the room.  Why?  Because we needed to plug in a freezer FULL of food and that's not something you can ask the person at the reservation desk.

We also had issues with the tarp that was on our trailer.  It kept ripping and flapping in the wind so on day 2, hubby fell behind.  Day 2 also found the rabbit vehicle falling behind because of the number of bathroom breaks the kids wanted to take.  Because we were able to skirt a traffic jam we passed my dad about 20 miles from our house and caught up to hubby as we pulled into our driveway.

My dad decided he wanted to stop for dinner a few miles from our house and almost pealed the top off the Uhaul when he accidentally went down a drive through lane.  Luckily he was able to get the person behind him to back up so he could get out without any damage.

Moving is never a dull thing, but thankfully this time no one ended up with a cracked rib (it happened when we moved once).

Funny Meeting You Here

First let me start off by apologizing for not posting for so long.  My family has been away from home for almost 3 weeks and rather than announce to all the world that our house was sitting vacant, I decided to go silent till we got back.

Now that we are back, I will take a few posts to recount our trip.

Traveling (especially traveling with kids) can be problematic.  Luckily we got the drama out of the way early.  We hadn't even made it 1/2 mile from our house when we realized we'd forgotten something.  So we decided to use a parking lot to turn around.  We were in our pick up truck so that would not usually be a problem, but we were towing our trailer.  That can make it harder to make certain turns.  The big issue was that we weren't counting on the sand along the edge of the parking lot being about 5" deep.  So hubby had to get out of the truck and put it in 4WD and after a bit of rocking back and forth we got out. 

Needless to say, we got a much later start than we wanted to that day.  Add to that the fact that kids and their bladders don't always cooperate with our plans and we were just hoping to get close to 1/2 of the way through our 900 mile trip.

Towing a trailer necessitates stopping strategically.  We can't use a drive thru for meals and we can't just park at a Burger King to use the bathroom either.  We've found that rest stops at the state line are usually pretty clean and has ample truck parking for us to fit in.

On our way into the GA welcome center bathroom, my kids pointed to a car in the parking lot and said, "Mom, I know them from Lego class."  I looked at the child in question and said, "It can't be them, but it does look like them."  On our way out of the bathroom, we walked by the car again and I saw the mom and guess what?  It was them!  What are the odds that we would see someone 250+ miles from our house.  And then to find out they were headed to Virginia as well (150 miles away from where we were headed).

When I think about it, if we hadn't had the delays in our departure, that wouldn't have happened.  Interesting how things work out.

Right Place At the Right Time

Saturday, Opa had final sermon and Sunday school preparations to do and hubby was getting back from his business trip.  He's had some long, busy days, so I knew Jon would want a nap when he got back.  Being that both of those goals are more easily accomplished with no kids running around the house, the kids and I went to "The Living History Farm" in Des Moines with Oma.

At one point early in our drive there, we encountered so much rain that we considered turning around and trying again on Sunday afternoon.  I'd looked at radar images before we left, so I was pretty confident that we may encounter some rain but that it wouldn't be nearly as bad as what we were driving through.  Luckily I was right.  The fact that I had brought rain jackets and umbrellas made the decision a little easier as well.

For those of you not familiar with The Living History Farm, it is a hands-on experience that takes you through Iowa farming from 1700 through the early 1900's.  They have "actors" who tell you about how life would have been during that time.  We talked to pioneers from the 1850's who were eating lunch prepared over a wood fire using food grown on the farm from their time period (let me just say it smelled so good I wanted to join them).  We saw how they made brooms and RX pills in a "town" set in 1865.  We spent about 3 - 4 hours at the farm learning all kinds of new and interesting things.

About the time I was expecting Jon to be getting to his parents house, I got a call from him.  Unfortunately, he was experiencing car troubles.  You see, our truck was too big to fit in the parking lot at the airport so he had taken his parent's car.  After calling his dad, it was determined that he would just drop it off at the dealership so they could work on it next week (apparently this problem had happened before and it is still under warranty).

Of course I felt kind of bad that this happened to him, but I was glad his mom and I didn't have that car for our trip because then we could have been stranded with the kids somewhere.  Then I got to thinking some more.  He had been able to limp the car for a while, but made the decision not to drive any further once he got to Des Moines.  What's more, he was only 2 blocks from The Living History Farm and 1 mile from the dealership when all this happened.  If we had turned around and decided to come back another day, he would have been stuck there waiting for someone for much longer than he did (he had to wait for us to finish part of the tour).  Talk about being in the right place at the right time. 

A New Addition

Guess what?  We have a new addition to our household.  We have a "new" cat.  Our friends who just moved to Qatar have been trying to find her a new home for a while.  She's 11 year old and declawed.  We know how hard it can be to find an older cat a home (we did it a year ago).  It's even harder because they want the option of taking her back when they come back stateside.

We have taken care of this cat before.  In fact, she and Jon ended up with a bit of a love-hate relationship from that time together.  You see, while she was with us, we had her declawed (upon the request of her owner).  After I took off her pain patch early one morning, she promptly found Jon and treated him poorly (I won't go into specifics.  Let's just say it was not pretty.). 

Since then, she has been known to run away, vomit, and hiss whenever she sees him.  This time though she has mellowed a bit.  There was no vomiting or hissing and she even lets him hold her.  We realize we have a ways to go before she is comfortable, but at least we are making progress.  And her "owner" is happy that she's with someone who loves cats and has children which will keep her acclimated to such things (since they have a 16 mo old).

Unfortunately, all this change has affected the cat in some less than desirable ways. We have traveled with her before and she did very well that time.  In fact, she curled up in our laps or on our sholders in the car and slept most of the way.

The two days we just finished traveling were very different.  She pooped in the truck minutes after refusing to use the litter box (luckily we had vinyl down to protect the seats from the kids), meowed most of the way, and every time she got nervous she would climb into my lap and invariably scratch me.  I think all of this has determined that while traveling she will be in the camper rather than the truck.  We did that for the last part of the trip yesterday and it seemed to work better for not only us but her as well.

We're excited about our new addition, but can't wait to be in a house so that she can settle into her new life.

Our Trip to Ohio in Numbers

Day 1

Miles traveled: 286

Hours traveled: 6

Bathroom / gas stops: 2

Average traveling speed: 45MPH 

Average mpg: 7.5

Day 2

Miles traveled: 236

Hours traveled: 4.5

Bathroom / gas stops: 2

Average traveling speed: 60MPH 

Average mpg: 12

The difference:  5 "heap big" hills and a rain storm we had to deal with on day 1.

So Close, Yet So Far Away

Well, yesterday we traveled 418 miles.  We had every intention of going the full 501 miles, but it was not meant to be.  We left SC at 10:30 and were making good time, till we got just South of Richmond, VA.  It would appear that VDOT was working on repaving part of I-95 N and only one lane of traffic was open.  I'm not sure what they were thinking (or smoking) because it was 4:30 on a Saturday in the summer! 

Anyway, from what we could tell with Google maps, traffic was backed up for about 3 - 5 miles, so we found the first exit that could accommodate our truck and camper and stopped for dinner, gas, and to see if traffic would clear any.  Well, an hour later it hadn't, so out came Google maps again and we ended up finding an alternate route. 

Part of the time we were paralleling 95 so we were able to see the traffic that was stuck.  We saw 2 tractor trailers that had passed us earlier in our trip stuck in that backup.  I'm guessing they had stopped at the same truck stop we did, but then got back on I-95 after their stop (at least I hope for their sake that they weren't stuck there that whole time).


Needless to say, the delay made it so that rather than pull into my parent's driveway at 8PM we were just clearing Richmond at 8PM.  Rather than take our chances with murderous deer after dark, we decided to stop for the night.  This morning we are 83 miles away from my parent's house (and about 2 hours when driving the camper). 

The natives are restless to get to our ultimate destination, so I'm guessing we'll be on the road soon.  Maybe we'll be at my parent's in time to greet them when they get home from church... provided of course that VDOT isn't doing any more construction today.

A Wornderful, Yucky Day

Well, today we "moved" from Hollywood, FL back to the campground across the river from Kennedy Space Center in preparation for the final shuttle launch scheduled for July 9.  We weren't planning on being back here for another week, but the last campground was less than ideal.  Don't get me wrong, the campground was nice, but the train that drove by multiple times a day and night was more than we could handle.  Especially since it was so close to the back of our camper.  Can you say, sleep deprived family and cranky children.  Not pleasant.

(You can see the blue commuter train just to the left of the bush.  The most annoying were the freight trains that came through at 2 and 5 AM)

The drive today was relatively uneventful.  A little wind, but no real rain to speak of.  This was our view for most of the day.

(Clear skies ahead with rain behind.)

The rain did finally catch up to us, but not till after the camper was all set up.   We've spent a majority of our time camping in this area and we found out from the ranger at the campground that today was the first rain they've gotten since we left and we only got rain once while we were here the previous month so this is definitely needed.  In fact, we couldn't even rent a fire pit to roast marshmallows because of a fire ban that was enacted a few days ago.  :-(

We did have one issue today though.  We made a stop for gas and food and on the way back to the truck, our daughter slipped and fell in (and into) a puddle of oil.  You see, being 60 feet long restricts the kinds of places you can stop (and park), so we end up going to truck stops.  We had parked in a spot where the previous occupant must have leaked about 1 qt of oil, and of course my daughter found it.  Many paper towels, shed tears, and about 30 minutes later we were able to get back on the road (without shoes and with knees that are still a bit black).  

 (Note the hands that match the color of our pickup truck.  One knee got pretty nasty too).

I don't know how many times we tell the kids to walk in parking lots and watch where they are going.  Perhaps this will be remembered and there will be no repeats. 

What a day!

Yesterday, we changed campgrounds.  Not only did we change campgrounds but we changed coasts (OK, we moved from the East coast of Florida to the West coast of Florida), but they are very different.

Anyway, yesterday was quite a day.  We had a few issues getting the camper packed up to leave (some of the pieces we use while driving were misplaced and we either had to search for them or find something else that would work).  Luckily we found what we needed and we were good to go.

The drive was rather uneventful.  The only problem we had was when we got to the new campground.  The place we are staying is so large (it is affiliated with a sales office, service center, Cracker Barrel, and gas station) that we ended up going to the wrong building initially.  Once we got to the campground we were able to find our space with no problems.  Then the fun began...

We parked the camper, unhitched, and got everything leveled only to find out that we were 1/2 in. too close on the side where the bumpout is (we would have pushed into the pole that holds the electric and water).  That meant we had to undo everything we'd just done and hook up the truck again to move it (for just 1/2 in.)!  ARGGG!!!  Did I mention that our campsite has NO shade and it was close to 90 out when we were doing this?  By the time we had gotten the camper repositioned we were balls of sweat and it was 3:30PM (we got to the campground at 1:30).  Lesson learned:  Make sure to measure and give enough space for the bumpout before unhitching in the future.

Then our daughter complained of an ailment that required medical attention, so I searched for local urgent care centers.  Luckily we found one and were able to get her an antibiotic to help speed her recovery.  I lucked out with this too, because the pharmacy I picked just so happens to GIVE AWAY the antibiotic the doctor prescribed for her.  By the time all that was done it was 5:30PM.  I hadn't eaten since breakfast, Jon hadn't eaten since dinner the night before (I was able to feed the kids lunch during the may-lay of setting up the camper).  In the strip with the store where we got the antibiotic was a Little Ceasar's.  Yeah!  "Pizza!  Pizza!" to my rescue.  I haven't eaten there in YEARS and it was as good as I remember. 

After we got back to the campsite, we inhaled our dinner so that we could make an 8PM movie by the pool (complete with free popcorn).  The kids crashed as soon as we got back to the camper and Jon and I were not far behind.

The day was certainly eventful.  If anything, I think this helped me remember that we are not on vacation.  We are now living out of a camper and "life" will still happen.  I'm just thankful we didn't have a vomiting episode to remind me.

Life "On the Road"

We have been out of Virginia for a little over a week and it's strange; so far it feels more like a vacation than a change in our living situation.  Perhaps that's because we haven't done any school (this is a scheduled break for Mommy's sanity).  Perhaps it's because we've been doing so many fun things each day (swimming at the pool, flying kites, playing shuffleboard, etc).  Whatever the case, I'm kind of looking forward to when we settle into a more "normal" schedule.  At the end of each day, I feel so tired and yet I feel like there are so many things I wanted to get done inside the camper to make it more comfortable to live in long-term.

We have settled into a campground across the Indian River from Kennedy Space Center.  It's a local park and is absolutely beautiful.  It is shaded just enough that you don't roast or get too cold.  They also maintain it well and the staff is very helpful.  As of right now we are scheduled to stay for a couple more weeks (so hopefully the launch will actually happen before we leave).  Unfortunately they are already booked for Memorial Day weekend, so we are going to use that as our cue to head over to the west coast of Florida to visit family and friends there for a couple weeks.  We want to come back to this campground at some point, but the final shuttle launch is scheduled for the end of June and they are already booked, so we shall see.

Tomorrow we are off to Kennedy to take the tour and see the shuttle on the launch pad (we are camping 10 miles away which means it looks like a speck on the horizon).  I want the kids to see it up close to help them realize it's magnitude.

So far, life on the road has been relatively uneventful and relaxing.

Never Forgotten... Always Loved

Today is a bitter sweet day for me.  With the exception of a few months where I lived in New York for a summer job (where I meet my hubby) and again for 3 months when I lived in Ohio last summer, I have lived the last 27 years of my life in Virginia.  I have lived in multiple houses, but all within about a 50 mile radius.

Today, all of that is changing.  We are officially moving out of the area.  We are still not sure where we will ultimately settle down; at this point we're thinking it could be Florida, Texas, or Australia.

This is exciting because we are one step closer to having our own place again.  The time of living in limbo is drawing to a close.  It's also an opportunity to find a new house and decorate it.  We sold or gave away all of our household furnishings last year, so I get to start from scratch (and let me tell you my tastes have changed a lot since my wedding registry).  I will also be able to make new friends, and depending on where we move, get reacquainted with ones I haven't seen in years.

On the flip side, I will be leaving behind friends I've made over the years as well as most of our immediate family.  I remember when I graduated from high school a certain song was my mantra.  For all my friends and family that I'm "leaving behind" I dedicate this to you.

Friends by Deborah D. & Michael W. Smith

Packing up the dreams God planted
In the fertile soil of you
Can't believe the hopes He's granted
Means a chapter in your life is through
But we'll keep you close as always
It won't even seem you've gone
'Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong

And friends are friends forever
If the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
'Cause the welcome will not end
Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long to live as friends.

With the faith and love God's given
Springing from the hope we know
We will pray the joy you'll live in
Is the strength that now you show

But we'll keep you close as always
It won't even seem you've gone
'Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong

And friends are friends forever
If the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
'Cause the welcome will not end
Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long to live as friends.

Inaugural Run

Sorry this is late in coming, but things have been a bit hectic the last few days.  You see, we actually did it.  We packed up the camper and hit the road.  We left Northern Virginia on Friday, April 22 and headed South.  Granted we only went 80 miles or so, but it was our inaugural run and we were spending Easter weekend in the Richmond area with family.

There was a bit of rain and wind, so that set my nerves on edge a bit at first.  As we got further and further down the road, I got more and more comfortable.  Parking was quite easy considering how long the camper / truck combo is and that it was almost dark.  Unfortunately, we had a malfunction while trying to unhook the camper from the truck, so family had to rescue us and take us to get a part to help us unhook.  Of course, I'm thankful that we didn't go so far away that we didn't have that option.

The last few days have been spent visiting with family, but today the grandparents are going to take the kids for the day so that hubby and I can fix a few more issues with the camper that we've found now that we're living in it.

Tomorrow, we will be off yet again, heading even further South.  All in all, I can't complain about our inaugural run.  Glad it was short, and glad there is family in the area to help us work through some of the issues we've found. 

The Countdown has Begun

If things go according to plan, we will be leaving Northern Virginia on Friday afternoon.  We have a few more things to do but we're confident we can get them done before we leave.

Our trip is starting out pretty low key.  We will visit family in Southern Virginia for Easter weekend and then we will proceed to Florida.  This trip is exciting for numerous reasons.  1.  It means the next stage of our lives is beginning.  Hopefully, the life of being a nomad is about over.  2.  We are going to be heading South, which means we will get to be warm even first thing in the morning.  My kids and I love being outside and being South will allow that to happen more.  Hubby has been complaining about VA temps for YEARS.  In fact, he wears flannel till the temps go over 70 or 80 degrees.  Perhaps now, I will see him in flannel less and maybe even shorts on occasion (that doesn't happen unless the temps are over 90).  And 3.  We have booked a campsite in Florida near Kennedy Space Center which will allow us to see the shuttle launch without having to steak a claim somewhere hours before the launch.

Just like the shuttle, we've had a few delays of our own.  In fact we found an issue last night, but it can be overcome.  I'm going to miss Northern Virginia, because it's where I've spent almost all of my life.  It's where most of my friends still live.  But I've found that those times that I've gone out of my comfort zone have been tough at first, but well worth the leap of faith.  So T- minus 65 hours.

Warmth Please

A few weeks back, we had temperatures of almost 80 degrees in Northern Virginia.  Needless to say, temperatures the last few days are giving us all the incentive in the world to get out of Dodge and move South.  A couple days ago we got a dusting of snow (luckily it melted hours later) and today we had a bit of sleet and just generally cloudy skies with cold temps. 

We are at that point now where we are so close to being ready to go that we can taste it, yet hubby is now getting inundated with work which makes it hard for him to get those last few things done before we go.  We've also been asked by friends and family in the area to stick around for certain functions that are happening over the next couple weeks.

I'm not sure how much of it we will stick around for, but I can guarantee you this... if the temps don't get back up toward that 80 degree mark soon we'll be South by Easter. 

Back on track

A quick update:

The water heater is now fixed.  We are moving forward again, but obviously our plans have been delayed a bit.  We are hopeful that we will be on the road very soon.  More to come.

Almost Ready - We think

Well, it looks like we are about a week away from having the camper ready for our trip South.  I think we have now dealt with all the recent problems we've discovered with the main systems (water, heat, AC, etc) and are now just down to working on those things that will make living in less than 400 sq ft for the foreseeable future a bit more comfortable.

I'm excited because we are about to embark on an adventure.  I'm a bit scared because we're about to embark on an adventure.  I'm a planner and I like to know what I'm getting myself into.  I don't know anyone who's done what we are about to do.  I've tried researching ideas on how to organize the camper so we can sleep, eat, teach, and work from it, but I haven't been able to come up with anything.  I'm also stressing a bit over the fact that we will no longer have access to a library to check books and DVD's out once we are on the road (a staple so far while homeschooling).  Not only that, but gas prices are skyrocketing and I'm just watching our bills go up with each place we are thinking of driving to.  It's making me think our adventure will be a bit more subdued than originally planned.

Who knows, maybe I'll keep a journal of things learned and done while on our adventure and I'll write a book about it.  Perhaps we will be the beginning of a trend where people try to work while on the go in their camper.  I'm certainly hoping so, since we've made some modifications to the camper designed for that purpose.

Warm Weather = Progress

Here in Northern Virginia the weather the last week has been quite nice.  This has made it so hubby and I have been spending quite a bit of time working on the camper.  Granted we have all the incentive in the world right now to get things done.  You see, there is snow expected tonight as well as the record breaking temps of the last few days are going to be a thing of the past. 

Our goal right now is to try to leave this coming weekend.  I'm not sure if we will be ready to leave this weekend, but I think we will be able to leave sometime early next week. 


Part of me is excited, and part of me is a bit nervous.  I'm looking forward to being in "our" house.  I'm not looking forward to driving the camper from place to place.  You see, the length of the truck and the camper combined is going to be 40 ft.  We're going to have to stop at truck stops for gas and food.  We're also going to have to plan any trips off the highway carefully so we don't get stuck in a position where it's hard to turn around.

We did find out that Google map on our iPad is AWESOME and allows us to scope out our route.  We were a bit worried that our truck didn't have a GPS when we first got it, but to be honest, we like the iPad better.  Considering there are many other people traveling with a travel trailer, I'm sure we will find other things along the way that will help us get around. 

Walt's place

Figured out the pictures problem. Enjoy!
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So, we got off the cruise ship and said to ourselves..."Do we really want to go back to Virginia?  Or would we rather look around Florida and enjoy the warmth and see if maybe we'd be interested in moving to Florida (we do intend to move South but haven't decided on exactly where)?  Guess what we picked?  Virginia.

NOT!  We decided to stay in Florida for a bit longer.  We drove to the west coast of Florida to Ft. Myers and visited with a friend of mine who I had not seen in years.  Then we drove up to Tampa and spent some time with my Grandmother and Aunt.  Then we decided to go to Walt's place (aka Disney World).  We ended up doing Epcot the first day, Animal Kingdom the second day, and Magic Kingdom the third (and final) day.

While at Epcot we learned that our daughter was not as fearless as we thought she was.  While on the "Test Track" she decided she didn't like fast rides anymore.  Keep in mine it went 60 mph for maybe 10 seconds and the rest was probably no faster than 35 mph.  After that, daughter and I ended up doing everything together and Daddy and son went off and did some of the fast rides together.  The day was ended with the fireworks and laser spectacular.

The Animal Kingdom was all about my daughter.  She LOVES all things animals.   The rides tended to be a bit more tame because they were designed to go through animal habitats so there was only one ride she didn't do that the guys did so it was a good day.  Animal Kingdom also closes earlier than the other parks which was good because of how long our day had been at Epcot.

Magic Kingdom was of course the favorite day for all of us.  We'd all gotten into a groove and had figured out the best rides for each kid.   It didn't hurt that they have many more rides to choose from (even with a few of them being closed for renovations - the downside of going "off season").  Mommy also got to ride a few of the bigger rides with son while daughter rode a tamer ride with Daddy.

Cruzin'

When my parents mentioned in late November that they were going to book a 6-night cruise to the Caribbean in early January, hubby and I decided we would join them.  Why not?  We're homeschooling and we wanted an excuse to go where it was warm.

Our initial plan was to take 3 days to drive to Ft. Lauderdale since we need to drive a little slower pulling the camper.  When we decided not to take the camper we changed our plans to drive down in 2 days.  This saved us one night in a hotel but also gave us an extra day to get our camper and stuff moved out of my father's building (which it turned out we needed).

The kids did surprisingly well considering we drove 500+ miles the first day and just under 500 the second.  Of course the DVD player didn't hurt.  We knew we were going to be doing a lot of traveling, so for Christmas we got the kids DVD players.  What's cool about them is that the DVD players can play the same movie or they can play different movies.  When you have a boy who likes to watch Bill Nye DVD's and a girl who likes to watch animated movies it's great!

When we went on our anniversary cruise we decided we were going to wait till our youngest was 6 to take them.  Obviously we took them a bit earlier than that.  To be honest, the 4 year old did really well!  The 6 year old was a different story.  Just about every time we tried to take him to the kids program he would get clingy.  Apparently there were a few kids in the class who like to make fun of him.  I guess my son has not had to worry about such things before because he's always been the tallest kid in his class (on the cruise ship he was in the class with 8 year-olds).  This is obviously something we need to work on in the future, but it made the cruise a bit difficult.

It's safe to say that our families favorite thing about the trip was an "excursion" we took to a turtle farm in Grand Cayman.  We booked it with them directly which allowed us to save some money.  My parents were on the cruise as well so they went with us.  I think having all 6 of us there was extra special.

Hubby and I (as well as my parents) also went on a behind-the-scenes tour of the ship.  We got to go into the galley (kitchen), engine room (the room with the computers not the actual engines), food storage, laundry, and the bridge (among a few others).  Unfortunately, for security reasons we were not allowed to take our camera, but we did get our pictures taken with the captain.  If you like to know how things work behind the scenes, I would recommend doing this tour, but be warned it's pricey and it fills up fast (there were 18 slots in our tour and it filled up in 3 days with minimal advertising).

Will we take the kids on another cruise?  Yes.  Will we be doing it anytime soon?  Probably not.  Before doing so, we need to get the clingy thing worked out and I also want to do some research to make sure we pick the right ship and itinerary (we went to one port where I really wish we hadn't taken the kids off the ship).  Oh, and we need to save up some serious money.

I'm BAACK!!!

In Virginia.  Yep, you read that right. It's late January and we are in Virginia... in the cold.  Yuck!

I'm sorry I have not been updating you as faithfully as I would have liked but I will briefly explain what has happened over the last few weeks and will then give you more details over the next few days.

As I've said in previous posts, our goal was to get the camper ready so that we could take it down to Florida for a while.  Well, the date we were working with was Jan 5.  That way we had 3 days to drive the camper to Ft. Lauderdale before we left on a 6 day cruise to the Caribbean.  We had a lengthy list of goals and aspirations for the camper before we went and as we got closer to the date we were deciding which things could be done while "on the road."  There were a few things we knew we had to get done before we left including the flooring, a new toilet, and a state inspection.  We were able to get the Pergo installed in the camper (which my husband told me after the fact was said to be impossible by every forum he'd read).  By the way, it looks SO much nicer now.  Replacing the toilet was easy.  But when trying to get it inspected, we found that the emergency braking system and the brake pads and shoes needed to be replaced. 

Normally that would not have been a problem except we found out 1 day before we needed to leave and we had to order the parts.  Not only that, but we'd been storing the camper in a building my father had been trying to rent out for over a year.  Needless to say, he found a renter that wanted to move in immediately so we were forced to scramble to get everything cleared out.  This made things a bit more complicated for us, but we are VERY happy that he found a renter. 

We'd also been storing some old computer equipment from my husband's company that is in the process of closing.  He's been intending to sell it on ebay (and he's been successful selling the things he's listed, he's just been pressed for time to sort through everything).  That meant we also needed to find a place to put all of that (as well as the stuff we want to keep but not take in the camper).

Ultimately, we decided to drive to Florida (without the camper) for the cruise and an additional week to visit friends and family in Florida.  We will probably be in Virginia for 2 - 3 more weeks as we work on selling the computer equipment as well as working on the camper some more.  We now have time to do a few of those things that we were going to do "on the road" which probably means they will be done better too (always a good thing when thinking resale).

Now that I've caught you up on why I dropped off the face of the earth for a while, I'm going to go do some of those things you need to do when returning from vacation... laundry, grocery shopping, unpacking, and in my case school for my 1st grader.

Details and some pics of the trip will come soon (once I've gotten the pics sorted). 

Diamond in the Rough

As I stated in my last posting, we recently decided to buy a truck and camper.  Good news!  My husband has the truck he's always wanted, and we have a pretty nice place to call our own. 

It was very surreal to be driving the truck the other day with my husband in the passenger seat giving me pointers like I was just learning how to drive.  I admit, the truck is a BEAST and is very different than anything else I've driven. 

Thankfully we did not get a dually.  If we had, I'm not sure I would be willing to drive it.  You see, the truck we bought has a long bed.  It makes it nice when you think about storing things (especially since it also has a locking topper) but it is VERY hard to park.  Let's put it this way... for the next few months or so I will probably be "that" person who parks across two parking spaces (sometimes side-by-side and sometimes front-to-back).  I also intend to park so there is no chance anyone else will park next to me.  There is no way I will be able to park between two cars without hitting one of them... at least not for a while.

There is an up side to "the beast."  I have never felt more safe (from deer and stupid drivers in particular).  How can you not when you are the same height as a school bus?  I kid you not; we were driving in town and I could look straight from my window into the window of the school bus next to us.

The trailer is also a beast!  It is 38 feet long and has 4 distinct rooms. There is a room with bunks in the back for the kids.  Just in front of that is a bathroom (with a full corner shower).  Then comes the kitchen/dining/living area.  In the very front is the master bedroom. 

We have some work to do before the trailer is ready to go, but we hope to be going South before the end of December.  With the weather the way it's been lately we can't get South soon enough. 

It's taken a lot of searching but we've finally found our diamond in the rough.  Let the fun begin!!!