Adventures of a Mama & Four Boys

We traveled 13, 000 miles, saw a total of 33 states and 42 National Parks. We did it together with the help of family, friends from home, and friends we met on the road. We got scared, we laughed, we screamed, and we were left speechless. We had huge successes and epic failures. Some plans failed, while impromptu moments left lasting memories.

As I enter back into “normal life” I am left with a surge of emotions. My life is too busy. During the trip there were moments of nothing. Those moments of nothing turned into great imaginational moments within my boys. One example is when they were playing in the lake at Glacier National Park and start a pirate adventure or waiting for the rain to let up at Mount Rainier and made special poles to go squirrel fishing. They worked together and laughed so hard their bellies hurt. At home we are too busy to allow any room for boredom which means there is no room for imagination.

Stepping out of our lives allowed such clarity. My second or third run after I got home I thought to myself…man I hate this! I was laying in yoga thinking…man I love this…..the boys cried about cotillion ….. but begged for football. The point is it became very clear to all of us what in our lives we loved and what we wanted to never do again.

Another great thing that came out of this trip is the boys sense of ownership over our lives. During the trip they were all responsible for certain jobs and when something would fail or not work out they would ask what they should do. My response was always, figure it out, I’m dealing with my own jobs. The amazing thing was, they did. They worked it out and solved so many problems. They also figured out how to keep me on task. The other day I was at Starbucks and ran into a friend. I started chatting and loosing track of where we were headed. The boys took my iced espresso out of my hand and filled it up with my protein shake and then quickly devised a plan to break into the conversation so we could be on our way. It was until I was in the car that I realized I had just been “managed” by these boys…hmmmmm, not sure if that’s a good thing but it was nice seeing them all work together!

One thing that I didn’t really expect is the sadness that would come with coming home. I had been planning this trip for over a year and spent every waking moment thinking and planning and worrying and then doing. When it was over it was ….well is….a huge let down. My life continued here but something about me changed. I’ve been home for 3 months now and there is an empieness…or maybe I don’t know everything is so blahhhhh. I guess its like a wedding all the dreams and planning for the big day, then its just over. I keep waiting for the old me to show up so I can stop pretending life is awesome and really feel grateful again. Christamas is coming…..I love Christmas and we got an ornament from every stop. Maybe Christamas will bring me back!

Someone asked me lately…So would you do it again? Hell YES!!! I would do it a million times over. It really was a trip of a lifetime and I know we will be sharing this trip together forever!

We have made it to Nashville….I have previous things I’ll get back to but here’s where we are now.

NASHVILLE

Lesson 1 for the Boys-Judge on personality not looks

We are at a RV park that is well, rugged. A transformer blew up next to our RV so the entire RV Park was in a tizzy. We met a lot of nice people and my boys learned a thing or two about handling people that speak different and look a little different. They learned that you don’t laugh at a man wearing short shorts with suspenders because his belly is too big to keep them up, oh, and bright colored crocs are very comfortable. They learned you don’t ask someone if that if those are their real teeth. Lots of good lessons.

Lesson 2 for Me -Don’t change the process in front of a server

Know what they are planning on oredering before the server gets there. My friend Kathy recommended a restaurant called The Aquarium. I have always let the boys order for themselves. This has caused some issues because the two older ones are now ordering off the adult menu…”I’ll have the lobster” and I may scream if one more mac n cheese plate shows up to my table. They also…never choose a vegetable. So tonight I thought I would influeance their choices and insist on a couple of things during the ordering process. Two of them are lucky that they got anything at all!

Lesson 3 for my dad- Not all boys remember to put on underwear

It is really humid so we decided to go dinner in casual clothes and bring our pants to change into when we got to the Opry. I had to go get the tickets at will call, so dad offered to go back to the car and help the boys change pants. By the time I got back to the car one of them had peed in a bottle, three had not put on underwear and were not loving pants with no undies, two of them out grew their pants and were complaining, and one forgot his shoes!

Lesson 4 is for the Grand Ole Opry

We got our tickets, we were dressed in our Sunday finest, and were in the 2^nd row. There were a variety of performers singing and even some dancing. It was a great show and the boys loved it. I’m not sure if the Opry loved it. For some reason, they allow food and beverages in the seats. The second row had no chance with those boys and the their eating habits. Seriously, they are like pigs at a trough!

Lesson 5 Dad Again- Don’t choose Griffin as your walking partner

It was raining when we left and our car was pretty far.  We were walking through the parking lot and the boys were, of course, rain skating! It was a little stressful because it was night, cars were everywhere, amd it was raining.  Dad decided to attempt to hold Griffins hand.  Well trying to hold Griffins hand during a rain skating seesion prove to be a challenge.  Fin almost took dad down a couple of times.  He was jumping and trying to slide.  It was so funny watching my father try to stay upright with a little boy carrying on like a cat getting put into a tub of water! I was so funny!  By the way, Fin won dad let go and just enjoyed the RAIN SKATING!

Let the Good Times Roll

We had a great time in Hannibal MO.  It’s the town the Samuel Clemen’s aka Mark Twain grew up in.  The entire town is Mark Twain land.  From the Riverboat, Sawyer’s Creek, and Town Hall; where Huckleberry and Becky Thatcher lived.  We had read the Ton Sawyer and Huckleberry Fin so it felt like we were walking back in time.  We even hiked through the caves that were referenced in 5 of Mark Twain’s books.  We got to hear the storied behind the characters of the books and see and tough and walk their paths.  He really was a great author.

My Bookends

A great quote by Mark Twain is, “To succeed in life, you need to things: ignorance and confidence.”  Well I guess this means that our trip is going to be very successful!  My ignorance for tornado row……My confidence that is just a regular old road trip!  This trip is definitely going to be successful if the wisdom of Mark Twain is correct!

It’s been a busy few days! Our air conditioner wasn’t working so we had an awesome guy meet us at the fairgrounds, where we were staying the night.  He was there at 8AM and fixed our AC unit.  We were very happy as we are heading into some heat.  Mike’s new best friend.

On our way to the KOA near the Denver Airport, Mike was flying out in the AM.  The coach aka Ol’Bessa! stop running, Mike got her out of the intersection and almost made it to a parking lot…then she died….right there in the entrance to a shopping center.  Mike jumped on the phone with triple A and I started directing traffic.  Well we spent the next 4 hours waiting for a the tow truck that tows big rigs.  Thank You Triple A, that one tow was the cost of 3 years of roadside service!

Poor Ol’Bessa!

The people of Colorado were for the most part, sooo awesome! There were the ladies who brought us ice cream and words of encouragement.  A few jerks that rolled their eyes as they passed because they had to go around. But in a category all by themselves was Craig and Lyeah, the nicest couple!  They not only stopped  to see if he could figure it out but then offered to let us stay at their home in their barn/office.  Even when they found out we had four boys, they offered a bbq and said they had a pond the boys would love! Who does that!?!  They were so cool that I wanted to take them up on it!  Then, Mike offered up a Marriott suite with two rooms!   Mike also found a mechanic that came to us and he beat the tow truck.  He got ol’Bessa running and we moved her to the parking lot.  Then as he was going through the wiring, it started smoking!  We had a short in one of the cables to the battery.  He disconnected everything, told mike that the best course and safest action would be to take it to the International Service place because they could figure out exactly where the short was so we don’t end up having a fire.  He was great!  Mike had already talk to the International guys and explained he was to catch a flight and his wife and kids would be stranded, could they help? Yes!!!  By 7AM on a Saturday morning, they were working on it! Had it fixed by 2 and Mike went stand by and made the 4 o’clock flight and I pulled into WaKeeney Kansas by 7!!!  What a great day and I feel soooo grateful to all the people that helped get us back on the road!!!

We are in Route!