Least Favorite
Moment:
Aside from the 2200 mile drive home (that’s a given!), I
would say it would be the night we camped at Pismo Beach with The Cackler. Besides the loud talking and laughing going
on until 1:15 in the morning (we were miserable!!! Not sure why we waited so long to say
something), the campground itself was pretty gross. While it was on the beautiful Pacific Ocean,
the bathrooms were so gross that we decided we would be dirtier if we HAD
showered in those than if we had just stayed in our own personal dirt. I showed up at the restrooms early in the morning
and was delighted to see the cleaning crew there. I asked them which ones had already been
cleaned so I would stay out of their way and she told me the first one. I walked in.
I walked back out because I was sure I had gone in the wrong one. I confirmed with the cleaner that I was
indeed in the “clean” one—and YEP! She
said I was. And YEP! It was nasty. Also—that night was our only night we set up
camp in the evening and tore camp down the next morning. It is so much work to
get the camp set up/torn down that we tried to avoid ever having to do that
after only one night, but this night it couldn’t be avoided (not that I wanted
to stay there any longer!)
Back to the long drive home for a minute, though-- I had a terrible, panic-striken moment after we left Yosemite on Thursday afternoon and started the drive home. It was probably my lowest moment on the trip (there were a few low moments for me, but this one stands out the most.) We left Yosemite at 2:30 in the afternoon and it was going to take us 7 hours to get to Las Vegas. The road out of Yosemite until we hit Highway 95 took us about 4 hours to travel and it was the most desolate and isolated stretch of road I have ever ever ever been on. We would travel over an hour before we'd see a sign of life (either a single house or another car). There was NOTHING as far as the eye could see and I started to feel like I was going to suffocate. It made me so nervous to think of what would happen if we were stranded or had car trouble (there was no cell service during this stretch). Also--I am perhaps the most extroverted extrovert you've ever met and to go all this way without seeing anything just made me feel like I was going to die. Literally! Michael looked at me and asked how I was and I burst into tears and said I couldn't handle it anymore. The isolated roads, along with the fact that I couldn't wrap my mind around how long the trip home was going to take us (DAYS!) just made me lose it. Once we got to Highway 95 and started to see Vegas' lights in the distance, I was fully recovered.
Funniest Thing the
Kids Said:
Will’s Junior Ranger speech (“I can take care of ALL of
you! I will be Maddy’s bodyguard! I AM a Junior Ranger!” was pretty good. Also, one night we were getting to our
campsite around 10:30 at night and he looked at the clock and said, “10:30?!? That’s 12:30 in Nashville. WHAT AM I DOING???”
Another random funny thing (if you know our 12 year old John and his addiction to sports trivia and useless information pertaining to all things athletic/sporty) was when we were driving through Nowhere, Texas yesterday afternoon and stopped in a town called Shamrock to eat our picnic lunch. He suddenly piped up and said, "Oh! I know all about Shamrock, TX! This is the town that Notre Dame University sued because they had stolen their Fighting Irish logo. Notre Dame won and the school had to change their logo. See? They have changed it on their football field, but the baseball field hasn't been changed yet. They have different logos on those two fields." We rolled our eyes, thinking, "whatever....you can't possibly have heard of Shamrock, TX." But sure enough....as we drove through Shamrock, the little fighting Irish logo was plastered all over the town (and calling this a town is a stretch...it was tiny.) So, he was right.
What’s your dream for
your next family adventure?
My dream for the next family adventure is going to involve
everybody sleeping in their own beds in their own rooms tonight. Beyond that……well, we’ve kind of been ruined
now. It’s going to be hard to find a lot
of excitement in a trip to Gatlinburg or Destin now. I think eventually, we will do an urban city
tour: Washington DC/Philadelphia/NY/Boston sort of trip. Michael has always wanted to go sailing in
the Caribbean (that might be an empty nest thing, though).
What was the most
unexpected part of this trip?
The most unexpected thing for me was watching my children go
from being brothers/sister to being friends.
When they had nothing and no one else to entertain and distract them and
all they had was each other, the relationships between them thrived! They made up the silliest games and songs and
have their own inside jokes with each other now and I just did not see that
coming! It was such a blessing to see
this unfold NOW. At home, they all have their
own rooms, we have a few TVs and a neighborhood full of friends for them to
retreat to when they don’t get along. On
LWOW, however, all that was stripped away and we were all involuntarily drafted
for the “Become a Better Family Member Boot Camp” which was super challenging,
but so rewarding and worthwhile.
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| Waiting for the shuttle at the Grand Canyon |
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| Give these two a deck of cards and they are set |
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