It was a blast- Everyone

Its a little late, it has taken us a few days to adjust to being back to real life. The trip was a blast and we have decided that our last blog would be a wrap up from everyone just like the end of the Breakfast Club. First contribution is from Dernie Boch Junior the Singer (Kerrin). So my top three favs were Zion National Park in Utah, Breckenridge Ski Resort in Colorado, and watching Brendan do his “work outs” in the RV hallway every night. JK my third favorite was Mount Rushmore but it was very funny watching Brendan do his dumb workout and where ever you are in the RV you can hear his elbows cracking. Three things I will always remember  that were entertaining about the trip are hearing the exact same lines of “Can someone get me some v8 in a cup with ice and a splash of pepper on top”, and “you are an ugly rat and nobody cares about what rats think”. I will also remember Auntie Bella and Uncle Tim’s wedding in a tiny chapel in Vegas, it was weird being in a wedding with less than 20 people in the whole place. The last thing I will remember is having to repeat myself multiple times saying “put your nasty feet with disgusting toe nails down!” Second contribution is from the victim (Jorts). My top three favorite places were Zion National park, Colorado, and Niagara falls. The three things that I will always remember is Kim forgetting  to lock the storage cabinet with all the shoes in it,(good thing only one pair fell out) the second thing is picking up my dad at this random airport in the middle of no were and he was the only one waiting outside. The last thing is Brendan hiding my phone every time I would leave it some were in the RV and calling all my contacts. Third contribution is from the greatest redneck in America (Connor) . my top three places we visited were the farms in Iowa, Yellowstone, and the Badlands. three things that I will remember are all the kids yelling at me saying I am  not allowed to wear my boots and jeans. I will also remember getting to go see the car from dukes of hazard (the general lee). Lastly I will always remember   having to sleep with Brendan’s sword every night that he bought at wall drug which is another place I will always remember because we didn’t know what it was and we saw signs for like 10000000 miles on the way there. The next contribution is from the Antagonist (Brendan). My top three favorite places were Lake Powell, Karl’s house, and Breckenridge. Lake Powell was a really cool place that I could spend a month at, because where we went was awesome. You just drive your RV or car right up to the water then drop your boat and unload all your dirt bikes and quads and just have a good time. Karl’s was really cool because there was just nobody around and we could pretty much just do whatever we wanted which included our favorite things riding dirt bikes and shooting guns. Breckenridge was also really cool to see because it was just such a nice skit town. Three things I will never forget is the very first day when my mom drove into a low hanging wire and ripped down a lamp post in a parking lot, driving around in UBERS with just Connor, Sam, Brian, and I with Brian(my favorite brother) singing in the front seat with some creepy guys, and the last thing I won’t ever forget is just how much fun we had driving from place to place while we were either playing cards or fighting with each other the whole time it was just a blast. Next up you will be hearing from brian. The trip was a very dandy time. Brendan was bullying me the whole time, but when I was away from him it was pretty fun. My mom is making me write three of my favorite places on the trip. They probably were the place that goes by the name of Cedar Point Amusement park, a place that a guy named Karl owns and a lake that is called Powell. I liked the roller park because we got to do some of the most intense roller coasters in the world. I had bruises on my back the next day, that’s how crazy they were. We also got to go parasailing. Jake and I went together and the guy told us to do something in order to get dipped in the water but we didn’t know what he said so we almost got drowned in the water. I like the house of Karl very much. I learned how to ride a dirt biked with a clutch. We also played ping-pong, pool, and foos-ball, and of course I won every game I played because am the G.O.A.T at every thing I do. At the house of Karl I shot a pistol for the first time too. The last of my top three is the lake of Powell. At this lake we got to do jumps of the rocks and we even got to land in the water! My dad sometimes makes us jump off things onto concrete, he say’s it build character. Jake and I paddled together, but most of the time Jake was snap chatting his girl friend so I did all the paddling. Then we arrived at a destination of a place where we go rock jumping. There was a bunch gross wood chip lake slime we jumped into at one spot. Three things that I found absolutely historical were these kids were scooting down the a hill and they absolutely whipping. My dad and tom thought it would be funny if they put a stick in the middle of their path but our mom wouldn’t let him do it. We thought it was like the movie Big Daddy when he through a stick in the path of the skaters. Another thing that was funny was when I was rappelling down huge cliffs about 175 ft high and I had to use the bathroom so I went into the corner of the rocks and took a leak. But then the last rock we rappelled down everyone landed in my pee and I couldn’t stop laughing. The final thing that was funny was when we were touring mesa Verde and every one on the tour called our group the farting group. And on the way there we played cards for 6 hours straight. This trip was something that I will always remember, I liked waking up and know that we will be doing something fun today. Signing off for the last time (until we get to rent another rv). BBCC- Thank you Nanny

Day 26- Brian

Sorry a little out of order, we were fighting about who was writing what posts. We woke up in the Ohio campground, Mom let us sleep late so we were nice and refreshed. Since we were sleeping late our parents didn’t make us breakfast so we ate on the road. I had donuts that we bought from the day before. For the first part of the the ride we were all still in our beds and watching movies. After our movies ended we started to play some cards. We played blackjack with our dad, and he taught us the real way to play. We finally got to the campground and it was really nice. It was one of the “nicer ones” we had stayed at. After we got all set up we called Uber and drove to Niagara Falls. We have to take two ubers because we have so many people so the boys all go together and dad and mom take the girls. When we got there we got checked in and got in line for the boat. We got on the boat and the good spot, on top and by the railing. We started the trip and saw the first part of the falls. We got a little wet on the first falls than moved on to the second falls. This one was much bigger. It was raining very hard over on this falls from the water  and our ponchos were saving us from getting soaked. We finally got out of the falls and were getting off the boat and hiked up the falls to a spot take pictures. When we reached the picture spot there was this lady there taking an 1 hour to take pictures holding up the line. She had to get the perfect selfie and the perfect angle so she would look soo good. Since that lady was taking too long we just decided to leave. When we were waiting for the girls we sat outside the gift shop, this place has so many people that do not speak english , they all seem to be from china or India and almost everyone we saw does not speak english so sam decided to start counting how many english speaking people came out of the shop vs not english speaking  it was 9-1 with Kerrin being the one. We went back to the main part and ate dinner and it started to pour. The waitress was really funny and made fun of my dad for being high mainteneance. After the rain stopped we went back out and watched the light show on a bridge above the falls. We got a bench so we could sit down then everyone got up so I tried to protect our spot. But then the lights got so cool I had to get up and see them. Right when I got up a bunch of  foreign tourist stole my spot on the bench. I wanted my seat back so I went back and sat down right next to all of the people and then I farted really loud and the people around me left. After the show we called Uber. When I got my person it was some guy from India with a weird name, we were all scared he was going to kid nap us and it was only the boys in the car too. We were getting on to the on ramp for the highway and he was going 80 in a 35. Then There was a really bad smell so he cranks the A/C and sprays clone and goes all over sam’s face. We then get off the highway and pull a U-ey. Then we get back on the highway again and finally almost home. We get of the highway speeding again and beeping at people. Sam and Brendan noticed that we passed the campground and thought we were getting kid napped for sure. The then says ” is this it” as he pulls up to someone’s house.  We are all really scared.  Sam said after his heart was pounding he was so scared. We said no and told him it was back there and we finally made it back alive. For the comment I said he was a little bit of a speeder and only gave him a dollar tip, thats the fun part of controlling the UBER.  Off to bed heading to Lake George for our last day.

Day 27- Kerrin

Today we woke up at Niagara falls campground which I think was the nicest one of all. It had a fishing pond, zip-lines, and a nice bathroom. And yes the showers did have doors. As soon as we woke up our dad was making pancakes outside and calling us out as we woke up. After breakfast everyone went back into the RV and decided to start relaxing again and leave the bags of trash on the floor of the RV. My Dad was not too happy about our laziness because after we were told to bring out the trash once and didn’t do it my mom did her stupid guilt thing when she does it on her own and struggles but wants to prove a point. From there we started our drive to Lake George but we had no adventure planned for the day so the boys found the closest bass pro shop that was on the way so we could stop by. Brendan and Connor both had things in mind that they were going to buy from there so after a few hours of driving we arrived. Brendan walked straight to the fly fishing section and Connor went right to the camouflage hat section. Along the trip Brendan has seen more and more people fly fishing and he has decided to take that on as his new hobby. It is going to be entertaining watching him try to learn how to do it off of you tube videos, but what ever teaches him will work. For some reason every few times Connor goes to Bass he finds himself a new camo hat that he can begin to wear for a month or two straight until it gets too dirty to wear. I walk around the store with the boys acting like I know what everything is and what each brand name is for each gun but really I have no clue what the difference is between each gun and fishing rod. Brian walks around the boats and tries to plan out which one he will own someday on his private lake that he is planning on buying. After about an hour in the store Brendan comes out with his new fly fishing rod and Connor comes out with his new hat. Everyone else empty handed. We get out to the RV to find my mom hiding in there with her own box of fudge that she wanted to eat alone and in peace in quiet. There was a McDonald’s right next door so we stopped there for lunch and got on the road again to make it to Lake George. Not much happened on this ride except that my dad came back and played blackjack with Sam and I. He taught us the real way to gamble so we took a few dollars and it turns out that I am a really bad gambler. We played many rounds of that until I ran out of all of my money and went into negative amounts. We started to get a little closer to the campground so my dad had to go up and give directions but my mom keeps telling my dad that she doesn’t want to be given direction measurements in feet so as we are passing a road my dad points out that were were supposed to turn there but it was not his fault that we missed the turn because he warned her 5 miles back. My dad got angry and went to the back of the RV and took a nap. We finally arrived at Lake George, set up the RV and get on a trolley that brings us to a bunch of stores along the lake. We walked around for a little while and then went and looked at all of the boats in the water. There were signs everywhere saying not to feed the ducks but Brian ignored that and was feeding them his chips. Our parents went up to a restaurant and my dad was wearing a Bridgeway sweatshirt which caused a lady to come over and point out that she knows someone that lives near there. After that we quickly ran into a store so I could buy my final key chain. Then we got on our trolley and went back to the campsite. Tonight we had our first and last camp fire of the entire trip. My mom was very excited about this because we went the whole month and couldn’t have a single fire. My dad cooked some chicken so we ate that and then wrapped everything up and went to bed for the last time in the RV. So sad. Be ready to hear about our final ride with our destination of home.

Day 24- Connor

So today we went to the Indy 500 race track which was really cool but it took us like an hour just to find the entrance to get in but from the outside we could hear a car going around and it was very loud.  Once we finally got in there were actually a bunch of other people there watching the two cars practice so we went and sat with all of them. There were a bunch of parents with little kids that lived near by and they could hear the cars going around the track at there house so they said that instead of going to play at the park they would go watch some race cars, which I thought was pretty terrific if you ask me.  When we first sat down we thought they were done but soon enough the car started up again and came flying by us, it was going so fast you could barley take a picture of it. The cars turned out to be the new 2018 Indy cars preparing and testing for the race. After watching the cars do a few more laps we went into the Indy hall of fame and museum  where we saw every Indy car that had ever won the Indy 500 including the first ever car that won in 1911 reaching speeds just over 100 miles per hour which seems slow compared to the cars that were racing earlier going over 230 miles per hour.  So we  walked around the museum a little longer looking at all the other cars that had won and some of the trophy’s people got and then looked around the gift shop before going back out side. Once we where back outside we watched the cars do some more laps and then a random guy came over and started talking to everyone, he was really funny and introduced himself like 10 times, his name was Bruno and he knew a lot about Indy races, the cars and the track which was good because he told us all about it so we knew what was going on. So after like a half an hour of talking to Bruno he left saying that at Niagra falls we would all be there saying “man i wish Bruno was here” because he wanted to come with us. So after that we all piled back into the RV and watched the car do one more lap and we were off going to our cousins grandparents house. Driving to there house was propaply the hardest driving we have done the whole trip because it was a bunch of tight little side streets in Indianapolis. We got lost trying to get there but when we did finally make it Brian thought it was really cool because it looked like the house that was in the movie Home Alone.  The RV couldn’t fit down there driveway because it was too tall so we just parked it right in the middle of there street because it was just there family that lived on the road. So we all piled out and greeted the Deane family and then went and had a great  big delicious lasagna dinner. After dinner we went and swam in the pool. The pool was super nice and it was wicked warm so me and Brian stayed in it for like 4 hours till it got dark out and we had to go to bed. Being in the RV not hooked up to anything is hard because we don’t have any power so you can’t charge your phones. So we all went to bed to get ready for Notre Dame tomorrow that will be written by the Sam Man.

Suggestions to pass on

We have a five hour ride today and Mike is driving.  SInce we started our trip, we keep getting friend requests from people who are friends of friends and are planning cross country rv trips in the future.  While I am living it now, I decided to write about living in the rv and what has been helpful, special thanks to Carol , Jen and Bekie who dealt with all my questions, and I will add I have lived on youtube since January, any thing that comes up I can google and usually find a video to help.  My biggest source of help for rv stuff was the Jayco owners forum- a group of jayco rv owners and no matter what time I asked a question someone would reply in minutes to help explain something.

To start planning I subscribed to GoodSamsClubRv, paid $60 for year membership and it gives me free trip planning, suggestions for campgrounds that meet their rigorous quality standards within 1 mile of my travel route, warnings for low bridges or routes we can’t take the rv on, information about road side attractions, free towing if we break down, The best feature was the trip routing.  I would put in a destination and it tells me how many miles and hours it is from previous destination.  It also caluclated how much money I would approximately spend on gas for each leg and for the total trip.  The one thing I will caution is we typically do not travel the posted speed limit – some places it was 80 MPH. so for the most part for every hour of travel time listed we would add about 20 minutes to account for slower speeds and our gas stops take about 20 minutes.   This is a great guide to plan.  Our longest leg was about 515 miles which was about 11 hours driving,  Def too long, but kids wanted to see more places and they were really good riding, thanks to cell phones, cards, food and board games. Five hours travel time was ideal to me.  I am the type who wakes up at 5:30 every day and my preference was to wake up and leave while the kids were all sleeping, Mike does not like to be rushed and likes to enjoy the morning and go at a less hectic pace.  So we would alternate depending on the day. The rv holds 48 gallons of gas, the first couple of fillups we got to 1/4 of a tank, our debit card only lets us put in $100 of gas at a time after that We usually filled up around 1/2 empty because I always worried we would get on a stretch and run out.  Typical day we would get up around 7:30 shower, eat and pull out around 8- 8:30.  Sometimes we would drive a few hours to our activity sometimes a good part of the day and then do the activity in the morning.  We only drove once at night, spent 2 days at cedar point, reserved campsite for two nights, and after the kids got done around 7 PM fed them dinner and they got ready for bed and we drove till midnight and then slept at truck stop. We prefered day time driving because the sights were so beautiful and we felt it was safer.  We picked most of our campgrounds for convenience, close to road we were on, full hookups, good sams ratings of clean bathrooms, and friendly people running it. I live on trip advisor and go by the reviews of the former guests.  Many of the campgrounds have a guy in a golf cart escort you to your sight.  We brought camping chairs for each person and a four foot folding table to put the grill on and doubled as picnic table when we had friends visiting for dinner.

As for being in the rv. most essential item- the charger that plugs into lighter than can charge 4 devices, we use both ports and can charge 5 devices. I would also suggest you up your data plan, verizon lets you pay $50 for the month for unlimited data.  Not every campground has good wifi and alot do not let you stream movies.  We can’t watch tv while rolling unless we have generator on but kids didnt care.  We never use the campground cable, most nights the kids will  download a movie on netflix at bedtime and they all would watch that.  For practical items, we brought the toaster, portable grill, and electric skillet.  A big bowl for salad or serving, a mixing bowl with pour spout for pancakes, a container with spices, sprays and oil, grill utensils, cookie sheet, and big pot with strainer, small pot. (none of us drink coffee or tea but lots of people we met have coffe maker) The best thing we did was bought two sets of reusuable plastic cups with 6 different colors and each kid was given a color and those were their two cups.  They all washed their cup and put it away after using so they had it to use.  We also bought everyone a good reusuable water bottle, which they either filled with ice water or they would use the powdered gatorade mix to make gatorade.  We keep a gallon of milk, gallon of ice water and gallon of gatorade or lemonade in the fridge.  We use the water from campground to fill water in fridge, we do not drink the water from the fresh water tanks while rolling.  We only brought 10 plates and bowls so we do not have lots of extras piled up.  We stop at Walmart every 2-3 days, there is not enough room and we do not want the extra weight of stockpiling.  We always have easy mac, spaghetios and bread, pbj in case we don’t find a walmart.  Except for when my family was out, we eat almost always in the rv.  Much cheaper and saves time, sometimes the kids sneak out to subway when we get gas.  They did not eat as much snacks as I was expecting and was surprised when they were actually asking for fruits and vegetables.

For personal care, we bought two shower caddies one for the boys and one for the girls, they sit on the counter in bathroom and keep everything from falling, when they go to showers they usually just carry shampoo and soap and throw it over the showers to each other.  We all brush teeth in rv.  Each person in rv was allowed to bring only 2 towels and after they shower or swim we hang wet stuff on ladder of rv or in the shower to dry.  We also brought two mesh laundry bags and we put all dirty laundry in a mesh bag and store in shower.  Also everyone brought a rain coat and 1 sweatshirt and only 5 days worth of clothes.  Everyone has pair of sneakers, slides, shower flip flops and water shoes.  The shoe situation is the most messy.  We store them outside in one of the storage bays but they switch between slides and sneakers a lot so we always have shoes all over.    We did not bring any suitcases, everyone got a drawer for all their stuff and we hang coats and sweatshirts in closet. The kids each have a back pack for hikes, we store in cabinet.  When we hike they take their own waterbottles.  Fridge and freezer are really good size and with creative organizing can fit good amount of food. We have popsicles, ice cream and waffles on supply all the time. Portable speaker has been great for the kids to control the music in the back with phones.  We use the chromebook for blog and sometimes video.  Kids also brought playstation, they have not used it very much except for netflix.  We also have our binnoculars from home which have been fun for spotting animals. We have two tall coolers in rv with us, one we have between front seat and use as a table for charging stuff and also good for keeping drinks cold in water bottles. The other one is the cube and the kids use it to sit on right behind Mike and I to look out front window and chat with us, funny how that spot rotates.  We also bought a good truckers atlas for the places our cell phone gps did not work.  Another tip someone gave us was to put the key to rv on a lanyard and put around neck when hiking or touring.  We hang the rv storage keys on a hook by the door because if we lose them we are screwed.  Rv uses special toilet paper, you can buy it at walmart.  SInce we had the no pooping in rv rule we only have used about 6 rolls the entire trip ( and we only have 3 girls.) Make sure you take a real broom not a fold up one, broom is our best friend.  We also use a regular kitchen size trash barrel it does not fit under the sink but when we are rolling we put it in the stair well (out of the way and it doesnt tip) and when we are at a sight we  leave it outside the door.

Give all your kids jobs. It makes life easier. I wrote out each kids jobs on index cards to start and now they know them and do them on arrival and deparure.  Luckily 1/2 of our kids are neat and yell at the other half to keep the rv clean.  We use an air freshner on the ac vent up front, glade stuff in bathroom and febreeze spray. WIth the exception of one kid, all of them have good hygiene and shower every day and keep their bunks and drawers neat and clean.

We use the AMerica The Beautiful Park Pass we bought for $80 for all the national parks, saved us a ton of money and is good for a year.  Also the goodsams club gives you a discount card and you save .05 a gallon at flying j gas stations.

A friend made us an emergency travel kit, we have duct tape, electrical tape, scissors, knife, basic tools, batteries. My mom made first aid kit, bandaids, tylenol, tums, benadryl, nail clippers.  We keep them in bins.  We added propane to the tank once, the fridge run on it when not connected to power.  Also been handy have adapter so we can plug our 30 AMP cord into plugs at friends houses, you can’t run the air but you can use lights, fridge, water, and tv.  A couple of times in the desert it was so hot that we had to turn on the generator to put on the ac in the back, but typically the ac from the cab keeps the front people freezing and the back people cool but not cold. A few times we closed the doors to back bedrooms to keep ac up front.  Generator runs on same gas tank for engine and if you get to 1/4 of a tank it will shut off the generator.

Our EZ pass worked until indiana.  We actually did not have many tolls after that, a couple we paid cash and a couple just take a pix of license plate.   Bring rolls of quarters for laundry.  Some camp grounds had lots of machines and others only had a couple.  We did laundry every 3-4 days, with 8 people we had a lot.

Break time over, going to the back to make myself some lunch.  Will add more when I think of it.

Notre Dame IN>Toldeo, OH

Easy three hour drive to Notre Dame.  Campus was beautiful as we drove on, then we got the rv second class traveler treatment,  They do not let RV’s in any of the parking lots and we had to go  to a different lot and get a shuttle.  Luckily we got to see Touch Down Jesus on our way by. It is a giant mural like picture of Jesus with his arms up praying but looks like a ref proclaiming a touch down.  We hopped on a shuttle and made our way to the Basilica.  It is overwhelming with the stained glass windows depicting saints, beautiful art work on the ceilings, relics from Saints, giant organ pipes, hand carved wooden benches.  Our tour guide was super excited to tell us everything she knew about this church.  Lots of connections to Lourdes.  Apparently the first priest in the 1800’s went to Lourdes to solicit funds and when the people of Lourdes were very generous he promised to make a grotto to Lourdes and kept his promise, stained glass windows depict the miracle at Lourdes and the grotto outside has statues and signs recognizing Lourdes, Sam lit a candle for his Dad and his Mom’s friends from Lourdes the Morans, and Brian lit one for Mike’s Mom.  We also went up and saw the golden dome.  Not allowed to park at the bookstore, so we slowed down to a crawl and had the kids flee the rv as we rolled by and then did the same for the pickup.

Then headed to Toledo, Maumee Bay State Park.  Drove through the roughest part of Toledo and the ugliest section of lake Erie filled with factories, nuclear plants, and very run down abandoned buildings, but eventually the scenery changes to beautiful homes and we arrived at our most spacious and natural campground yet.  Mike stressed a little at the gate was a sign saying no alcohol allowed and I came out from check in and told him they search the rv. Prank!! Pulled into our site, beautiful very private sites, with yards and fields behind each one, no running water or sewer, but we have water saved in tanks and grateful for electricity.  So excited to have Mike’s Mom’s Brother Jimmy and his family (wife Linda, son Chris and his wife Tabi and their two kids, and daughter Leslie, husband Kevin and their four boys,  arrive for a visit.  We are all friends on facebook and get to see each other in person every 3-5 years at family reunions.  The little boy cousins were so excited to go fishing with our boys, and Aislyn was immediately attached to Kerrin.  We walked down and checked out Lake Erie.  Swapped stories about raising boys with Leslie and let her know they still burp and pass gas at our kids age.  Worked on convincing Chris and Leslie to bring their families to Marshfield.  Mike had fun reminiscing with his Uncle and Aunt, telling stories about childhood and his Mom.  Kids had gourmet dinner of fish sticks ( had to cook half in microwave since cookie sheet would not fit in the oven.) and cookies the cousins brought.  Said our goodbyes to the Ohio cousins and sat feeling very grateful for relatives that make such an effort to keep in touch.  They all drove 45 minutes to visit after long busy days.  I am sure Mike’s Mom was smiling down from heaven seeing her brother, son, nieces, nephews and grandkids all strolling through the park together.  Miss you Linda, but felt you with us tonight.

St Louis>Indianapolis

Woke up all intact with nothing stolen.  Showers in the urban campground super clean.  We pulled out at 7 AM without waking up the kids.  Nice quiet ride for a few hours before they all woke up.  When they woke up, it got me thinking of the expressions we say everyday relative to living in the rv.

“what are you at?” meaning what % battery life, we can only charge 5 devices, Courtney has obsession she has to charge to 100% before unplugging, Kerrin always tries to stay at 100% Connor is always hovering around 12%.  Brian will leave his device in the rv to charge when we get out if he does not think he needs any photos.  Whoever is the highest % will get unplugged to let the next device charge.

“do we have water?” two meanings, did we fill a jug with potable water to drink while rolling or do we have enough water in the tank to pee and flush the toilet while rolling

“can I level?” when we are done setting up someone pushes buttons to auto level

“can I put the slides out” when we arrive we push buttons to slide parts of rv out for more space, but can’t do it until water, electric and sewer cabinets opened

“everyone off the hotspot” laurie gave us her hotspot that supports 5 devices, but the more kids on it, the slower it goes, and you need everyone off but one kid to download a movie, and now and then Courtney who controls it will knock everyone off and you will hear all the yelling at the same time

“get me my V8 on ice with a splash of pepper”   “now”  everymorning when Mike starts driving he issues this command and nobody responds and they all argue why doesn’t he make his drink before we leave.

“tell Brendan get his disgusting toes off my cushion.” no explaination needed.

“where is my speaker?” ” i am taking away everyone’s phones until my speaker is in my hand.”  Mike has a portable speaker to listen to pandora and it is always missing.

“Someone look around and find my sunglasses.” nobody responds, till he yells, Mike puts his sunglasses in a different spot everynight and kids have to engage in a scavenger hunt to find them when he starts driving.

“Mom tell Brian to stop staring at me while I am doing my pushups.” Brendan exercises everynight on a yoga mat infront of Brian’s bunk and I swear he waits until Brian gets into bed to exercise.

“What are the showers like, What are the toilets like.”

“Can we dump now?’ Brendan and Connor have to dump the gray and black water tanks before we pull out of any site.

“mom tell me when we are going to a new state?” Brendan takes a pix of each welcome sign for a new state and we tell him when we are 3 seconds away so he has become skilled at quick pix

“He/She already drank his/her gatorade.”  Whatever we buy for drinks/snacks the kids divide them and ration them out equally.  It is not pretty if Mike or I try to drink a gatorade and screws up someones daily quota.

We arrived after multiple attempts to find the correct entrace at the Indy Speedway, we could hear the cars racing around the track.  When we pulled through a super narrow tunnel the guy at the end told us to pull right next to the confession stand.  Kids had a blast watching the cars race around, then we toured the museum, our guide was super enthusiastic and made us all pose for pictures and was really funny arranging us in different poses for the pictures.

Then we headed to my brother in law Frank’s family’s compound 20 minutes from the track.  When we arrived at the cul de sac with Noreen and Franks home and their daughters Catherine’s home we realized that we would not be able to turn the rv around, luckily we could leave it on the road between the two houses.  We def. looked like the Griswalds cousin Eddie showing up in this beautiful neighborhood with kids on the roof of the rv lifting branches and having to park in middle of the road.  The Deane’s homes were like being at a resort.  Beautiful decks, pools, flower beds, and then the food started coming out, lasagna, salad, garlic break, cold drinks, desserts.  We were treated to a feast.  The Deane cousins prepared a water balloon fight (after we warned the kids to act like humans we see them sprinting through the gardens in the middle of a water war.)  After dinner swimming in Catherine’s super heated pool.  Kids were happy to not be worrying about campground guests using the pool as a toilet.  Fun having the little cousins tagging along with our crew, kids were all great and did not corrupt any of the little kids.  BOth Noreen and Catherine had laundry going for us, super bonus.  Woke up to a breakfast of bacon, eggs, muffins and fruit.  Kids did a good job of not acting like they had not seen bacon in a year and actually ate like civil humans.  After lots of hugs goodbyes Frank guided Mike as he backed up the road.  We made it out and headed to Universtity of Notre Dame.

 

Topeka>St Louis

Tried to rally the troups early because I really wanted to go to the Holocaust Museum in St Louis, but no luck.  Left around 10, nobody showered because the showers had no curtains.  Just as we were leaving my friend Brenda, I had met playing softball in college and had not seen in 18 years fb messaged me.  She lives in Georgia and was heading to her Dad’s in Iowa.  Her son Own used fb app that let us see where we both were and we executed a perfect meeting at a truck stop in Kansas.  Caught up 18 years in 18 minutes. A little skeptical about St Louis RV Park trip advisor reviews saying its is urban campground, a parking lot with hookups in a bad part of city but camp ground is safe.  The bonus is it is 3 miles from arch and busch stadium.  We decide to be brave and pull in.  Big high fence and gate with chain to keep the bad guys out.  The buildings on the way in are manly boarded up with graffiti.  The lady gives us directions to walk 4 city blocks to catch the bus.  The kids conversation walking along this bad section was comical- :”If i was packing a glock nobody would mess with me.”  “We should have brought Brendan’s new sword.” (yes that would have looked inconspicuous walking along.) “Too bad Dad and Connor left their work knives in the rv.” (yup we could fight of gangbangers with Dad’s utility knife.)  The act all tough until a few residents stroll by and then all quiet and no eye contact.  We find the bus, the driver is super friendly only charges us for mike and I.  A funny black man with super long dreds gets on and entertains the entire bus telling an older man how to be a good husband to his wife. Kerrin is terrified I am going to start talking to him and take a picture with him.  We hop of the bus at the stadium.  Sooo strange to be in a sea of cardinals fans. Busch stadium is new and beautiful and huge.  They def do not have the same passion for the game that Red Sox Nation has.  Brendan and Sam wore their Red Sox caps, my friend Laurie Higgins the biggest Red Sox fan I know told them to wear them proudly.  Nobody beat them up.  Everytime Cardinals get homerun they light off fireworks.  Mike made sure he was polite and had a few Budlights at Busch Stadium.   We left and went to see the Arch.  Did not go up in it but posed for lots of pictures.  Then headed to Calico for dinner down town.  Called for Uber, decided to put a parent in each car,  Mike’s car beat us home.  Off to bed with the campground gate chained shut.  We parked in between two giant class a motor homes so I figured if any bad guys broke into the park they would go for those and not our little class A.

Day 22 and 23- Kerrin

We arrived in Topeka at 7:00 just in time for our appointment at the mystery escape room. We all got out of the RV and walked into a sketchy building with one car in the parking lot thinking it was the wrong place. It wasn’t so we just went in and found out what exactly we were doing. The man working there locked all 8 of us into a small room that looked like a motel and there had been a “murder” in there. Our job was to find out who the murderer was and to find the key that would unlock the door and let us out. The first few minutes were hard becuse we had no clue what we were doing so in order to get a hint from the owner everyone in the room had to raise their hand and he could see and here us on a monitor. I was the first person to raise my hand both times because I was such a bad detective that I had no idea how to solve the crime. We started to figure it out and Sam and Brendan were very good at it. They were thinking of things that were were over my head of things that would even cross my mind. Eventually we did figure it out and we escaped the room. Most of the time we were stuck on how to just open the locks, we had the right combo just no common sense. From there we had our first ever experience at Sonic restaurant. The Rv took up too much space and didn’t fit into the ordering spots so we had to leave the RV in another lot and sit at a table outside. The waiters really do roller bade to the table to bring the food out. We were all thinking that our waiter was going to trip on the bricks on his way out and drop all of the food but he didn’t. fter dinner we went back to our campground for the night. The only thing that was concerning to us about the site was that the showers did not have either a curtain or a door!! That was a no shower night for all of us. We went to bed and then woke up in the morning and started our drive to Saint Luis. The ride was uneventful and everyone just relaxed for the ride. Once we arrived we were a little scared due to the fact that instead of being in a gated community like Utah were were in a chained and fenced in campground so no one could get to us. As soon as the RV was in park my mom was out and yelling at us to get out and we needed to leave to get on the bus. We decided to go to the Saint Luis Cardinals vs. Denver Rockies baseball game so we took the bus there and hopped out at the gate of the stadium. I think this was the time when we most stood out on the trip. We walked in wearing no sports apparel. I was wearing a bright yellow shirt, Brian was wearing a patriots shirt, and Sam was wearing a Red Sox hat. We got many dirty looks from people but oh well. We did see one person at the game wearing a Pedroia shirt. We wouldn’t let my mom take any pictures of him. They did not sell Fenway Franks at the game.  My Dad said that what we paid for 8 tickets here was the same as one ticket at Fenway.  The man behind us was joking with us when he heard we were from Boston.  My mom said we would cheer for the cardinals here and he told her she had to learn how to say cardinals not cahdinals.  The Cardinals ended up winning 8-2 and there were three homeruns hit which set off the fireworks. We left a little early from the game and walked over to see the arch of Saint Luis and took pictures from close and far. It was dark so we couldn’t get the best pictures but it was still cool to see what it was and thinking about how it was possible for the arch to not tip over. Then from the arch we walked to the closest restaurant to have dinner. Connor was getting looks from people eating becasue he was wearing an outfit that said American Pride. I had a super tasty ceaser salad because we have not been eating hardly any vegetables on this trip. After dinner we called two ubers (because we cant all fit in one car) to drive us back to the campsite. Connor, Brian, my mom, and I got one car and our driver was crazy and almost missed the exit. Brendan Sam, my dad, and Courtney had another lady named Yolanda and from what I heard she was really nice and gave a rundown of the history of the town. We then all arrived back at the campsite and got right into the RV and went to bed to stay safe. While in bed we thing we heard gunshots but that could have just been in our heads and it could have just been another homerun for the Cardinals. But its all good because everyone made it home and we were in for the night. You will hear from Connor about the following 1-2 days because we have been slacking on our blogs.

 

Denver, CO>Topeka Kansas

Twenty seven years ago a family showed up at Loon with three little boys for our seasonal ski school program.  What resulted was the beginning of a friendship that has spanned the years and filled our hearts with so many great memories.  The Reeds middle kid Brendan was placed in the group Mike and I taught.  Brendan was the most energetic, social, funny, and challenging 4 year old we had.  He took longer than the rest of the group to learn to ski, being content to socialize in the “holding tank” of kids who would rather roll around eating snow instead of learn to stop.  When we would send him up on the chairlift with random adults they would hand him back to us at the top speechless, or a comment about “piece of work” or “good luck.”  We eventually realized he was using the lift rides for practicing his swear words.  We spent most of our day yelling “brendan reed stop kissing girls, brendan reed stop sneaking candy, brendan reed stop skiing away from the group.” Despite all the work, Brendan was one of our favorites.  His parents became two of our closest friends at Loon and they would take us on ski vacation to ski with the kids and give us a chance to ski big mountains out west that poor ski instructors could never afford.  Brendan’s Dad Bob was a big mountain man looking guy.  He learned to ski by following our group ( and crashing into all of them when he stopped.) Many parents asked about the “big kid Bob” their kids would refer to who bought them all candy and sodas.  The Reeds were one of our first Loon families that became part of our family.  When we got married the kids from our original group were all in our wedding, with Brendan leading the pack commenting on how funny my hair looked and why was I wearing shoes and a dress with paint on my face.  Brendan has always been  character.  We loved his spirit and love for life that we named our first kid Brendan, after him, always telling the kids Brendan Reed stories.  Sadly this spring Bob Reed passed away unexpectedly.  We were heartbroken.  When we were planning our trip, Brendan sent us a text and said he was living in Denver and we better come visit him.  So 26 years later, we show up at Brendan’s house and he is all grown up, married to a great girl, Michelle and they are having their first kid in 3 weeks.  They both have their PHD’s and are research scientists working on cures for breast cancer and type 1 diabetes, not bad for the most hyper 4 year old I ever taught.  It was awesome having our kids meet him.  As we sat up until the late hours of the night catching up and telling them about the best parts of being parents and to enjoy the ride, I had to smile thinking that when Mike and I started our family Kate and Bob were a big influence on our parenting.  We watched what they did and how they interacted with their kids  and each and made them split wood and work around the yard, but also how they just loved being with their kids experiencing life.  We told them that throughout our journey raising our four, we have found several good friends who were a stage of life ahead of us and used them as guides and mentors and so far those people have not lead us astray.  Working with young kids as a profession is such a rewarding experience and it has been so exciting watching the crazy little four year olds grow up and have their own houses, cook us a great pulled pork dinner, do the dishes, and sit on the couch and reflect on life, family, and dreams.  I can only pray that my Brendan grows up to be as happy as Brendan Reed.  We bid our goodbyes after a great visit and headed east to Kansas.  Not finding much to do in Kansas we decided to drive straight through to Topeka.  When we got to Topeka we did a mystery room.  They locked us in a room that looked like a motel room and a murder had happened and we had one hour to work as a team to figure out who murdered her and find a key to get out of the room.  Had to sift through evidence, suitcases, dust for fingerprints.  Kids had fun and did a great job, Sam and Brendan have watched too much CSI they were great investigators.  Off to dinner at Sonic, could not pull the rv in so we had to order at tables and the kid brought dinner out on roller skates.  Camped the night at Shonee Lake Campground, pretty state park but lots of geese and poop so kids won’s swim.  Brendan liked it because it had great paths for his morning run. Off to find something to do in St Louis.