Free Range Kids

March 14, 2022

SIXTY-ish hours of driving since the beginning of it all. Have I told you my children are amazing? I’ll tell you again. They are amazing!

You know what else is amazing? A friend meeting you to do laundry. Standing in a small concrete room for 5 hours, shouting over the machines….talking, talking, talking and making you feel loved and helping you do your laundry from 10 pm to 3 am (but really 4 am because some arbitrary government decree that we should all change our clocks twice a year). Daylight saving is the worst.

Hilarious Daylight Saving Short Video

You know what else is the worst? $4.50 gas!

Also, no water…not only is it inconvenient, but it means we have to eat out more. For a family with seven travelers, that averages to around $100 a meal.

“If we don’t get our water fixed soon, I’m going to go nuts,” I say to Peter.

“And we’ll be bankrupt,” he replies. I laugh. I wish it was funny.

Wyoming

South Dakota

Corn Palace in Mitchell

Exterior is made of corn murals

I'm doing most of the driving so that Peter can work. He was giving me a break so I could take a nap. The road did not allow that.

Iowa

Council Bluffs Gateway

Boxer Barbecue in Council Bluffs, Iowa

Pacific Junction, Iowa

Missouri

Gateway Arch, St Louis in the far distance

St Peter's, Missouri RV park

Not just for kids...this is how I get to the park bathroom.

Crossing the Mississippi via Stan Span from Missouri to Illinois

SEVEN days of non-stop traveling to get somewhere warm. We got stuck in a snow storm and were in -11º weather in both Butte and Wyoming and then single digits through South Dakota, but we finally arrived in Kentucky!

It was above freezing and our pipes thawed and we tried the water and even though we didn’t try out all aspects of our water system—we had water! We’ve been on the road 3 weeks and today is the first day we had water in the trailer! Today was the first time we took a second to breathe and we actually did something more than just drive.

Kentucky

Cave City

Last year we toured Carlsbad Caverns and this year we toured Mammoth Cave. The longest known cave in the world.

Watch your head

I’m the only one that had been to Mammoth Cave before and I had only been a teenager. I remember the visit though, because I was with my aunt and uncle. My uncle was very large and he got stuck between two pillars in the cave. I was standing awkwardly behind him when he turned to me and demanded, “What are you looking at? PUSH!” So I did, and then his sister was laughing at him and he quipped, “I don’t know what you’re laughing at. You left your boobs back there.”

No one got stuck today, although we went through a passage called “Fat Man’s Misery.” My uncle definitely did not do this one.

"This part is very down"

Bat

I didn't shine the light on the poor bat

At the entrance the tour guide was talking to the hushed crowd and Eleanora whispered, “Are we praying mom?"

“Always, sweetie,” I thought to myself. "For strength, for safety, for patience, for peace, for…"

The kids have been scootering around the RV park and Eleanora has been gathering me flowers “because I love you” and we did s’mores and I was able to cook a different meal than just quesadillas. After all the terrible, we finally get to start the fun part of our journey. It was a magical day.

Gathering flowers for Mom