…at our first destination! AND we made it before dark! What a day this has been! After my last entry, we stopped at a gas station to fill up and through careful coordination were able to shower 3 Carkeets, in the RV next to the pump while we filled up! That shower might have been the fastest one I have ever taken, but boy did it feel great!
We haven’t been batting 1000 at this, but we have been doing our best to try and take a picture of the welcome signs as we enter each state. Somehow, Ohio snuck up on us and we saw it, but were not ready with a camera and missed it completely. John asked if we should circle back to try again and at this point I really just wanted to make time, so I told him not to worry about it. Trista was working on some homework and quickly grabbed a piece of paper and wrote ‘Ohio’ on it and held it up! Better than the one on the freeway BY FAR!
Shortly, after we crossed into Ohio, Trista had been working on homework and I promised if she got a certain amount done, there would be a surprise. While I have packed some surprises for this journey, I can’t take credit for this one. Jeannie found some road trip themed gifts for us and wrapped them in maps from an old Atlas! I pulled out one for each of them. They opened a book of roadside oddities (perfect gift for us) and a laminated map that shows all of the different state license plates on one side and has a map of the US with a place to write in a license plate number for each state that we find as we go along. So much fun! I don’t know what the other goodies are yet, but I owe Jeannie a beer (maybe 2) because that book held their interest for at least an hour!
Some time later, we were getting hungry and decided to start lunch. Trying to improve our drive times, I prepacked a sack lunch for everyone this morning, to eat at their leisure without having to stop. John was driving and eating his lunch, I was eating my sandwich with some chips and apple slices. The kids were nibbling on some chips, when Levi noticed my apples. He reached across the table and snatched my apples giggling and giggling. I told them that there was another bag of cut up apples just for them, so they went into the lunch bag and snatched those too. The two of them were just giggling and giggling and eating apples. Suddenly, Levi tossed his head back with laughter and began to choke on a piece of apple. Like really, really choke. From across the table, I reached over with a folded up paper towel and held it in my hands in front of him as he coughed and tried to dislodge the apple. I told John to PULL OVER! As John was pulling over, Levi coughed up a couple of bits of apple and then started to throw up into the paper towel. Somehow, I managed to catch every drop of vomit in the paper towel in my cupped hands. The moment he was done throwing up he burst right back into his fit of giggles! Based on the following – 1) I am exhausted 2) I had just had quite a scare 3) I am now stretched across the table with hands full of vomit that have so far touched nothing but paper towel, but realize this will not be the case once I move and 4) Levi’s giggle is infectious and 5) how quickly he went from barfing to giggling – I burst into laughter because I just can’t help myself. As I start laughing, John has stopped the vehicle and is getting to the table as I now aspirate a chunk of apple and begin choking. He takes the paper towel vomit bowl from me (without spilling any(!) and I am still not 100% sure what happened to it…) and I jump up to the sink to dislodge the piece of apple from my throat. After that I grabbed the apple bag and tossed them in the fridge. I think that is enough apple trauma for one day!
There are no pictures of this event. You’re welcome.
Unfortunately, the humidity never subsided today, and in fact got worse as evening fell and brought the addition of mosquitos! Sadly, I think it just might be our new reality for the next 6 weeks. We drove through sections of dense forest, through towns and out of towns and found our way to Gramma’s cottage by the Allegheny River in Oil City, PA. It sure did feel like ‘Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go…’ It was so nice to be greeted by the smiling faces of my family. I had yet to meet my nephew and this was the first time Levi got to meet Uncle Andrew!
Our new nephew Everett is the cutest little dude with bright eyes. This bad aunt was too busy looking at him to take any pictures. I promise to rectify that tomorrow.
We got the RV set where it needed to be and made our way out for Happy Hour. While we were visiting, Uncle Andrew took the kids for a walk down by the river. As they made there way back, Andrew hollered, “Umm, I think they might need new outfits. Sorry.” And out from behind him scurried two soggy wet river rats who think their uncle is the coolest! We visited a while and then sat down to a delicious, homemade spaghetti dinner! The kids were all too exhausted to function, but unwilling to admit defeat. We finally made our way back to Romeo Victor, where I am updating the blog quickly before settling in for a great night’s sleep! We plan to adventure down the river tomorrow!
Tonya, great job on the blog!! I visualized the entire barfing, giggling episode😀. Thanks for taking us along on the ride.
Sometimes a thank you for NOT sharing pictures needs to be given.