The title of this blog is a real thing. I have absolutely no idea how to pronounce it, but all around this area, we kept seeing something called ‘Shoofly Pie’. We did not try it, but I finally got curious enough to Google it and the word at the top of this blog is the actual name of Shoofly Pie in Pennsylvania Dutch. Shoofly Pie is a molasses cake baked in a pie shell. Apparently in the late 1800s, they would eat it for breakfast with strong black coffee. I’m gonna pass, but I chose this as the title of today’s blog partly because it’s interesting, but also because I have written (typed) many of these blog entries while we are driving. Not all of the roads in this neck of the woods are great and frequently, I will be typing and we will hit a bump and all of my fingers will hit the keyboard and it will come out exactly like the title of this blog! I can’t tell you how many of those I have corrected and probably missed some. If you see typos or weird stuff in the blog, that is probably why!
One thing that I should have included yesterday, was when the Hershey lady with the microphone went around and talked to the kids, she asked all of them what they like to do. One kid said he likes to eat Pepperoni pizza, another girl said she likes to go to the pool and literally every other kid said video games. When she talked to my kids, Levi said he liked to play with trucks and Trista said she likes to play with friends. When pressed, Trista said she likes to play with her friend, Derrick, and even though they have played video games together, she said that they like to ride bikes or take their dogs to the park! Proud mom.
If you made it through the last paragraph and you feel about shameless mommy brag posts the same way I do, keep reading…
Part of this issue of my sleeping later than I should is that I am genuinely a morning person. When I wake up between 5-6 am, if I were to stay up, I would be fine. However, if I were to get up at that time, I would wake the rest of my family due to our tight quarters and that would be catastrophic. SO, I do wake up at that time and then I lay back down and fall asleep and when I fall BACK asleep, it is a very deep sleep and I have a hard time waking up. This is an important detail. This is exactly what happened this morning. I was in a very deep sleep and I heard a loud slam that woke me up. It must have woken John up, too and I said, “What was that?!”
John said, “I don’t know. Kids?… Kids?
“KIDS!!”
No response. John jumps up and runs to the door. He opens it and finds our lovely little darlings [escape artists] across the way in the neighbor’s campsite. Now, you can not holler at your children the way that they deserve in a park such as this. Other parents of young children might get it, but here, we are surrounded by retired folks and our kids remind them of their grandkids and they think they are ‘precious.’ Knowing how angry John was, it was funny to hear him very calmly and very nicely say, “Kids, will you please return to our RV?” The cheeriness in his voice was almost too much. They came back in and we. Let. Them. Have. It. Did I mention that there was a full and fast-moving creek directly behind the back of our RV? Did I mention that we have told them repeatedly that they are not allowed out of the RV without letting us know and they are never to leave our campsite without a grown-up? Did I also mention that YESTERDAY we told them that they weren’t allowed in the camp playground without one of us? We start questioning them and Trista is keeping pretty quiet. She only said, “Levi really wanted to go outside.”
Then Levi chimes in and says, “We went to the neighbor’s campsite and then we went to the park and then we went back to the neighbor’s campsite.”
I can write this because Trista won’t be reading it anytime soon, but the way her chin fell and hit her chest when he spilled the beans was HILARIOUS! #BUSTED #OUTOFTHEMOUTHSOFBABES We had multiple conversations today about good choices and bad choices. If you wake up and mom and dad are sleeping and you get bored, Good choices: books, games, toy trucks, leap pads, TV, WAKING UP MOM AND DAD TO ASK IF YOU CAN GO OUTSIDE!
Needless to say, we kept the kids close while we proceeded to pack things up. For those wondering about our efficiency this morning, it was better, but we were still late because we didn’t have much driving today and opted for bacon and pancakes for breakfast. After we ate, John and the kids took a little walk and I found a nice contemporary Christian radio station to listen to while I did the dishes and got us ready to go. Two important things here, 1 – Levi is not allowed in the cab (because he can’t keep himself from pushing buttons) and 2 – John is a button pusher. John is such a button pusher that I have actually made him pull over after renting a car and push every single button while we were stopped so that he could safely drive us down the road (it took some scary scenarios early in our relationship to discover this critical life hack). So, the radio is playing and everyone is working to pack up and secure everything and Levi (more than once) sneaks into the cab and pushes buttons on the radio – changes the station, changes the volume and when we got on him about that he insisted he needed to go back and change it back. At one point John exclaimed, “Levi! Why are you pushing so many buttons?!?” Uhhhh… Hello, Pot? This is Kettle…
As we made our way down the road, we came across these big dots painted on the road and signs that advised drivers to maintain at least 2 dots of separation between vehicles. I thought it was interesting.
One of the things that John and I have noticed in this part of the US is how many trees there are! I find it kind of stifling. You can’t see what is off of exits, you can’t see things flying over you through the tree cover. Where we live, you can see the next four towns and the sky goes on for days! I have often wondered why they call Montana, ‘Big Sky Country’, as compared to like Colorado or Wyoming. Now I know, they aren’t comparing to those states, in comparison to New England, it makes perfect sense!
In other news, we crossed a couple more states off the list today. It is worth mentioning that Delaware welcomed us (although we weren’t expecting it and had to go back and pass the sign again to take the picture) and Maryland did not. There were NO Welcome to Maryland signs. ☹ And so far, Delaware is the state with the ugliest license plates.
Also today, we made our way across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and we are hoping to catch the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel later this week.
We made our way to our RV park – it is an AWESOME RV park. Trista did some school work and I did some work work outside while Levi played with his trucks in his own private quarry.
I almost forgot to include something big! I wrote the rest of the blog and noticed my oversight as I went to post! We had FIRE in Romeo Victor this evening. I went in to make dinner and we purchased a Toaster Oven to use on our trip. We have never used it and I plugged it in (the cord is awkwardly short) and I got it ready to go. About 5 minutes in, I smell smoke and see smoke coming out of the toaster oven. I open the door of it and it is definitely smoke and it isn’t just like that brand new funky thing that sometimes happens with new appliances. Then, I notice that there is still some cardboard packaging on part of the internal part of the oven. John had taken it out of all of the packaging before we left home and I can clearly see how he missed these pieces, but now they were on fire! I announced that we had fire and John grabbed the fire extinguisher and pulled the pin! I managed to get the cardboard out and under water before John let loose on the fire extinguisher and wrecked dinner. We are so thankful that we were still in the RV and able to detect and act quickly!
We ate outside and then went for a dip in the pool. The one that is shallow and better suited to Levi-sized kids (the one with the ‘Raining Mushroom’) was freezing and the bigger pool was warm, but Levi couldn’t go much past the steps due to depth. I carried him around the pool and then Trista went and picked him up and carried him back and forth across the pool – super cute!
Doesn’t Romeo Victor look handsome under the pretty sky?
After swimming, we came back to the RV and heated up one of the chocolate syringes from Uncle Andrew. We pulled out a couple of cookies, some strawberries and a few mini marshmallows and had a little fondue-like party before bed. Now the kids are sleeping and I am trying to get the blog updated before our DC adventures tomorrow!
That’s one cute little shark!