Watch Your Kids

On our visit to Ocean City, NJ a week or so ago, I sat on my chair looking out at the Atlantic and day dreaming. My dreams were interrupted by life guard whistles and my attention was drawn to the back of the lifeguard chair and a sign that read "Watch Your Children". My first reaction was "Hey I just paid ten bucks to be down here on the beach with life guards, maybe you could keep an eye on them.", it was a gut reaction made without thought and fueled by laziness. I knew where Abby and Carter were, they were digging in the sand a few feet away, and with the help of some other children had formed a hole large enough to bury a Honda.
Still, I took the advice of the sign and instead of staring at the water I stared at Carter. I tried to really focus on what he was doing, to figure out what he might be thinking. He was working really hard at digging, in a matter of a few minutes the kids had met and established distinct working roles in the construction of this hole. He was clearing sand from the front and placing it in a pile behind him, where another child would pack it down. He took his "job" very seriously, he made sure to place the sand exactly where the other child needed it. I imagined that he must have felt that his job was very important, because he was very intent on doing it right. I enjoyed his facial expressions and even his occasional frustration when the wall caved in. We talked about it later and he told me about the plan that the group had for the hole and how they were building it.
I spent some time watching Abby as well. She was a water gatherer. Her "job" was to take a bucket down to the ocean and bring back water to fill in the mote. It was clear that Abby's mind works differently than Carter, just based on their movements. Abby works hard too, but when she goes from the job site to the sea it's a dance. I can tell there is a song playing in her mind and I'm not sure if she notices anyone else is around her. She has a wonderful capacity for losing touch with the real world. It's a skill that can be very frustrating if you are trying to get her to focus on homework, but one that will probably allow her to imagine and create things that other people can't envision.
So in the end I was glad that I took the time to really watch my kids. I think I will do it more often in the future.

Picture Perfect?

Here's another item for the list of things Our Trip has made me grateful for: Photography. Some days it doesn't even seem fair how many great pictures I get to take of my family and of this great country. Sunsets, smiles, mountains, beaches, historical buildings, animals. And I still can't capture it all.

We'll be driving down the road and there's this great mountain view and I'll go for the camera. Dan knows by now that I won't be satisfied with the photo because it's not 3-D or it's not panoramic. I just can't get it all in the same picture. It's just another example of "You just had to be there." It's okay though, because I still try for that perfect picture. And I think I'm lucky to get a lot of good ones.

I've always loved being behind the camera. I took classes in college and tested my skills in a couple newspapers. I even take plenty of pictures of the kids. But as with any hobby, I've just never been very good at keeping up with it. Sometimes I'll go months without picking up the camera. Or I'll take a day trip and forget the camera altogether. I even bragged a few times about my ability to pack so light that I could travel by plane without having to check any bags. But then I'd always leave my bulky camera behind. It was ridiculous because now I really wish I had more photos of San Francisco with Dan and Las Vegas with my girlfriends.

The other problem I have with pictures is keeping them all organized. Especially once everything went digital. Now instead of rolls of film in need of development, I have stacks of disks dating back to 2004, all needing to be printed or organized in some manner.

Having our own website has really helped these problems. It has actually forced me to document Our Trip in photos and organize them regularly. It's pretty easy for me and it's great for family and friends who like to keep up with our travels. Just days after we do something, they get to see it.

The very best part is that Abby and Carter will have all these photos when they're older. They may not remember everything we do. Hopefully, our photos will bring some of it back for them.

No RVs Over 30 feet!

When a sign says "No RVs over 30 feet" it's a good idea to continue on and look for another place to park. The experience we had a few days ago in a Newport, RI parking lot could have ended some marriages, possibly even lives. Sitting at the gate and seeing other RVs in the lot, I decided to ignore the sign and maneuver our ship through this mangled parking lot.
The lot was the site of some kind of gas line repair and as a result half of the lot was partitioned by some kind of drive-over plumbing. Pipes ran into one side then under the driving surface and out the other side. It created a type of channel to drive through, 10 feet wide with 1 foot tall curbs on either side. An ingenious design, that works perfectly, unless you are trying to pull a trailer over it at an odd angle.
The device, the lane of utility work, became my personal hell for the next half hour. With my patient wife on one end of our two-way radios and a women on a cell phone looking on, I drove onto the ramp. Once the RV made it all the way into the lane, it was time for the trailer to follow it through. This is exactly the point when things became interesting for the women on the phone and difficult for me.
On my first pass, the leveling jack on the trailer would not clear the corner of the curb, and looking back I should have backed all the way out and tried another approach. Instead, I made a small adjustment and tried to pull through again. This led to a series of back and forth adjustments, that would eventually end with a fresh dent on the front of the trailer where I pinched it with the rear of the RV. It matches the one on the other side perfectly. We also now have steps on the trailer that slant slightly toward the rear of the trailer after having collided with end of the ramp. That collision however turned out to be the spring board to finally freeing us this trap. After I bent the steps, I backed up in an attempt to just get out completely. Becky told me she thought the steps would now clear if we went forward, and we did. We managed to get into another part of the parking lot, a portion that we soon realized would probably trap us if a few more cars parked near us. It was then we decided it would be best if we just left.
There were times when we were on that orange utility torture device, that I thought we might never get off. I thought I might have to unhitch the trailer and leave it there. I had thoughts of putting out the awning and starting a campfire. We had already spent more time in that lot then we had in some of our campsites. I thought that it was slightly unfair that they charged me for an hour of parking, because we really never stopped moving.
Having made it out of the parking lot, I wish I had a photo of that pathway to share with everyone, but it really wasn't one of those moments when you think of grabbing the camera, unless that is of course you are the women standing there with your cell phone.

Better than TV

Okay, so it's been more than three weeks now and I haven't watched a television show. That sounds kind of weird. Back at home, Dan and I had a couple shows we watched each week, in the evenings. That's how we'd wind down after work. I guess most people do that.

I caught a little bit of the Office when I was in the electronics section of a store the other day. That's really the only time I've thought about TV lately.

Now that we don't have a TV, we write after the kids go to bed. I'd say this is a great replacement. Sure I wonder sometimes how the characters on our shows are doing. I wonder where the stories are taking them. But it's a lot cooler to sit with Dan and read over our travel journals to see where our trip is taking us.

When I talked to Mom the other day, she said one thing we should be glad we're missing is all the Michael Jackson coverage. She said you can't even turn on the TV without hearing his name. Great entertainer, but I'm not concerned with the details of his life.
I am concerned about the details of my husband's life and my kids' lives. I guess that's how I got where I am today - on a beach, in an RV in Cape Cod.

Enjoy the road you're on!
~Becky

First Road Friends

We've met a lot of great people on the road, very nice reporters, friendly campground owners, other happy tourists. But it was in New Hampshire where we met our first real "Road Friends." We'd been traveling for about 10 days when we arrived. It was to be the longest overnight stop since we started out. When we pulled into the Gunstock RV and Ski Resort near Laconia, NH it was like our navigation device always says, "You have reached your destination." Up to that point in the trip we were pushing forward each day, logging more and more miles.

We got registered and prepared to set up camp on Fir Lane for three whole nights. One of the first things we noticed about this campground was the number of NASCAR fans there seemed to be camping there. Dan and I don't follow racing so we started to wonder if we would have anything in common with our fellow campers. We don't have anything against NASCAR, it's just not our thing. We wondered if the other campers would question why we weren't waving our driver's flag and we wondered if anyone would talk to us. Our questions were immediately answered by our new camping neighbor Joe, a car-loving mechanic, who had come to Gunstock for a long weekend with his family. He quickly informed us that everyone was here to go to a race on Sunday at the nearby New Hampshire Motor Speedway. We had no idea.

Over the course of the next three evenings, Joe, his girlfriend Linda, her mother Barbara and Linda's grown children Roxanne and Craig shared their campfire with us late into the evening. We laughed and told stories. We sought out our common interests in hobbies and jobs. And poked fun at our differences in language and dialect. Dan and I never should have doubted that we'd fit in with this group. They are people just like us.

When we came back from a daytrip on Saturday afternoon, even our camper fit right in with the rest of them on the row. That's because our new road friends bought us a racing flag and hung it on our camper. They signed it too and asked us to have the other people we meet along the way sign our flag.

People told me before I left on this trip that I'd get to see a lot of really inspirational things. This was one of them.

Skipping Stones

Life on the road is not one big vacation. I don't mean that in a negative way. I just mean that I can tell the difference between a vacation and real life. After just a week on the road, I can see that already.

We don't eat out everyday. We still have to stop and pay the bills. We still correct our kids. Before we left Dan and I talked about Our Trip and it was all very exciting. We talked about the great things we'd see, the attractions we'd visit, the places we'd want to eat. And while that is really happening some days, there's something else going on too.

Here's the difference: A month ago, or a year ago, I didn't have the time to skip stones with the kids. Not like I did today. We skipped stones at the beach until my arm was sore. We all made a contest out of it. Who could skip the most times, who could skip the highest, the farthest? We had an endless supply of smooth black skipping stones too, because that's what this Vermont beach was made up of. Dan said the kids would have stayed until the entire beach-ful of rocks were in the lake.

The day we skipped stones was Father's Day. It was also the day I tried to teach the kids the difference between presents and presence. Dan didn't unwrap a gift that day. But like vacations, presents can be really special, but life and the gift of our presence is even better.

Over the past 15 months or so, Dan and I have been dreaming, planning, talking, reviewing, revising, researching, figuring, budgeting and sharing our fears. For many months, he and I were the only people on earth who knew about Our Trip, it was our secret dream. We needed each other so much in those early months to work through all these emotions that kept sprouting up.

A couple of weeks ago Dan and I were talking about the great changes we've seen in other people after revealing the news of Our Trip. We are constantly amazed by the support and the number of people who say they wish they could do what we're doing. Deep down we really want them to do whatever it is they dream of too because it feels great!

As we continued to talk about the changes Our Trip will bring to us personally, and in our marriage and with our children, we agreed to welcome that change. Then a light came on for Dan and after reflecting on our months of planning, he said:

"You know, Becky, we haven't even left the driveway and Our Trip has already started."