FIRST DAY of the trip

June 6, 2008

• We left the house at 10:33 AM. After a stop at the realtor’s and a fuelling stop (10:45), we hit the highway at around 10:55.
• Brian’s mom almost cried. We all did our hugs and prayed together.
• GPS units are fun. It has trip-meter. It calculates our average speeds, keeps track of how long we’ve been stopped, how long till we arrive, and more. The boys like it; especially Gavin. It’s great for his constant asking of questions. His go beyond the normal “Are we there yet?” Gavin’s questions are: “How many miles till we get there? What’s our average speed? How many miles have we gone so far and how long have we been on the road?”
۞ This morning he calculated an average estimate for how many hours from Ohio to Lompoc, Cal. It is about 2,362 miles. He decided to round it to 2,400 to make it easily divisible by an average speed of 60 MPH (though highway speed limits are more, with construction and pulling a camper he figured 60 MPH was a good average. First he did it with 2, 362 miles and that makes it 2, 362 minutes. I told him most people don’t want to know how many minutes, but how many miles. That’s why he decided to round it up to 2,400 miles. Made it easier to get the average hours. 2,400 divieded-by 60.
• I like watching our vehicle on the GPS unit go around the cloverleaf ramps when getting on the highway. And watching our van go over rivers and state borders and passing by parks and lakes.
• The boys also like to see our arrival time change as we go along our trip. (due to stopping for lunch or going slowly through traffic)
• They are watching a DVD. We have the player that drops open from the ceiling. (not that we wanted it, but we wanted a Honda Odyssey and could only afford a use done and this one came with it. But it is nice.) They usually just watch a DVD in the evening when it’s too dark to do their other stuff, but we let them start a big trip with a movie.

** Connor broke the main wire of his braces. **

• They are watching “RV” w/ Robin Williams. I have never seen it, but they have seen it before. It’s been like this more recently. The boys having seen movies we haven’t. I talk about renting a DVD and they say, “We’ve already seen that.” HUH? When? Where? Usually it’s at Bible Study (the kids sometimes watch movies in the basement) or with Grammy/Pappy or Mimi/Papa.
~~~After 5 ½ hours of driving, our gas tank was EMPTY so we had to fill up a second time in ONE day! The gov’t is supposed to reimburse our gas if we submit receipts so we are being sure to keep all of them.
• 4:40- Brian looks in the rear mirror and notices our pop up camper is popped-up on one corner. We pull over and a few cables are loose as well. The boys go out to help him. It’s nice having older boys that can do these things. Gone are the days of 3 little boys in car seats.
• Backing-up… around 2 we drove through a thunderstorm with a tornado watch… while towing a camper. JOY.
• The fields were often flooded. Ponds of water in the middle of rows of newly sprouting plants. The rain bouncing off the ponds in id field were interesting to see.
• 4:54- the 4 men seem to have the camper fixed and are getting all tied-down, or cranked and latched down, I guess. Not bad at all, considering Brian was afraid this would be a one hour delay. Ki and I prayed it would be easily remedied.
• YEAH GOD!
• The camper popped open again. Brian bought a strap to keep it closed until we get to Eric and Kim’s place. We arrived around 1:30 am.
• SO NEEDED/WANTED a shower, but fell instantly asleep.