We ate breakfast, took our last showers for a while, and finally headed down the road by 11 am. While I enjoyed my last moments of solitude in the shower I found myself saying my own goodbyes in rhythm to one of our favorite bedtime stories. Goodbye bed, goodbye kitties, goodbye soap we’ll be back soon, I hope. It is not that I don’t want us to have a great trip, rather I just hope everyone comes back safe and well. The day was beautiful. We had the windows down and the wind was wildly blowing in. I even stuck my head out the window, mostly to escape the smell of gasoline that was coming from the camp stove fuel. While my head was hanging out the window the air was rushing past with such vigor that it was difficult to grab a breathe of air, much like when I went skydiving and I had to move my head from side to side to find an air pocket. It also reminded me of the trip and the rushing madness to get everything packed while still entertaining the cuties. Brooke obviously picked up on the anxiety because she was up all Wednesday night scratching at her eczema. She hasn’t been that bad in a while. Scott couldn’t believe how much we didn’t sleep, and that was at home in our own beds. He normally sleeps in the basement in quiet solitude. He calls this early “camp training”. I also forgot to mention that everyone seems to have a sore throat and head congestion. Not a great way to start our trip… This worried momma has to wonder what we’re doing to our cuties…
We had a great lunch at a Marengo park off of Route 176, stopped at the Belvidere Wal-Mart to pick up some last minute things, and headed West on Route 20 towards the Mississippi Palisades State Park. Brooke excitedly made her first rhymes yesterday. Her first rhyme was bad and dad. :-) This made her momma giggle.
We arrived at Palisades around 4:30. Cody usually needs dinner around 5, so the timing was perfect. Well, it would have been if we were seasoned campers, but we are still trying to determine the best placement for everything. Cody’s dinner was dumped twice. Once by me in my haste to stop his screaming and once by Cody. Three times was the charm. Getting everyone into the tent with everything we needed for bed was also another crazy scramble, but I expect this will also improve with practice.
We started the bedtime routine at 7:10. Cody cried from 7:20 until 8:40. Not too bad compared to what I expected. I passed out shortly after that and was woken a few times to Brooke excitedly telling me some more rhyming words. Scott tells me she passed out sometime before 9:30, at which point he passed out. I awoke at 10:30 giddy with the fact that everyone actually fell asleep. Cody, Scott, and I were all up again at 12:30. Cody and I were up again at 3:30. Finally, we all awoke at 7:20 to the steady rhythm of rain beating on our tent. Luckily, the rain stopped long enough for us to have some yogurt and cereal and pack up. We are now heading on Route 78 North towards Galena.
We survived the first night! Yippee!
While driving on Route 20 Brooke witnessed an incredible assembly line of workers paving the road while we were still on it. We discussed what each of the machines were doing and why they were doing it, and then we hit a stretch of concrete road. Brooke commented that they still needed to do that part. We explained that the workers were working with asphalt and we were driving on concrete. Then the questions came up of why concrete versus asphalt. We discussed that concrete lasts longer, but is more expensive. However, she asked the inevitable three-year-old questions, Why? We were stuck there. Anyone know why concrete is more expensive?
