Preparing for a Summer Road Trip

It won't be long before our youngest child is in school full time and I'll start looking for work. Unless that work involves teaching, which I will fully admit I don't think I would enjoy, I will need to come to terms with the fact that I'll be working over the summers even though the kids are home. The time feels short and I feel some pressure to make the most of the few summers we have left together before they are inundated with babysitters and daycare.

We just got back from a wonderful extended family vacation to sunny FL, but school isn't actually out for them until June 9th, so our summer hasn't even begun yet. While planning for our trip to FL, an idea for a summer road trip with the kids took root and I've been making plans ever since.

I grew up on road trips with my family, camping and fishing and traveling from place to place, so I am fairly confident that I have the knowledge to pull this off, and what I lack in skills right now I think I will be able to learn as I go. Building a campfire and staking a tent ... those are things that you learn quickly when your food and shelter depend on it. Some of the other things, like fishing with the kids ... well, we'll see what happens.

Tyler, unfortunately, won't be able to come on the trip with us as it's a long time to take off of work and, like I said, we just took a family trip so he is saving his remaining time off to use around Christmas. It's always really nice to have him home and around the house for the whole week of Christmas so I don't blame him for that.

I am really looking forward to this bonding time with the kids. We'll be camping at various places on the east coast for nearly a month. We have a couple of nights planned with friends but otherwise, we'll be tenting it. While it has been really fun planning the route and making the reservations across the East coast, I will admit to being nervous about it. And I know Tyler has his concerns as well. I'm really thankful that he is willing to let us do this, even without him, and that he isn't one to try to control me. He knows how much I need my freedom and I am grateful that he doesn't hold a tight leash.

The saving grace is that we'll never be more than about 15 hours from home at the farthest, and actually most of the time we'll be within 8 or 9 hours of home. So if we get tired of it or if something goes wrong, we'll be able to just head home and be here within a day. Besides, it's not like we'll be out in the wild, we'll be at KOA campgrounds almost every night. And they have a swimming pool so that we can cool off and keep busy when needed.

I haven't set a firm date yet, but we'll be leaving sometime around June 16th to head to my parents' farm in MO for a day or two, and they'll be coming with us to our first destination - Diamond Crater National Park in AR and then east to Memphis, TN. As the plans firm up and the supplies are gathered, I'll update here so that those who want to see what we're up to can do so.

I thought I'd start this blog so that our family could keep up with us over the summer while we're gone. If it continues past that, wonderful! If not, that's ok, too.