Today the kids and I started out on our trek across the country. We only have 32 days, and it just does not seem like long enough. I have tried to pass this off as a home school trip where we will learn, through visiting, all about American History. After all, this is an American history year and what better way to un-school than to take a trip? But really this trip is about getting away from a lot of stress that has built up for no good reason, in the monotony of life. We are shedding the skin of normalcy by doing something very normal – living life. We have simplified We have only the things we really need with us. We have packed so sparsely that we are able to sleep in the van. This means that we have left many comforts at home. This is our 7th interstate road trip with kids that involves more than 2 states, so we are pretty good at not over-packing by now. We do, after all, live in America, and we are a nation of materialists. If I forget something important, I can always pull into a Walmart for it.
I just wish Brandon could come with us for the entire trip.
I like to spend the first day getting as far away from home as possible. The kids are fresh and the saddle soreness has not set in. My grand plan was to drive 10 hours from San Diego to Gila National Forrest this first day. However, we made it to Yuma before the kids really needed to run around, and we found this amazing water-front park to play at.
It was only 112 (yes, 112) degrees, with a nice breeze blowing it, so basically the climate of a convection oven. The heat didn’t appear to bother the kids, though.
I have promised them plenty of rivers on this trip, and rivers they will get. I hoping to do this trip on the cheap, paying for lodging as little as possible, and so rivers will be our baths. Girardia and malaria seem a small price to pay for a cheap trip.
Brandon has given me a very specific and generous budget. As a goal-oriented person, I intend to pull into home having spent only ¾ of that. It’s an unrealistic goal.
It took me 2 hours to pull them away from this place, and so Gila was out of the question for that first day. I needed a free plan B, so we headed east of Tucson.
I looks like the wild west here. Wait, it IS the wild west here!
And there is a road named after my baby. That was so nice of them to do for her!
The town we stayed in Benson, is a pretty neat, tiny place. The park we found to play at, not so much. It wasn’t so much the multiple homeless folks hanging around the bathrooms, or the sort of weird, elderly folks wandering aimlessly around in ratty jeans, seeming to have nowhere to go, but not apparently out for a pleasant stroll. And it wasn’t really the fact that there were grown men playing on the play structure. What really made it a spectacular fail as a park was the kid in bright orange who had climbed a tree to retrieve a baby bird from a nest and proceeded to repeatedly throw it to the ground, breaking it’s wing, laughing the whole time, and cursing anyone who suggested he stop, the whole while proclaiming that he had no parents and lived by himself. I am not sure anyone doubted him, although he appeared very well cared for, and his clothes were spotless.
I think what really happened is we stepped into a Dr. Who episode. Except the Doctor never showed up to send the aliens away.
It was all so interesting, and we hung out as if we belonged until bed time.
That night, we lay peacefully in our sleeping places in the van, all was quiet and calm for about 10 minutes…and then Kiki said into the darkness…”I see bats.” Of course.
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