Dept. of Journies

[kaffy_r]

The Trek Begins

Andy and Emily, Harlan and Julian, and their good friend Dave are only hours away from the beginning of their trip east from Seattle to Chicago. They may even have started, if they wanted to get a very early start. 

I called Andy last night and BB was beside me; when he answered the whole gang was in the car, probably going for one last meal in the city Andy and Em have called home for eight years (at least I think it's eight years. My memory can't decide between late 2018 and early 2020). We told them we loved them - and when Dave, who is a perfectly Dad kind of guy started making jokes, we told him we liked him, too - and reminded them to drive safely, a mantra we hew to in this house. 

I will, of course, worry about them the whole time they're on the road. Spare a thought or a good wish for their passage. 

Comments

[smallhobbit]

My good wishes to them for their travel. I'm sure you will be letting us know when they arrive!

[kaffy_r]

Thank you on their behalf. I'll definitely keep people apprised.

[elisi]

Good luck to them all. <3

[kaffy_r]

Thanks - I think they'll need all the luck they can get.

[pameladean]

That's kind of an epic journey! Best wishes for smooth sailing. So to speak.

P.

[kaffy_r]

Thanks. I'm crossing my fingers for them, and successfully resisting the urge to call or text them, at least for the first couple of days of the trek.

[gerisullivan]

Big move; big trip! Glad they're underway.

Do they have a place they're moving into, or is looking for a place at or near the top of their list?

Also, do you know their rough plan for how many days the ~2,000 mile drive will take, and whether they're going to take a bit of time to see some of the sights along the way?

(I still marvel at my parents doing the drive from Battle Creek, MI to Olympia, WA in July 1959. We were in a 1956 Buick Special -- parents in the front, 3 kids in the back seat ages 4,9, and 11 on the way out and 5, 9, and 11 on the way back. Hauling a Higgins tent trailer; we camped for the entire trip, including setting up the tent trailer in Grandma and Grandpa's front yard on Boston Harbor of Puget Sound. Grandpa had built their small house himself. There weren't any guest bedrooms, let alone accommodations for a family of 5. Marvelous trip, but as an adult, I can barely fathom what it was like to be either one of the parents through it all.)

[kaffy_r]

Good lord, the idea of traveling with three kids and camping the entire way? While it isn't really nightmare fuel, it kind of ... is. Heh.

wrt the kids; Andy thinks they'll be here somewhere between the 10th and the 12th. And they put down money on a townhouse rental in Glenview back when Andy came to help me out with Bob while the latter was in hospital. They've been paying two rents every month since then. It's not something I would ever have done, but then, they do a lot of things I never would do. But they can nove right in as soon as they pull into the back of the place, and Bob and I will be there to help unpack, and probably take the kids off their hands for at least a day, and maybe more, if Harlan doesn't dislike that too much.

[gerisullivan]

Having a place to move directly into is a win on the stress front. (Not to mention the relief of being down to one rent!)

I'm super glad to hear they're taking their time on the drive, and have built in a couple extra flex days rather than doing it as a all-driving, all-the-time 3-4 day endurance fest.

As for that 1959 trip, yeah, at the time, it seemed *normal* -- as in "this is what the family is doing" -- to me, and to my siblings, too. But I've been in awe of my parents for taking it on for several decades now. Pretty much ever since I became an adult. Because, yeah, nightmare fuel, indeed. Though it's also true that parents have traveled with their kids pretty much forever, and family vacations *are* a normal part of American life, and life in other cultures, too. Then again, most family vacations aren't 4 weeks long!

We were always a camping family. I think I was 16 or 17 before I first stayed in a motel for a night. (Mom and I were going up to Bows Lake to camp with other families for a week, but we were arriving a day before everybody else for some reason. Other folks recommended we stay in a motel for a night rather than camping by ourselves, and while it didn't seem necessary to us, it also didn't seem like a horrible idea, so we did.)

[kaffy_r]

I don't think they'd be able to do anything less than a fairly slow journey, given Harlan and Julian, who'll only be six months old as of the 8th.

I can remember only one vacation growing up. My mother saved up for god knows how long to fly Mac, me and her to Arizona for maybe a week when I was 7 or 8 and Mac was 15 months younger. I still have some decent memories of it, including being without our suitcases for the first couple of days, because the airline sent them to the wrong place.

And between Grade 9 and 10, Mum and Nana sent me to stay over the summer with my Great-Aunt Bobbie at her summer cottage, to get me out of the house because I was fighting with my grandfather at the time. I'm not sure that counts as a vacation; more a case of protecting both my grandfather and me.

[lilacsigil]

Best wishes for their travel, especially with two little ones to entertain!