Saturday, May 10, 2014

Day 4 or 5 or something...

You know you're getting into your vacation when you lose track of time. For some reason the kids are still asking me, "What day is it?" And I truly have to think about it before I give them an answer.

It seems like each day is a trip unto itself. Each evening I think, "Well, here we are in XYZ." and then, "Where were we this morning?" so I'm checking our little travel itinerary to give you an update  because all I can remember about the past few days are sick kids and coke slurpees.

When last I posted we were in Lake Anna State Park, Spotsylvania, VA. We drove through some beautiful Virginia countryside to get there. A little tedious when you're a land yacht but the scenery was worth it.

We left there and did 168 miles to Enfield KOA in North Carolina. We got here early and the kids had some time to play mini-golf (or put-put as some of you may call it) and we got some laundry done.

Our plans for the next day were to boon-dock in Florence, SC. For the uninitiated, that means camping out in a Wal-Mart or Sam's Club parking lot. The upside is you can legally park overnight and not have to pay a camp fee, but the down side is you have no connections. This means what ever levels your tanks are on (fresh water, waste water, battery) you have to live off that.

However, once we realized the weather heats up down south (we're slow learners) we figured boon docking was not a good option. Without an electric hook-up, we wouldn't be able to use the air conditioning unit to alleviate the heat. Not wanting to sweat to death, we decided to find a campground for that evening.

Having some margin built into our day, we made a stop at JR's. I'm not sure how to describe it. I think it started out as a cigarette, cigar and wine wholesaler which grew into something bigger. For you New Englanders, I think the best way to describe it is like Ocean State Job Lot only neater and cleaner. And with people carrying out ten cartons of cigarettes at a time. The kids found some trinkets, I got a new Pyrex bowl and a Coke Slurpee, but we left the strawberry smoothie wine behind.

And here is where building margin into your day is a good thing. We got into camp around 4:00pm. However, three of the kids have been warm and complaining of headaches for a few days so we decided to get them checked out. Bo found a walk in clinic two minutes from here and we came to find out the three kids have strep. With the wait at the clinic and then running to the two CVS stores to get the meds, Bo didn't get back until 9:00pm. If we had tried to pack in more miles to our day, he would not have gotten back until midnight. Having picked a camp and limited the daily mileage, he got back at a reasonable hour and had a cool night's sleep.

While I feel bad the kids are sick, they function fine once the Motrin kicks in. I'm also so very grateful to have with easy access to healthcare and medication.

So today we're off to Kingsland, GA. It's a bit longer day mileage wise, but we will be fortified with a Waffle House breakfast and an early start.

Here's some pictures so far.
Toasting marshmallows at Enfield KOA




JR's Cigar, Cigarette and Stuff Emporium

some of the lovely, blingy items available at JR's
The Bieber perfume set I'm getting for all my mom friends for Mother's Day.

Quiet time on the road.







No comments: