Hello from Jamestown, ND! I'm posting late because a) I am at 90% of my cell phone data usage and am trying to not post from my phone from the road, and b) the internet at this campground is the slowest I think I have ever used so I am just now getting it up and running, and oh yeah, my kid just went to bed. 5 minutes ago. At 10:30 at night. Yeah, that's a problem.
This has been one long, long day for this road trippin' family. It started out fine - we actually got on the road only about 15 minutes behind schedule, which for a family that includes a 3 year old is a flipping miracle in my book. We got the RV packed in record time, and Pat made sure to put a blanket down for Buddy so that, you know, he didn't get the carpet dirty with his fur and whatnot...uh, was he on the same camping trip that I was the past week? Because I'm pretty sure that a little dog fur is the least gross thing that's happened to our carpet in this vehicle this week. Good god. After saying goodbye to Rod and Vic (and stealing a bunch of their leftover pizza from last night, which is now gone - thanks guys!), we headed east on a two lane, hilly road with no shoulder whatsoever. Not a road you would want to drive on in the dark given the amount of wildlife in Montana, let's just put it that way. Pat did a good job driving and eventually we got to a real, live interstate where we could drive more than 60 mph. We had a picnic lunch at a rest stop and Olivia made me walk around the whole dang thing looking for her "friends" - I think she really misses all of her little kiddo friends back home! It was cute.
After many, many more hours on the road - that included me doing lunges and marching in place in the RV because I was so bored - we finally made it to Jamestown, ND, our respite for the night. My first impression of this campground was that it was pretty nice...after all, there was a cute little playground right when we pulled up. After about 5 minutes, though, I discovered that this is a place I never want to come again: no toilet paper in the women's restroom, the laundromat locks you out at 9 p.m. (and charges you $1.75 per washer load AND dryer load! Highway robbery!), it's about 10 feet from the interstate and apparently the people who stay smoke pot at their picnic tables. Sweet. Olivia apparently likes it here, though, because she stayed up until 10:30 pm after throwing multiple temper tantrums over wanting a snack (but, of course, not the raisins, crackers, or peanut butter I offered her...ice cream or candy only, please!), wanting to pet Ally, and any other excuse in the book she could come up with for getting out of her bed. I did let her get out when I noticed something on her face when I went in to check on her that looked a little like ketchup, but she didn't have any today. And then I realized it was blood. From her mouth. Fortunately it wasn't anything major, since it wasn't even bleeding anymore by the time I got to her. But I did have a little twinge of mom guilt that I hadn't prevented it from happening.
Other fun things that happened: Pat realized he had left some piece of hardware he needs to drain the water out of our tank at the last campsite; we listened to 'A Prairie Home Companion' for about 3 hours straight (if Garrison Keillor's voice doesn't put you to sleep, I don't know what will); and we can now add wine to the list of liquids that is embedded in our carpeting after Ally knocked an entire glass of it over while trying to get Olivia's leftover hot dog. I think tomorrow I am going to dump an entire bottle of shampoo on the floor so I can say I left my mark too in this thing too.
I would post some pictures, but the internet here is waaaay too slow to wait for that tonight, so I will just post some extras tomorrow. Good night!
This has been one long, long day for this road trippin' family. It started out fine - we actually got on the road only about 15 minutes behind schedule, which for a family that includes a 3 year old is a flipping miracle in my book. We got the RV packed in record time, and Pat made sure to put a blanket down for Buddy so that, you know, he didn't get the carpet dirty with his fur and whatnot...uh, was he on the same camping trip that I was the past week? Because I'm pretty sure that a little dog fur is the least gross thing that's happened to our carpet in this vehicle this week. Good god. After saying goodbye to Rod and Vic (and stealing a bunch of their leftover pizza from last night, which is now gone - thanks guys!), we headed east on a two lane, hilly road with no shoulder whatsoever. Not a road you would want to drive on in the dark given the amount of wildlife in Montana, let's just put it that way. Pat did a good job driving and eventually we got to a real, live interstate where we could drive more than 60 mph. We had a picnic lunch at a rest stop and Olivia made me walk around the whole dang thing looking for her "friends" - I think she really misses all of her little kiddo friends back home! It was cute.
After many, many more hours on the road - that included me doing lunges and marching in place in the RV because I was so bored - we finally made it to Jamestown, ND, our respite for the night. My first impression of this campground was that it was pretty nice...after all, there was a cute little playground right when we pulled up. After about 5 minutes, though, I discovered that this is a place I never want to come again: no toilet paper in the women's restroom, the laundromat locks you out at 9 p.m. (and charges you $1.75 per washer load AND dryer load! Highway robbery!), it's about 10 feet from the interstate and apparently the people who stay smoke pot at their picnic tables. Sweet. Olivia apparently likes it here, though, because she stayed up until 10:30 pm after throwing multiple temper tantrums over wanting a snack (but, of course, not the raisins, crackers, or peanut butter I offered her...ice cream or candy only, please!), wanting to pet Ally, and any other excuse in the book she could come up with for getting out of her bed. I did let her get out when I noticed something on her face when I went in to check on her that looked a little like ketchup, but she didn't have any today. And then I realized it was blood. From her mouth. Fortunately it wasn't anything major, since it wasn't even bleeding anymore by the time I got to her. But I did have a little twinge of mom guilt that I hadn't prevented it from happening.
Other fun things that happened: Pat realized he had left some piece of hardware he needs to drain the water out of our tank at the last campsite; we listened to 'A Prairie Home Companion' for about 3 hours straight (if Garrison Keillor's voice doesn't put you to sleep, I don't know what will); and we can now add wine to the list of liquids that is embedded in our carpeting after Ally knocked an entire glass of it over while trying to get Olivia's leftover hot dog. I think tomorrow I am going to dump an entire bottle of shampoo on the floor so I can say I left my mark too in this thing too.
I would post some pictures, but the internet here is waaaay too slow to wait for that tonight, so I will just post some extras tomorrow. Good night!
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