Loves' RV Adventure, Day 1

There are pros and cons with RV travel, as with everything. At two p.m., Wednesday, I was discovering both. PRO: You don't have to pack suitcases. CON: You have to carry three-hundred and ninety-three loads of clothing, food supplies, and toiletries into the RV in the million-degree heat.

Our fabulous and way-generous neighbors loaned us their RV for our end-of-summer excursion to Utah and Arizona, culminating in the Love family gathering for Kevin's grandma's 90th birthday.

Other pros and cons discovered our first day out:
PRO: You don't have to stop for bathroom visits.
CON: You have to budget your water if you aren't hooked up, and you are essentially carrying your poop around with you wherever you go. (I tried not to think about this.)

PRO: The kids have some extra freedom compared to being in the mini-van.
CON: Inertia. You can't just let 'em run wild.
SUPERCON: Husband has motion sickness unless he's driving, or unless the road is mega-straight. That means husband does most of the driving, and wife (me) does most of the childcare; inertia-watch; and snack prep. (I didn't drive the RV until Day 5 of our voyage.) I LOVE road trips, mainly because I LOVE to look at the scenery. Due to this SUPERCON, I missed much scenery. I decided that RV travel would be much easier when the children are old enough to make good decisions about when to stand up and when not to while the vehicle is in motion. But RV travel with teens would have a WHOLE different list of cons, I'm sure.

PRO: When you arrive at your destination, you pull up, plug in, and go to bed.
CON: RVs have thinner roofs than hotels. We heard EVERY rain drop of the four- to five- hour thunderstorm that struck Zion National Park the night of August 18th. Not to mention seeing every lightning flash through a dozen or so windows and four skylights.

Day 1 saw us reach our first destination, and that night afforded very little sleep. But we made it, and despite the yelling and grouchy parents which were a result-- Kevin suggested-- of having been in constant task mode for an entire day, we were glad to be on an adventure together away from home.

Kevin at the wheel, Teri at the camera

Hitting the road with In-n-Out Burger dinner

The kids invented a game: water bottle soccer. It involved volleying their bottles across the table at high rates of speed, resulting in numerous upsets, and occasional goals. Those suckers hurt when they careened off the table onto my feet, by the way.