Highs & Lows: A Long Travel Day Packed with Adventure
Today started out misty again, but certainly not peaceful and quiet. The dogs made the morning extra special for Ron. Maggie was so determined to kill the sweet chipmunk near our site that she dragged the picnic table into the bushes. Remi couldn’t see what his big sister was doing and so he started to bark. His bark isn’t a puppy bark anymore. It’s a deep loud bark—the kind that wakes your fellow campers up at 7:30 in the morning.
One thing about camping in KOA sites is that there are few trees between campsites. This means the dogs have been tied to more picnic tables than ever before. I love all the amenities of the KOA campgrounds but do miss the privacy of treed sites at times. While Ron and I packed up camp, the kids tidied their backseat area and fought like angry monkeys. I felt for our fellow campers who had to hear the battles going on in the backseat of our truck as they enjoyed their morning coffee, especially after Remi’s early wake-up call.
Overall, the kids have done so well on this trip, but we are definitely in a rough patch with the fighting. I wish our truck had third row seating (“Like a Suburban,” Ron said jokingly) to give them a break from each other. I know some parents actually put up barricades in their backseats so that their kids stop fighting. It’s tempting! Although I’m sure they would spend all their time knocking on it just to annoy each other and drive us crazy.
Can you tell it was a bit of a rough morning? Lol. Well, Ron could definitely tell, so he found me a Starbucks along the first part of our journey today. It has been so long since I enjoyed a Starbucks coffee. I ordered my favourite drink, a Salted Caramel Mocha, which I fell in love with while I was teaching at Armstrong Elementary in Burnaby, BC. At lunch time there, my dear friend and coworker, Amanda, would head to Starbucks and re-energize for the afternoon. Amanda always spent a week with us in the summer after I moved to Lacey. However this year with Covid we were unable to have our visit together. This morning’s tasty coffee made me happy and I felt a bit closer to my friend.
I forgot to mention a few days ago that we are seeing wild turkeys along this stretch of our trip. Ron got very excited and told the kiddos that there was our Canadian Thanksgiving turkey. I know that our good friend and neighbour, Randy, would have been very happy to see all these turkeys. He goes hunting for them every year in eastern WA.
It was a long day in the truck today, so the kids were able to get all their school work and meetings done along the road. We tried to take many stretch breaks for us and the dogs since it was an 11 hour day of travel. Driving through the Hudson Valley was so pretty so the scenery distracted us from how long we had been sitting. We also discovered along this leg of the trip just how many toll booths there are along these highways. I felt like we were stopping to pay a toll every 30 minutes. At one point, we exited the freeway for a bathroom stop and had to pay another toll because we left the freeway. We laughed, and thankfully it only cost us an extra $1.25. Clearly we need to plan our pitstops better.
Ron has always wanted to see Albany NY so of course we drove the truck and RV right through downtown and through narrow residential streets. It made for some interesting turns and Ron held his breath a few times. The looks we were getting from people were pretty funny. I’m sure they were thinking “What the heck are they doing down here?”. I know that’s what I would be thinking! In hindsight we realize that it probably wasn’t the best choice, but we came through unscathed and now Ron can say he saw downtown Albany.
For dinner, Ron found a lovely Italian restaurant just off the highway for us to try. We parked our RV, took the dogs for a quick walk and headed to Annarella Ristorante of Saugerties. The moment we walked in I realized that this place was pretty upscale, but at this point we were committed. My campfire hair was in a top bun and we were a little rumpled from the road. Ariel looked around at all the dressed up couples and said “Mommy, this place is fancy” and she was right. It was.
Still, the food was delicious and the staff was so sweet and gracious. The kids were also very excited because they finally got their ice cream. Ron and I laughed because we had walked past so many local ice cream shops along this trip that served up fresh ice cream in so many different flavors yet we waited for regular restaurant ice cream. We promised the kiddos we would treat them at an ice cream parlor at some point along this trip. We left with full tummies and smiles. We’ll laugh whenever we remember this evening: that time the GoGoRougeaux’s crashed a very nice Italian restaurant.
It was dark by the time we left the restaurant, and we still had just over 2 hours to go. The kids tried to get cozy and find comfortable ways to sleep (it’s so hard in a vehicle). I put on some Cher to keep us motivated for the last stretch. I am in love with her Dancing Queen album. We had fun singing and making a music video for our friend Allison at home.
We crossed into Pennsylvania in the dark, and the kids were excited to try to spot vampires, who they’re sure must live in a state that sounds so much like Transylvania. The road to our campsite was narrow and heavily treed once we left the freeway and the fog was rolling in. We very well could have seen a vampire. It certainly looked like the right kind of forest—dark and overgrown and misty.
The drive was actually quite beautiful even though it was so dark. We pulled into Delaware Water Gap/Pocono KOA and were so excited to see all the Halloween decorations. This campsite wins best decorations so far. We didn’t even detach the truck and just popped out the slide on the camper and got the kids into bed. Ron and I walked the dogs to the dog park and let them play for about 30 minutes. We sat outside and just enjoyed listening to all the insects singing. It was so loud and we loved it. It is definitely more humid here and I know the humidity and temperatures are just going to go up during the next couple weeks. My hair is about to get more and more frizzy. Ron says he’s looking forward to this and now so are the kiddos. Lol thanks family!!
Goodnight from Pennsylvania!