We actually left the house finally, and made it to a hotel 16 miles away from our former home. We might have made more progress, but there was a lot to bid farewell to, from the Savory and the current folks working there, to a little boy that my son has been friends with since birth, to a favorite hide-out that my son found last year. We went to Fair Day's Trade, a store for fair trade toys and had my two kids pick out fun stuff for the drive. We visit this store a lot, as the store owner's son and my son are friends, so my kids hear "No, we can't buy anything here today" many many times, so they enjoyed picking out thing after thing and hearing "Yes." (I don't even bother with "Did you bring your money?" in this instance, as they can't afford fair trade items yet. They can't really afford new stuff, just Value Village things, and the odd extravagence at Now and Then.
Our final goodbye was to my grade school friend (and his burgeoning family) with whom I initially moved to this area. Having thus now thoroughly said farewell, we are on the road with a light heart. The very warm waters of the pool at this hotel have helped ease the transition, and frankly I think the kids are relieved to be finally doing what we've prepped them on for so long. While to me the 6 or so weeks that I've been pursuing the job to which I now drive my family have been quite a short time to change things, to then this week has been "OK, today we are moving and leaving our friends and schools and house!" "Oh wait, we haven't packed enough, we will leave tomorrow." "Ok, tonight we are leaving." "Oh, well, maybe tomorrow, here let's say goodbye to these friends again."
Not very excellent for the kids, but completely honest haplessness on our parts. Who let us be in charge of helpless human beings? At times like this, it still sort of shocks me, as it did that very first night when my daughter's fluid filled lungs caused her to wheeze a bit and us new parents to panic a bit.
It's nice to just be driving, even if not so far yet. We have to average 300 or so miles a day. I finally compared the various routes, and seeing our friends and fun spots along the way seems to add about 300 miles to our trip, which is just 10%. Our current next destination is New Harmony, Indiana, the site of an early commune and the birth place of one of our daughter's god-parents, and a mere 716 miles from here. Give or take. (It's interesting because Google maps and our Prius GPS seem to have different ideas about the best route; while I'd tend to guess that the Google computers would have better answers, the car is there nagging at us constantly when we turn off of its favored path. My own ability to pick a route seems to be happily atrophying.
Our trip today was so short that there weren't any really funny parenting moments in the car. Good night everyone.
--Chris
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