Random Mom Questions and Andy’s Perspective

As a mom I sometimes ask questions that never even crossed my mind as a single person. Like this morning I caught myself wondering how many times it is worth it to reheat my cup of coffee. Sitting down for breakfast was pretty much non existent this morning since first Gabe needed help with eating his breakfast, then Andy needed a refill from the front where he was driving, then Cherokee needed water, and soon the puppies set up a ruckus because they were thirsty too. 

In between I kept stopping to slam the door closed again. It doesn’t latch sometimes. Then when I finally thought I had a minute to drink my coffee and eat a muffin, Jasmine woke up. Life on the road is not boring! 

I found my first gray hair this morning. Andy says it’s from the stress of the crazy life he has taken me on. If so, bring it on! I’ll gladly get gray at 23 if it means we keep having this much fun going on adventures.

In an email Andy wrote to his family, he did a great job of recapping the last few days. I think I’ll let you read his perspective of life on the road.

Hi everyone! I’m up at 4:30 EDT because the puppies were yowling and whining right next to our bed, then Jasmine started up, so I figured I might as well get up and give the puppies a potty break and see what I can do to help Jasmine. 

Turns out that Jasmine had simply rolled onto her back, but the puppies needed to pee. It’s amazing how they have crate trained themselves. I have to watch it that they don’t pee in the motorhome before I have a chance to take them outside because to them it is out of their crate, so it must be okay, right? 

I took them out by two’s and they did their thing. The one puppy took off running, which I was concerned about because we are in the middle of a truck stop parking lot, but then it just hunched over and​ started pooping, so I guess that it had the urge to go and it wanted to get as far away as possible. 

Driving this rig has been very eventful! Going over the Appalachian mountains on route 22 in PA I was down to 25 mph! This thing doesn’t do that well on hills, but for a few more mpg, who can complain? One thing I found out about motorhomes is that they are built as light as possible in order to give as big of a home as possible while allowing for weight restrictions. 

I found this out when the motorhome suddenly dashed to the right as I was driving. Then a tractor trailer came roaring past on the left and when it was past, the motorhome dashed to the left. I guess it’s the effect of the air being pushed by the tractor trailer hitting me, and then the vacuum behind it pulling me back in again.

Another issue is wind from the side. In western Ohio and Indiana we had a strong Southwest wind, and it really bucked us around, requiring constant vigilance and correction. I couldn’t go the speed limit either, because it was all the Beast could do to go around 60-65. 

That was Thursday, and that night I was just about falling asleep with my eyes open during Gabe and Kaitlyn’s birthday party. I was eventually urged to go take a nap at 7:30, which I did, and ended up pretty much sleeping the rest of the night! I guess the work of keeping the motorhome on the road had worn me out. 

Friday was better as far as wind was concerned, but we did drive through Chicago which as usual entailed a traffic jam. Now we are out in Wisconsin! 

I have discovered that truck stops out in the open country are the way to go! I grew up never really thinking about all the trucks at a truck stop, and​ what they were doing, but when you are traveling long distances with a big rig and need a place to park for the night it is really nice to be able to have places designed for huge vehicles. Truck stops in urban areas tend to fill up quickly because they don’t have a lot of space to play with, but here there is lots of land to work with and not as many people, so there are plenty of spots available! 

We are enjoying the RV life. Tabitha hasn’t even set foot outside since yesterday morning because all the necessities are right here! It’s definitely the way to travel long distance, but it’s not necessarily cheap!

Cherokee and the puppies are getting things figured out. At Dad and Mom Thompson’s place we had the puppies running outside, and they were being all friendly and playful to Cherokee, which she tried to tell them that they may not do (by freezing and perking her ears back in a particular way). But being lab cross puppies, they didn’t get the concept in the least bit, so one by one they were corrected, after which they went yelping under the motorhome untill I came and comforted them. They have a lot more respect for Cherokee now, though, and are much less likely​ to come up on her when she is panting with her tongue hanging out and enthusiastically lick her dangling tongue. Just tonight she growled at one puppy and several of them yelped and they all ran into the cage where they stayed for a while until they felt safer. 

Yesterday I took two refreshing naps so I could keep driving. It was amazing! I jest went to the back and laid down on the bed I always sleep on! All I had to do to accomplish that was squeeze past the puppy cage in the bathroom, crawl over Jasmine​ without waking her, lay down in the fourteen inches of bed between the edge of the bed and Gabe’s playpen and sleep! 

The next time I needed a nap I simply crawled up over the cab in that neat bed area. That works much better because there are fewer contortions to do in order to get where I am trying to go.

Now there is a puppy sleeping in my lap, Cherokee is stretched out on the floor, the rest of the puppies are stretched out here and there, Gabe is asleep in his playpen, Jasmine just rolled over and woke herself up so I put her back to bed, and my dear wife is sleeping the sleep of one who has been caring for a grumpy child for a day and needs her sleep. There are idling trucks around here and there, and the day is just breaking. Who can tell what today will bring? I can’t wait to find out!

Love to all, Andy.