Newport, TN 37821
Petersburg, KY 41080
North Bend, OH 45052
Well, we did it. We finally hit the road.
After a few delays at home, we finally pulled out of town early Tuesday afternoon. (See photo gallery below.) We definitely underestimated how much stuff we had to pack, both into the trailer as well as into storage. Until Sunday afternoon I had been sure that we would be leaving on Monday morning, but we spent most of Monday doing all of the little things.
The last mile really is the longest. On a side note, after many loads to Goodwill and trash, everything that we now own fits into three quarters of a 10’X20′ storage unit. I suppose that’s a good thing?
Unfortunately, we didn’t make it too far out of town before Brytan got car sick. He’s usually good for one or two episodes per trip. Because of this, and all of our delays getting out of town, we hit Chicago at exactly the perfect time to park on I-294 with a few thousand of our closest friends. Finally, somewhere close to midnight we pulled in to Indian Springs Campground on the border of Ohio and Indiana. We didn’t see much of the campground that night, and instead just did the quickest setup possible and then straight to bed.
We planned to spend Wednesday and Thursday at the Creation Museum, which was about 15 minutes away from our site, not far past some smoke stacks that the kids decided were part of a “cloud factory”. It was pretty interesting and we recommend it. There were exhibits about dinosaurs, Noah’s flood and ark, fossils, evolution and the difference between the views of secular scientists and the scientists that believe God created the universe.
Later that evening we found ourselves by the campground pond. The campground itself was “OK”, next to an interstate, with very few amenities (although it did have a barber shop, of all things), but from our seats next to the playground, the little pond reflecting the sunset was pretty serene. Sophie thought the pond was nice, too. In fact she dove in and swam after some ducks. After the sun set we drove into town to pick up a couple things at Walmart and grab dinner. When Kelly heard there was a Big Boy restaurant, of course we had to stop there for dinner.
Although I’d been working a few hours here and there all week, Friday was my first full day of work from the trailer. It was a little cramped because we still had several boxes of stuff that needed to find new homes. Plus the weather left a little to be desired, so everyone was in the trailer for most of the day. It was a good experience to get used to the challenges of working remotely in a trailer that is less than 400 square feet. Since then, we found homes for almost everything and there are very few things to get in the way. The Wii is connected and we have days worth of video and books to keep the kids busy when they are stuck inside (they start school next week).
As it turns out, even though we purged and have stored so much stuff back in Wisconsin, we still have a lot of stuff in the trailer. We have space for all of it, but it’s like a puzzle to figure out where it should all be kept. Even so, Kelly has a feeling that the next few campgrounds we visit will each become a little nicer as we donate some stuff we decide that we don’t really need after all.
Tonight we’re camped at a KOA just past Knoxville, TN. Tomorrow we head toward South Carolina.
This was definitely a week full of firsts for the Isaacs family. Obviously it was the first week of our big adventure. The dog got her first bath in the trailer. We dealt with our first stomach flu. Sophie met her first new doggie friend, Gus Gus.
It was also the first week of our new adventure — the first page in a new chapter of our lives. I hope you come back and read along as we turn the next page.
