We are free! Count us out among Human Resources, financially we owe no man a cent. Strike that, we do have to pay our rent tomorrow... all $175 of it to include utilities. Cid said he started laughing manically whilst crossing the Appomattox. I did no such thing as I had sleeping children & that is how I wanted to keep them while driving to western Nc. We broke camp at Newport News park where we had been staying the last 3 nights while awaiting the house closing on Fri.
Sat. we played tourist at the Yorktown Victory Center as that is the only leg of the Historic Triangle we'd never visited. I learned so much, both about agrarian communities of yore & the arts & mysteries of housewifery, also of yore. Why my pickling had been unsuccessful, some cast iron cookery, & how a very small house can be very pleasant as long as the kitchen is detached. Cid got some very good ideas for building construction too. Charlotte made friends w/ a turkey & Victor learned about flintlock pistols.
As I said, Sat. we broke camp & Sun. morning we woke up at 4. I got the children dressed & we went to have a delicious 7-11 breakfast while going over routes & things. It was probably 5 when I hit the road, Cid an hour & 1/2 later. Apparently Victor had stuffed sticks in some of the leveling jacks, so Cid had to fabricate a tool in the dark to remove them. He wasn't too happy about that, but he was soon hitched up & on his way.
My coffee didn't work so shortly after crossing the state line we stopped at a Mc'Donalds w/ a play place. And about 25 miles later because Victor said he had to pee. I got fuel at this point. Mc'Donalds coffee works! We got in a good bit of distance then, Charlotte fell back asleep & we made it to a rest stop where we stayed about an hour. I promised Victor an "Adventure Lunch" & pulled out an MRE. Neither he or Charlotte was much impressed; the chili mac did look gritty. They ate the crackers w/ relish, which suprised me. I thought they tasted like dust. While there we peed 3 times. The attendents looked annoyed, but the toilets were automatic which terrifies Victor, so he'll avoid it if possible. I have to cover up the laser eye for him. But we got in lots of running & climbing games.
The last bit of distance he discovered my camelbak & drank half of it for fun. I'm glad it was the last bit, because after that every 20 miles he needed to stop & pee. He wore a pullup all day, but he really wanted to keep it dry, so we would just pull over to pee in a bottle. SO. That's why Cid got here in 5 hours & I took 9. He'd not taken a lunch break & was almost finished setting everything up when we pulled in, so after he was done we went to KFC for their very good & reasonably priced buffet.
It's hard to let it sink in that this is now home. I don't miss our crackerbox on 1/4 acre. Yesterday we were surrounded by woods & deer. Today our yard is 10 beautiful acres of grass & trees w/ a mountain in the distance & the (very flooded) Catawba river 100 yards away. But to have everything you've known though not really liked just gone to never return...it doesn't seem real. We're staying here for a month, just to garner some stability after a very trying & busy month. Thank you to everyone for your prayers & kind thoughts as we begin what we consider to be the real American Dream.
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