Thanks and Lessons

So we've been home for almost a month.  It takes about that long for us to get through the laundry and stowing of camping gear, get back into a routine, and start missing the road again.  I was looking through some pictures from the trip yesterday and the beginning seems more like 6 months than 3. We might be changing up next year's summer trip plans.  Kinda spread out the fun a little bit.

My list of thanks is very similar to years past:

• Thank you first to Dave who works all the time to make these trips possible.  As grumpy as he gets while we are away I do believe he might be getting a tiny bit used to them.
• Thank you to Grammie for traveling along with us and making our adventures way better along the way.
• Thank you to the inventor of the stinky stick up.  I'm not sure it really made a big difference, but Dave did not complain when he got in the car the first time so possibly it did. 

• Thank you to all you readers checking in and keeping up to date on our adventures.  And thank you for all the comments, texts, and messages of advice, encouragement, and laughs.
• Thank you to all the children's authors out there as my kids devour books, especially on these trips!  This is a quick picture of some of what was read along the way not counting audio books and a few we donated to the libraries we visited!

I try to keep up with my lessons as I learn them along the way.  This can be difficult as I am (1) getting old and can't remember much so I have to write it down, (2) am driving on winding roads and cannot write, and (3) I ended up accidentally throwing away what I did write down.  Fortunately, I did remember some of the lessons and made sure to type them up as I wrote about our days.

• Fried food can cure a stomach that has been riding in the back of the car on winding back roads.
• Kentucky has some beautiful barns along the interstate.  So beautiful I bet there is a calendar.
• No on but me seemed to think it was strange that cows were galloping down the interstate in Alabama.
• The AT&T skyscraper in Nashville looks like Batman.
• Trader Joe's cookie butter is addictive.  Don't even try it.
• Illinois "county" roads should have a sign requiring 4 wheel drive.
• While gravel floors are terribly uncomfortable to sleep on, they drain rain exceptionally well!  Grass floors look so lush and inviting, but they are unforgiving when it comes to rain! 
• There are massive amounts of corn and soybeans grown in Illinois.
• Being on the border of time zone changes always seems to make me feel like I'm going to be an hour late somewhere.
• Putting in a cd of Brayden's music from last year's summer trip is guaranteed to get his head to pop out of a book and his hands clapping to the beat!
• Mastered the art of getting pants on in a wet shower and figured out the perfect angle to place flip flops outside the tent so I can step right in them when getting out.
• The military in the Keneewaw Peninsula could only grow potatoes in their garden.  Even our potato-loving Ryan said she would get tired of them after a week!
• The washboard in the 1850s was called the knuckle-buster.  
• Falling asleep next to the gentle waves of Lake Superior sounds very similar to those of the Gulf of Mexico.
• Copper miners only made about $1 a day for a 10 hour shift.  If their candle, which they had to buy themselves, went out they were to sit until another crew member or their supervisor came. If it was the supervisor, they would be docked their day of pay and still be expected to work the rest of their shift.  Ouch!
• It's so nice to be able to have conversations with another adult after being solely with your kids for almost 3 weeks!
• Most of my worries along the way were not even worth the attention I gave them.
• My kids will do just about anything with the promise of ice cream.
• People in the northwoods of Michigan mark their driveway with very interesting designs of reflectors and antiques.
• People in campgrounds in Canada mark their campsites with very interesting collections of reflectors, hand-carved signs and lots of Canadian flags.
• Canada highway boulders are filled with inukshuks along every ledge.
• Quiet nights and mornings by the fire while children sleep are better shared with your better half.
• If someone in the tent is about to get sick, don't let them be in charge of unzipping the door to get out.  And don't leave your keys by the tent door.
• A hummingbird has 1000 feathers and a swan has 25,000!
• There are bats that don't hibernate in caves.
• Laundry machines in Canada don't know the difference between American and Canadian quarters.
• The emerald ash borer is threatening a lot of forests across our continent.
• Given a 30-minute limit on wifi time, I can type REALLY fast!
• It is a refreshing change in Canada for every attraction not to be over commercialized. Except when Grammie would like to find a place to buy t-shirts for the kids!
• There are 44 types of orchids and 6 different varieties of ferns on the Bruce Peninsula.
• The ferry to Manatoulin Island is so large it looks like a small cruise ship!
• The call of the Northern Cardinal sounds like a Star Wars Fight.  Pew! Pew! Pew!
• The call of the Northern Cardinal at 4:45am can be quite annoying.
• A vulture projectile vomits when it's feeling threatened.
• Sometimes Ryan loses her pajama bottoms in the middle of the night in her sleeping bag.
• While trying to make our parks better by planting non-native trees, introducing non-native animals, damming lakes and completely preventing forest fires, man has had a large role in the extinction of some animal and plant species.
• Biologists and scientists are still learning and are struggling diligently to bring back severely threatened species of animals and plants as well as help forests and parks return to their more natural state.
• The world seems way bigger when your mom leaves.
• Climbing out of the tent in the morning right into a spider's web will make me do a funky dance!
• The Macinaw Bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the U.S.  There are 4 larger in the world in China, Japan and Denmark.
• Deer antlers are the fastest growing tissue on earth and can grow up to 1/2" per day!
• I am a little more apt to cave in on buying new t-shirts when we are needing to do laundry!
• I found where the Bonaroo festival is held in Tennessee.
• Road kill takes many shapes and forms.
• At first I was surprised that county fairs are held in July in Michigan and Wisconsin until I realized that having them in late October like ours wouldn't work there!
• An empty laundry bag and full clothes bag can feel almost as refreshing as a good night's sleep. Like I can do this for another month!
• Residents of Michigan and Ontario take their recreation seriously!  The campgrounds and comfort stations inside them are SO nice!  Private shower rooms that can easily fit a family and power at every site!  We were spoiled!
• Fresh skunk spray in the middle of the night can wake you from a deep sleep with choking breaths.
• Grammie gets the best parking spots and if I rub her arm before she leave I luck into them too!
• Once we're home, it's so nice not to have to remember to buy ice every time we get gas or groceries.
• At home, it's so nice not to have to scramble to find quarters for laundry.
• Once we're home we head to the library pretty quickly and I realize on the way home how much I miss that quiet with three kids' noses buried in books.

Thanks for traveling along with us and we'll see you next time!