Final Day – 6964 miles … The last push home, happy and sad

We all wake up a little late today, everyone knows this is the last day before we are home, and I think we are all trying to extend the trip as much as we can. Michelle leaves early with Jack for a walk, and I revel in the extra few minutes of silence in bed, until the girls get up.

Upon her return, which has all the girls up and about, we learn that the Florida State Parks also have a junior Ranger program. This gets the girls excited and they go through the workbook. They complete their tasks as I pack up the motorhome for its last day on the highway.

We head for the park exit around 11A, and we stop for the girls to turn in their ranger workbooks and receive their badge. The FL State Parks have these wonderful “passports”, that show all the different parks, have information about them, pictures and key facts. We buy 4 … as Jack will also start collecting :) … and vow to make it through the entire book with the kids.

On our drive back, we take a detour into Tallahassee for a kids diversion. The plan is to spend some time on the diversion, then head to see the college that Michelle attended. The diversion we chose was an indoor (read air conditioned) “Jumpy Castle” place. You pay $7 a child, adults are free and they can play in there for as long as they want. There are nice sofa’s for the parents and about 10 different “castles” for the kids to play on. They have a couple that are more toddler size and 1 that is for babies … everyone has a great time … although we did come across a couple of bully kids that terrorized Jaci.

I went in all the “rides” with Genna and found the little “terror”… had a chat, which did no good … but I did manage to block him from pushing past us … what is wrong with parenting these days, that kids have no respect for others, let alone elders … oh well … fun was had, and we headed out of there around 5P. We realized that we’d be getting home late, so we skipped the school tour, planning to come back on another weekend.

The drive from Tallahassee was uneventful, simple and sad. No one, kids, or adults wanted to go home and have this trip end. We all agreed that we could keep this up easily for a couple of more weeks … which was a great testament to the fun we had.

For me, the last 3 hours involved going through in my head what we would do differently, what I wished we had had, what we could have prepared for and what we would learn for the next trip. I “built” my dream RV in my head … to be fair, the RV didn’t matter … the only thing, I wish we had was a better working generator, and this was more of a repair thing. The RV was large enough, had enough space and no real issues … it was; by everyone's account, perfect.

In the end, the RV was just a vehicle (no pun intended) for our family adventure. It was a great trip, it let me watch Zach get close to his sisters and little brother. I got to see a deeper bond develop between Zach and his shadow Jaci. I only wish that he could have spent more of the trip with us, as I know he would have loved the entire trip … and I would have spent more time building fires, fixing the RV and sharing stories with him.

I got to watch Kate grow up in these last 3 weeks. She is so mature, so confident. She loved going off on her own in the parks with Jaci, exploring not just the park, but her new found freedom. I watched Kate develop her “shopping skills”, using the money she had saved to buy gifts for everyone in the family first, before buying something for herself. She is so considerate, so confident, so bright … she was always dancing, no matter where we were. I’m sure she danced in every state, in every park and in every city.

I got to spend some great one on one time with Jaci as my helper, when Zach wasn’t around, she’d be the one holding my tools, turning on the water, going with me to buy parts. I got to see her and Kate be the dynamic duo. I also got to see Jaci the big sister, playing with Genna, laughing and having a good time. She continues to live up to her moniker of “cheeky monkey”, she’s always exploring the boundaries :) … she is also so sensitive, I loved snuggling with her in the mornings … or just the 2 of us falling asleep.

This trip let me enjoy Genna in many ways and experience her intellect and humor. She is so funny and so clever … nothing gets past her, in a way, I’m glad the generator wasn’t working 100% … as it allowed for one of my favorite moments … it had cut out for the 4th time that day… Genna comes up to where I am driving and says, “Daddy, we lost the generator!”, she did so with the most confident and “matter of fact” voice you’d ever heard. I forget that she is 2, she can keep up with her sisters at just about anything. She knows she is funny and I think, she knows she is clever … she has no fear and is much less shy than her sisters ever were. She would proudly state … “I’m from Florida”, or “I just went to California”, or she’d look out the window at some vista and proclaim “beautiful”.

This trip had many first, and many of them for Jack. He is such a happy guy, always smiling, always flirting. He, without failing, always smiles at the girls. He is great to walk around with :) … He’s standing on his own and crawling, two first on this trip … and he is no longer content just sitting and watching things happen … he wants to be involved and makes his way over to the action. I will miss my morning walks with him probably the most …

I know that visiting Tennessee, was very important for Michelle, it was great to be able to connect back with family and visit places from her childhood. I know that it meant a great deal to her and was a wonderful experience for all of us. This is a trip that we both have talked about for a long time, it is something that we wanted to do, to connect our kids with the sort of trips that we did as kids. The many hours that Michelle spent in the family Suburban with her parents and siblings … the great memories it holds for her and the ability that this trip gave us to share some of those with ours.

I think this trip showed Kelly America, at least a much greater swath than she has gotten from living in Florida. It was great for me to be able to see America through the eyes of someone not from here, to experience the things we take for granted and to hear some of the stereotypes that are built about America. I am pleased to be able to get Kelly to believe that Texas, is not just like “Walker, Texas Ranger” … although she was disappointed that we didn’t see cowboys just driving around :)

This was a great trip, one that rewarded us with great memories, wonderful experiences and awesome adventures … it made us all closer … it is now over. But it won’t be our last.

I’ve been told that Grandpa wants to see Alaska, so maybe I will have a driving partner :) …