McMillan's Ho! : Long drive days suck

The title says it all. Today we drove 550 km (or so) from Prince George to Lac le Jeune Provincial Park, 37 km south of Kamloops. We left at 10 am this morning and rolled into the campground for the night at 7 pm. Thursday we did nearly as far to get to Burns Lake and much of last week was spent in the vehicle moving south. It’s exhausting. Frustrating too (the” inability to get things done” aspect, not the “I’m getting closer to my goal” part). All this driving has taught me one thing; this country is BIG! I am so glad that we will be in Penticton tomorrow, and don’t plan on moving (or at least moving very far) for several weeks.

Life is a highway

Truck School

Drive days are challenging enough. Multiple drive days in a week are extra challenging. We get up, eat, pack up the trailer inside and out (although with multiple drive days there isn't much packing outside & often we don’t even bother unhitching from the truck – as with tonight), we gather school supplies, snacks, entertainment and whatever else into the vehicle before we all climb in and go. We spend all day sitting in the truck, stopping for lunch (sometimes supper too), to fuel up,sometimes to see a nearby attraction, or possibly stopping at a playground for the kids (if we find one that can accommodate us). The miles (or km) roll by and start to blur together. The kids get squirrelly from the inactivity, they fight doing their school work (and let’s face it, having only book work to do gets boooring pretty quick – it’s a challenge to try to keep the work interesting and engaging), Bob and I get tired of driving or navigating, we all eventually get tired of each other. By the time we get to our night’s stop it’s often nearing dark with just enough time to set up, let the kids run off some of that pent up energy, and many times we still need to make supper. The kids tend to take a long time to settle to bed on these nights just because of that unspent energy and need to move.

Playground break

The fact that it’s getting later in the year, and we’ve moved both east and south of where we were is a blessing in one way. It’s dusk by 7:30pm and so we have to stop for the night earlier than we used to (no more pulling in at 9pm!) By the way, the stars are absolutely gorgeous here.

Overnights (one night stays) suck just as bad as long drive days. ‘Cause I get to get up and do it all again! Blech! Overnights get old real fast, but they are a means to making the distance disappear in a relatively short amount of time. Did I mention how happy I am that we are going to stay put for a while? The ability to actually have a reasonable and regular routine, access to school resources and a library, soak up some fall sunshine and heat at the beach, and maybe get caught up on projects or activities that have been set aside. J

Ooh, and the trailer goes into the shop on Wednesday to (hopefully!) have the required maintenance and repairs done – did I mention that the kitchen grey water tank may have sprung a leak? It’s never ending!