Bad Day / Good Day

No doubt about it. Sunday was a bad day. It started out alright, but as we got closer to LA the traffic volume went up and our speed went down.  Somehow I had completely forgotten to account for all the holiday Sunday traffic that would be wending its way home after the long weekend into our travel plans. Stupid, considering we didn't have to go anywhere, really.   

Still 90 miles from our destination

Time ticked away as we crawled along the I10 - an extra two hours’ worth.  The hour we had gained by switching time zones was completely obliterated by the slow pace. To add insult to injury, we had to stop to clean Lily up after the cherry slushie didn't agree with her tummy. Yucky! Shortly before turning off the I10 onto the quieter CA91 Lily started asking for some supper, but with the crazy amount of traffic, there was no where we could have pulled off. My rant: I've found that with the way the off-ramps are angled, you can’t see what services are off them until after you've passed the exit. It’s also quite frustrating looking for somewhere to stop, in the dark, while going 60 mph and being 53’ long! You can’t stop just anywhere like a car can, and so we resolved to eat once we had stopped for the night (which was now only 30 min away).

The last bit of driving before reaching our destination was on fast, narrow, freeway, full of aggressive drivers, which frazzled the last of Bob’s nerves and made him second guess his final turns. But, we found the campground, pulled in, checked-in, checked out our appointed spot and then Bob went to ask for a site transfer, since he didn't like being right beside the road. After inhaling a bit of supper (about two hours past when we should have stopped) we switched spots. By that point we were tired, frazzled and obviously not thinking clear enough because we then did something extra stupid. We dropped the fifth wheel – meaning we dumped 12000 lbs onto the bed rails & tailgate of the truck. That left a mark! Luckily the landing gear was mostly down, and thankfully we only dented and didn't destroy. Now we have dents in the rails for our tonneau cover and a dent on the tailgate as well as a broken light and two dents on the underside of the nose of our fifth wheel to remind us never to do that again. Ugh! I think this one will go down as one of the worst days we've had. 

Can you see the kids and I on the ride?

Monday, by comparison, was a fabulous day. We visited the Happiest Place on Earth, Disneyland!   Everyone enjoyed the rides (I actually went on two roller coasters, which for me is a huge deal!), the kids were well behaved and patient in the lines, and were happy pretty much the whole (long & busy) day. It helped that we utilized the FastPASS system (highly recommend) as well as Disney’s disability access pass, to cut down on our time waiting in lines. As a result we spent more time having fun riding the rides and seeing the attractions than waiting in line and dealing with meltdowns (which were noticeably, and thankfully, minor – and evidently were saved for today!).  Morgan loved the various roller coasters, a small world and all of Toontown.  Lily loved meeting the princesses and seeing the inside of Sleeping Beauty’s castle, and all the fireworks above it. 

Bring em to Disneyland and all they wanna do is watch TV!

Before we knew it, the day was done. We watched the fireworks, had a late supper, bought me a sweatshirt (because I was cold and I hadn't actually spent my birthday money yet) and then walked back to the RV park. The kids were pooped by the time we got back to the trailer at 9 pm. Morgan had a quick snack and then went to bed, while Lily went straight to bed, barely mustering the energy to get in jammies. I've never seen them crash so quickly! (except maybe the day before where they did pretty much the same) I think we all had great fun, and everyone is looking forward to going to Disney’s California Adventure Park on Wednesday (we have a 3-day pass that we intend to make full use of, but we all needed a break today to rest up!). Tonight we can all enjoy the fireworks from home. How sweet is that!

Big, beautiful Christmas tree

P.S. I finally got the inside pictures of our trailer loaded onto the Truck & Trailer page, if anyone is curious about what our home looks like.