Friday, June 2

 In keeping our culinary tradition, we moved from a marshmallow to an egg. 

    For 30 years, we traveled with Miss Marshmallow. She served us well. When Kaylyn finished high school in 2008, she and I took our month-long "Route 66" trip. When she graduated from college in 2012 we circled New England. Kaylyn's intention was that when she completed her master's degree we would take another mom-and-daughter trip, this time to southeast Canada. Covid waylaid those plans. So here we are in 2023, and she and Chris have two little ones. We decided to stay in the United States, and invite some of our favorite people to join us. 

    Miss Marshmallow is now living in leisurely retirement with Chandler & Brianna. We will use primarily AirBNBs, but it was obvious that our truck, as large as it is, could not accommodate all of us and our stuff. Actually, accommodate all of the paraphernalia involved in traveling with babies. You know that babies take up more room than adults, given the need for car seats, stroller, porta-crib, booster seat, and infant bed. Taking a break from cloth diapers, Kaylyn packed a large supply of disposable diapers.  

    The member of our party who is most concisely packed is 14-year-old Lydia. She arrived in Chicago via American Airlines with only her carry-on bag, her backpack, and her favorite blanket. Kaylyn and I both wanted her to have this travel experience, and, her scheming grandmother and aunt think she will be a great help keeping Tobias entertained on a long trip. 

    How to carry all of this stuff? We have moved from a marshmallow to an egg! 

No, not that kind of an egg. This egg: 

This egg is called Gearspace 34. It weighs about 100 pounds empty and holds 300 pounds of stuff - which seemed like plenty until we loaded it tonight. It slides away from the truck so we can access the tailgate. 

Our party of seven includes Greg and me, Kaylyn and Chris, just-turned-two Tobias, Etta Grace, who joined our family ten weeks ago, and 14-year-old Lydia. We hope you enjoy our blog as we explore New England. 

The egg is loaded with diapers - Diapers NorthEast - here we come!




Comments

  1. Bob MarshallJune 3, 2023 at 7:48 AM

    God's blessings in Christ as you get underway!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 3, 2023 at 11:57 AM

    Diapers… did Kaylyn bring so many diapers that that’s the only thing that fit in the egg? That’s a lot of diapers. 😆 praying for you all as you travel. I’m sure you’ll have a great time!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJune 3, 2023 at 11:58 AM

    That last comment was from me, kasie. For some reason it does not want to publish my Gmail account name.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJune 3, 2023 at 2:10 PM

    All those diapers will be handy for Mom's inevitable Iced Tea spillage. Perhaps you should just wrap one around her cup preemptively.
    -Chandler

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Please sign your name to your comment so we know who you are!

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Monday, June 19: Buffalo We arrived home from Toronto at 11:15 last night, and didn't have specific plans for today, which was lovely. Kaylyn and Chris decided that a low-key day to take a walk, launder, organize, and let Tobias have a real nap in his porta-crib rather than cat-naps in the stroller sounded appealing.  Buffalo is a city of great architecture. It is also the terminus of the Erie Canal, which has captured our attention. When Greg and I were in the British Isles in 1997 we found ourselves attracted to rental canal boats in Wales, and thought renting one would be a wonderful experience. Since then we have had an eye on canal boats, and this year Greg did a lot of research on the Erie Canal. In late September we hope to spend a week along the Erie Canal with our camper and bicycles.  I found a boat tour on the water that highlights the Erie Canal and the grain silos on shore. We signed up for the hour-and-one-half tour, and it was excellent. Tobias has minimal patie...
Read more
Image
  Sunday, June 11 - Boston Day #3 Yep, our feet are tired, except Tobias and Etta Grace. Tobias spent much of the day constrained on the tour trolley or in the stroller, and Etta Grace spent all day in the carrier strapped to either Kaylyn or me. I don't know that either option is better than walking! Just for fun I started to record our times this morning. We got to the train's parking lot in a record 15 minutes! Greg finally is getting the very complicated route down. Then we were on the train into the city for 40 minutes. When we got off the train, we walked to the wharf and boarded a hop-on, hop-off "trolley." I use the word loosely because trolleys should be on a track, and these are buses which are pretending to be trollies.  There is no pretending for their talented drivers. We watched in awe as the drivers negotiate crowded streets, cars parked where they shouldn't be, lines of both regular buses and duck-tour ducks also dropping off and picking up passeng...
Read more
Image
  Sunday, June 4 We awakened to breakfast casserole and bagels in the gracious home of Chris's Uncle Bob and Aunt Martha. Cleveland, 450 miles east of home, seemed an attainable goal for the first day of driving. Bob and Martha were the most accommodating of hosts. We enjoyed great food, comfortable beds, and an excellent evening of conversation.  We left home Saturday morning, fully loaded in both the truck and our egg: The babes have been good travelers. Other than an hour-long meltdown by Tobias near the end of the drive today, both of our little travelers have been excellent voyagers.  When Chris considered the fact that we were going past Scranton, Pennsylvania, he proposed we stop to visit his childhood home. He guided us to a train and trolley museum. We didn't have time for a complete tour of the excellent facility, but Tobias got to climb on a train and Chris recalled some favorite memories. Then on to his old home.  Chris's dad assumed the pastorate of...
Read more