The First Third of Our Trip is Over! We have Left the South-Eastern United States

We lost a travel companion; Mary took a flight back to Toronto. We will miss her presence on the trip. The kids will especially miss the quality time they got to spend with their grandmother; the secret MandM’s, the trips to the shower, identifying the location of the garbage as soon as we enter a park and so much more. Mary graciously stepped aside to create the opportunity for some of the Simnett family to join us on the trip. We will miss her enthusiasm for new experiences, even if she may have been reluctant at first. It was great that she could fulfill travel goals like: the beach and nightlife of Naples, a tour of Gone with the Wind to prove Margaret Mitchell drew on her life experience when writing the book, seeing 12 Oaks in person, meeting up with her friend Becky on Longboat Key near Sarasota, seeing Frank Stronach's operations near Gainesville, a sunset on Key West, the history and architecture of Savannah, Myrtle beach’s white sand and the seafood in a restaurant on Bourbon St. in New Orleans. To wrap up, the first third of our trip – the south-eastern portion of United States let’s look at a few lists! Favourite Aspects of Travelling 1) Spending all the time with the kids We get to spend all day with our kids which is a blessing (although can occasionally be a curse). We are exceptionally fortunate to be hanging around with them. We see them having fun together, explore new things, meet new friends, learn about something that interests them and have new experiences. We also get to see the bond growing between them every day as they play and interact with each other. They will never be this age again and I don’t think we appreciate enough how fortunate we are to be with them. 2) Change of routine We appreciate the change of routine. When we left Ontario it was winter and we were trapped in our house for three weeks due to COVID, the kids were on screens way too much and the house was a mess. To be able to get to warmth and spend everyday exploring whatever we want. Having the flexibility to change our plans on a whim in order to take someone’s recommendation is fantastic. Also, having zero COVID precautions is pretty nice. 3) Seeing new sights Snorkelling in Key Largo, a sunset at Key West, a crocodile in the Everglades, a seafood restaurant in New Orleans, a blues bar in Memphis, Myrtle Beach, a waterfall in North Carolina, a Blue Jay spring training game and on and on. It’s fun to explore and see new places that we didn’t even know existed. 4) Hiking and the Connection with the Natural World We always knew that we wanted to do a lot of hiking on the trip. The fact that hiking has advantages like being cheap, healthy and you see tons of interesting things is awesome. Then we found the junior ranger program and we went full bore. The junior ranger program kept bringing us to National Parks and forces you to learn about the natural environment, and the stresses it faces in each area. This has been very educational. We know the Everglades is really a river, the Vulture helps reduce disease in the environment and the steps that are being taken in virtually every place we visited to reduce the harms done to the environment in the 20th century has been eye opening. 5) Our home away from home! Pulling our home behind us has been good for us. We have comfortable beds, thanks to Mary for researching the memory foam and bedding, that have given us good sleeps. We can wake up in the morning and look out upon trees, beaches, animals and more. The space is small and easy to clean. The small fridge has us eating vegetarian more which is a nice change. No TV and the small size forces you to go outside more. Least Favourite Aspects of Travelling 1) Our home away from home The trailer has had its problems. Our indoor plumbing isn’t working because a line connector broke, and I need a new one. The canvas started to fall off the roof, but I fixed that. Charlotte’s bed (or the couch) has a piece that is broken so if you stand on it with too much weight it collapses. The door doesn't firmly attach in place so I'm holding it in place with plastic knives. The brakes locked up and we didn’t notice until the tire was bald; we need to get it fixed on a travel day because we still need to live in it. The rear suspension in the car is starting to look strained but it’s tough to tell. But, we need to keep moving so on we go. 2) Packing Up We have gotten very good at opening the trailer. It takes barely any time at all to crank up the roof, set up the beds and organize the inside. This is true because we meticulously put everything back into its place every time we pack up. With kids leaving stuff out, maxed out storage space and the random stuff that we acquire while moving from place to place, it’s not as easy as just pushing the beds in and cranking it down. Add in that we leave in the morning so we have to deal with people getting dressed, brushing teeth, breakfast dishes, putting breakfast food away, getting vitamins out, filling water bottles and more before we can think about packing up the trailer. 3) No Routine Gen and I had a fantastic exercise routine at home. We worked out most workdays. As soon as we hit the road that disappeared, and we miss it. The kids miss the routine of getting ready in the morning, going to school, seeing their friends, eating at regular times, napping at regular times (and not in cars), etc. This impacts how we feel and behave on a regular basis and that is not always positive. Then you add in long car rides on top of that and things can go downhill. 4) Booking campsites and Planning We are constantly looking for campsites and planning our next step. We have had a few stays of 3-5 nights, but most stays are one or two nights. This means we are constantly looking at the next step; where are we camping, what are we doing, what route should we take, what do we see and not see. This is fantastic and freeing and exciting but it can wear on you when you are doing it every day. 5) Food planning and Preparation We generally eat lunch on the road or at some location. Eating lunch at a waterfall or on the beach is great but every morning trying to decide what type of sandwich/wrap you want (tuna, peanut butter and jam, or turkey) and putting everything in the lunch bag can get old. If you forget anything, the trailer has access to our fridge and cutlery, but not our pantry. We have limited prep space in our trailer and try to cook outside as much as possible but you are balancing things on the side of the trailer, step, etc. Then you have dirty dishes in a trailer with no running water and a small grey water tank. On top of that ensuring food stays fresh with a microscopic fridge (that might not have 120V running to it all the time; our trailer’s battery doesn’t cool the fridge much) results in more frequent grocery stops and more food wastage. All in all, the good far outweighs the bad. I hope this doesn't come across as complaining because we are blessed (as my students would say) to be doing this trip at all. A Final Interesting and Concerning Note! As we go along our trip, we keep hearing about changes to our climate. We have the people at the flower farm in Florida who say that more frequent frosts have farmers switching from oranges (that are sensitive but have flourished in Florida so much they are on the license plates) to grapes for wine. The olive farmer in Texas lost the majority of his orchard due to the cold weather that hit Texas, causing much disruption and many deaths, which had never happened in living memory. The hiker in Dallas who told us that the humid weather was always in South Texas but over the last few years has more frequently come to the Dallas area. The extreme drought that we are moving into as we travel west that could cause an even more intense wild fire season this year. I have thought many times about the impact we are having as we travel on this trip. We are going through plenty of gasoline on this adventure and in its small way we are contributing to a much bigger problem. The impacts I've mentioned are small and individual in nature but taken together, they are changing the way we, and the ecosystems we live in, behave. I'm not sure what I will do to alleviate my responsibility for the pollution we are putting in the air this trip but I am considering what steps to take. The first step, I took a while ago, was to only vote for a political party with a solid climate policy. For your consideration.