Well we have just returned from our maiden voyage. We went to Beuscher State Park in Smithville, just an hour away from home. It rained. A lot. But it was good practice for what we have in store while traveling the west coast for 5+ months. Loralai took a day to adjust. And being cooped up with her for that day was hard. But we did survive and things improved. We got to camp and hooked up around 6pm in the dark and rain. Joe did great! I entertained the kids in the truck while he worked and got wet. :) Once in the RV, I made hamburgers and we all fell asleep around 8pm. I then woke up at 2:30am from the very loud rain storm we were getting and stayed up until 4am when both the girls also woke up from the rain. After some milk and cookies and books we all went back to sleep around 4:30am. Day 2, up around 9am and made breakfast. We had a break in the rain so we went fishing. Really that amounted to Joe fishing, me holding a baby while she napped, and Loralai playing with the worms for an hour and a half. We caught nothing and headed back to "home" for lunch. Then I left for the store to get forgotten dinner supplies, honestly a very nice break from the kids! The town store was so small I wanted to interview the check out girl about her life in a small town, but resisted. Dinner and bed. Day 3, great weather and we got a canoe to do more fishing. We caught nothing, but the guy next to us had some live minnows as bait and gave one to Loralai. So to her, we did catch a fish! She named him Hooter, and played with him for an hour, covering him with mud and "teaching him to swim". We released Hooter and headed back home to pack up and eat lunch before departing. Loralai made a friend while we were readying the RV for departure and they ran around the camp together. The girls and I went on a tiny hike while Joe dumped the tanks. We were back at Longhorn Skwy by 3pm.
Much was learned on this trip!
1. An RV is MUCH smaller than home!!!
2. You are never alone and it's never quiet!
3. My husband is AWESOME and so happy when camping, like a kid in a candy shop!
4. Loralai will take some time to adjust, but will be SO happy once she does!
5. Bean is happy anywhere!
6. It is possible to make friends while on the road (Thank you Loralai for showing me this!).
7. I love my family! They are so much fun to be with.
8. Keep kids FED! They throw less fits that way.
9. Fishing with kids is not very productive.
10. Setting up and breaking down camp takes a long dang time!!!! Must plan for this!
11. MORE in the car activities are needed! Are we there yet....... Are we there yet.....
12. I will miss long, private showers. I will miss them A LOT!
13. I will take some time to adjust as well, but seeing our beautiful country will be worth the adjustments needed.
14. We need some more RV mods and supplies. I'm thinking the outdoor patio extension that creates a second covered living space for $700 might just be worth it!
15. I have my work cut out for me! But it will be an experience of a life time!
We depart in 2 weeks!
Well as much as we don't like it, Joe and I have decided to delay our trip for at least another week. We have some time on the tail end of our adventure to stretch it out if we want to. The decision to delay a week is mostly fueled by the need to rent the house before we go. We had a couple of interested parties, but they didn't pan out. So we have been doing some work in the yard, mulching, fence painting, and packing up the house as much as possible and just hope to get a short-term renter soon! Once we made this decision though, we feel good about it! I mean, we still don't even have our hiking shoes (Going to REI tonight for those.)! This also gives us more time to reupholster all the cushions in the RV, install mods, hang curtains, pack, etc. I also have a few real estate deals that still need to be closed and I would prefer to be here for those. I have some friends coming over tonight to give me some interior decorating/space saving advice in the RV. Yay! So our new departure date is March 10th-ish! 
