It’s been quite a while, and it’s time to dust off the ol’ blog with an update. Here’s what we’ve been up to for the last few months…
Shortly after arriving back in Indy after our roughly-year-long RV trip, we headed off to the Arnold family reunion in Thornville, Ohio:
Our camping spot was perfect: a vacant lot in my Uncle Mark’s neighborhood.
A couple days after that, we dropped Carrie and Natalie off at a week-long farm camp in the Amish country of northeast Ohio. It was Carrie’s second time and Natalie’s first time at “Camp Manure” (not really its name; that’s just what we call it.)
Back in Indy, my mom’s neighbor unfortunately took issue with us living in the RV behind their house, so we ended up relocating the RV and moving in with my mom. One thing we can all agree on, however, is the awesomeness of my parking job:
Having access to my dad’s woodworking tools allowed me to do an upgrade I’d been itching to do all year: replace the circa 2002, 700 lb. bubble TV with a lightweight, energy efficient LED HDTV:
Emily got in three flights courtesy of the Young Eagles program we learned about while in Osh Kosh, WI. Here she is manning the controls during a flight in August:
While at home, Amy and the girls did a study of our Amish family ancestry and culture, which included a trip to Northern Indiana. While there, they were invited to visit my mom’s cousin and their dairy farm.
Amy and the girls enjoyed this special field trip with my mom and getting to meet new cousins.
Remember how scratched and dented the front of our poor Scion got? Well, after being back in Indy for just a couple days, someone rear-ended it while it was parked and scraped up the back. But then a miracle happened one early August morn: a tree limb fell on the hood and busted it all up:
The homeowner who owned the tree reimbursed us for the repairs to the front, and the body shop accidentally damaged the back. So we got a free new front:
…and a free new back! :)
After staying with my mom in Indy for about a month, we moved on to Amy’s parents’ house in Ohio. An early highlight was spending a day at a water park that Uncle Clint manages:
Amy’s mom had recently acquired several chickens, so we enjoyed many farm-fresh eggs. Emily helped name the chickens and really enjoyed taking care of them.
We lived in Amy’s parents’ house instead of the RV while we were there, so that gave me the opportunity to do my most daunting RV project to date: installing an inverter. This inverter takes DC power from our bank of batteries and supplies the outlets with AC power when we are disconnected from an electrical source. It was hard work — I had to rewire much of the electrical system of the RV and install a new breaker panel — but having the internet, TV and any other AC-powered device operable while rolling down the road is simply magical.
One of our side trips while in Ohio was touring the Fleetwood factory in Decatur, IN (our RV is a Fleetwood).
I love seeing how stuff is made, and learning all about how our RV was assembled was particularly interesting.
Carrie turned 13 in October!
We ended up staying 6 wonderful weeks in Ohio with Amy’s parents. The last few days were unfortunately pretty crazy — I had to go back to Indy for a conference, leaving Amy to drive to our next stop in North Carolina by herself. Amy is a very capable RV driver, but it would have been a long and potentially stressful drive. I’m eternally grateful to Amy’s dad for riding along with her. (Thanks John!)
Our first stop in NC was a weekend-long hippy music festival in Asheville called LEAF. For years my sister Shelley has been telling me about how much fun it is (she and her family go twice a year).
Most people tent-camp at this event, but there was a small section for fellow RVers:
The music was good…
…but it was mainly just about being outside and hanging out with friends. Shelley was right — we all had a great time.
After LEAF, we drove to Greensboro and set up camp at the end of my sister’s driveway:
It was fun spending Halloween in Greensboro. Here are my girls with their cousins Caitlin, Cole and Matthew:
Amy, me, my brother-in-law Chris and my sister Shelley ran the Greensboro Zombie Run. It was so much fun!
Amy hit the big 4-0 in August, then it was my turn this month:
A former Woolworth’s store in Greensboro is the site of a notable sit-in during the Civil Rights movement. It’s now a museum that we were eager to check out:
Emily turned 11!
Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. It was a full house:
We had a wonderful time with my sister and her family, along with the Stracks from up the street. (This is the same family that we met up with while in Yellowstone several months ago.)
On Friday we took a trip to Hanging Rock for a short hike with all the kids:
It felt so good to be outside, climb up on something high and see a spectacular view again.
This is our last week in Greensboro. As much as I’m eager to get back on the road and start this second chapter of our RV trip, it will be very sad to leave my sister and her family. We’ve really enjoyed our time here.
We head out Thursday to visit my old college roommate who lives in Warrenton, NC, and that will mark the official return to fulltime RV living — and weekly blogging.