L'aventure américaine

It’s been a busy week for the Popes. And it’s a big week for the Popes! Because for 75% of us, we had our first day of school! I started on Tuesday morning with my Biostats class. Here I am, ready to learn! And the kids started preschool this morning. (A chaotic morning! It is an adjustment to get out of the house before 8am.) Milo has “0% nervousness” and Marian doesn’t either (but also thought she was going to grandma’s).  Happy first days of preschool and PhD to us! (And thanks to Randal for coping with all of it.)

We are in the last leg of our journey. We have about three hours left until Bloomington and I think we’re ready.  Milo woke up and announced that today was the day we got back to Indiana and randal announced that tiny house living was not for him.  We are tired, but it’s been a good couple of days. Actually, it got a little hard a couple times, but it’s on the up and up.  As I mentioned, we had a few problems with the RV and we were getting slightly frustrated. This was exacerbated when we arrived at our site in Waubonsie Stare Park in southwestern Iowa the night before last and I proceeded to open all of the windows like I normally do. As I slid back the window in the bedroom, the glass shattered all over. (And the kids heard a simultaneous “oh sh$*” from Randal and me.) I was bummed and worried about the cost and feeling frustrated and the kids were loud and I was just trying to watch the d#*% convention. And then the convention showed a story of a Mexican woman whose daughter was bo

It’s a far cry from our family trips as a kid when we were on the road by 7am at the latest and had miles behind us by noon.  It’s 1:10pm and we are finally rolling out onto I80. It still feels wrong to be leaving so late, but I can’t pin my nose on why. We’re not utilizing any services, so don’t need business hours, the traffic isn’t bad at any time, and morning is when the kids are most energetic, so it seems like a good time for them to run around.  It also allows randal and I to do a few hours of work in the morning and to show up for zoom meetings as necessary. While I wouldn’t say that this has been the most productive period, I am increasingly efficient.  Yesterday, we woke up in our remote boondock site and headed East. Everyone was a little cranky, so I found a surprise lunch spot to visit. (I didn’t know that it was 2 miles off of a gravel road, which is a real pain in an RV.) But, we found the Ames Monument. It is a monument commissioned in the 1860s to commemorate the compl

It’s a slower trip home than anticipated due to two decisions. 1) Randal and I are both working from the road and have to take meetings. 2) we decided to stop a visit some unique places in middle America. They might lack the majesty of Yellowstone, but they’re still pretty darn cool.  After staying In Winnemucca- the only town for miles, we continued east through the salt flats of Utah. I am always fascinated by the expanses of salt covering the earth and we all tried it. It tasted... salty.  We stopped for the night just west of Wyoming in Coalville, Utah at an RV campsite. It was pretty enough and had a pool that Milo and I enjoyed.  I woke up early this morning to a beautiful view and a meeting about opioids. And then, I had orientation for my PhD program. I nursed Marian while Milo leaned on me drinking his milk and watched the deans describe how the program was going to be. It was far and away the most unique orientation I have ever experienced.  And then we were back on the road.

I’m not sure how it’s been ten days since I last posted. Time flew.  I need to go back and document all that we did in Klamath. It was so full of fun and memories and jam-packed with adventures, so it will be too easy to forget all that happened.  But, typing on a cell phone doesn’t feel conducive to that, so we’ll pick up with the adventure of yesterday.  The morning started perfectly. A beautiful run with Molly and I felt great and the coffee was delicious and Lauren made pancakes for all of us: a robot for Christian, Elsa for Annie, Dogman for Milo, and Oregon with a heart in it for me.  Our goodbye brunch was pushed back a little too late, so we started after lunchtime, without lunch, and the kids and I were hangry and tired and so sad. We moved away from Klamath in March of 2019, but it still feels fresh and painful to drive away from those faces that I love so much.  Some sort of cold started to drag me down and my tolerance for getting toys for the kids was lower than normal. Th

Annie and Milo are supposed to be napping upstairs, but they’re loudly jumping and playing and who can blame them? We are ALL excited to be back.  We pulled into the Jespersen driveway in the late afternoon to written messages in chalk covering the driveway and a giant paper sign saying “you make Klamarh great again” and three lovely ladies (molly, Annie, and Kelsie) jumping up and down to greet us.  It took Milo a second to get out of the RV because he had to put his shoes on, but it took no time at all for he and Annie to slip right back into their friendship. They have been inseparable since.  We feel so welcome and Klamath looks so good. It hailed for us and has since been sunny and temperate. We enjoyed driving around, playing in our park, and seeing familiar faces. COVID makes things harder, but this trip is so worth it. We are SO happy to be here.  Best friends.  Matching t-shirts and cuteness.  Baby’s first Rodeo’s Pizza- a landmark moment in one’s life.  Stephanie’s Park in al

It was a late start today and it feels like we didn’t make it far enough.  We had a nice, leisurely breakfast at our campsite outside of Yellowstone. It was beautiful.  But, we did make it to Oregon. Barely- just about 15-20 minutes in, but enough to get Milo squealing for joy and explaining to Marian how excited he is to see Annie.  Here is his: “we’re in Oregon!!” face.  And we found some BLM land that is remote and gorgeous and will house us until we launch our last day of driving. 

Our campsite has cellphone service and I can’t get ready for bed until I finish my beer, so here is the continuation of the past two days.  What lucky, wonderful days!! Marian helped navigate us to Yellowstone (the girl loves her atlas) and we were fortunate to find a beautiful campsite just outside of the East entrance of the park.  The setting was beautiful and so close to a river that was chocked full of river rocks, perfect for throwing and sand for flinging. Both Marian and Milo enjoyed covering Marian in said sand, so we got to use the outdoor shower of the RV for the first time and Marian got a nice little bath.  The kids were pumped for the day to start, so Marian opted to wake up at 5:30am and we got a relatively early start to the day (even with a lengthy breakfast and another visit to the river). And we headed into Yellowstone National Park.  (Side note- we almost skipped it because of the hordes of Trump flags, Trump shops, tourists, and people without masks. Also, with the