Day 0: Which way is West?

  

This post is labeled day zero because not only have we not made progress towards Cali, we have actually managed to travel more east! I’ll explain: 

We stayed the night on Friday at the Newport News Campground and really enjoyed the spot! We were greeted with pizza by our dear friends and had a great night chatting by the fire while the kids ran around in the leaves. The next morning, we realized we hadn’t had enough time to really do any of the things for the camper that we would have liked (organizing, grocery shopping, etc.) because we were so busy cleaning the house, doing the final walkthrough, and about a million other things. To really round out this day, the auto transport company we originally hired to get my car to California, totally fell through and left us scrambling to find a new company the same day we were set to start our journey west. Eventually, we found a great company but that meant leaving my car behind. Thankfully, we have the best neighbors in the world and they’re going to help us out with getting it to the auto transport company! (Shout out to the Price Fam!) 

So later that morning while we were at Walmart grocery shopping, we decided that we wanted to stay another night to really get the camper prepared. Tim calls the campground and we find out that they are completely booked up! It was a quarter past 1pm at this point (mind you, check out was at 12 but check in for the next people starts at 2) so we start panicking. We thought for sure we’d have a fine taped to the camper waiting for us. We finish checking out at Walmart after waiting in line for about a half hour and sprint to the truck with our groceries, get to the camp site and go full Formula 1 pit crew mode. I’m running around throwing the groceries into the camper, Tim is lifting the stabilizer jacks, putting the sway bar on the truck, Mason is yelling “I pooped!” from the window- just absolute mayhem. We pulled out of our spot at 2:05. Crushed it. Well, almost. 

  Tim asks me to look for another campground nearby that we can stay at for the night and I hop on Google maps. Now, I feel like it’s important to know that I have ZERO directional abilities. If I ask where I’m supposed to go, I don’t need phrases like “head south and then turn right to go west.” I’m looking for an address or name that I can put into my GPS. Or “turn right at the Chick-fil-A. Things that I know. I’m not Lewis and freaking Clark, okay? Moving forward: I see that there’s a JellystonePark Campground nearby!! If you don’t know what that is, it’s basically a campground resort and they’re all amazing! They have tons of activities for kids, jumping pillows, water slides, etc. I got so pumped about it that I had NO idea where it actually was located. I thought it was 20 minutes away in Williamsburg. Nope. Here’s the route we took: 

Here’s what we could have done if I knew what I was doing and we paid a mere $4 toll: 

Needless to say, I lost my job as navigator. 😅

When we eventually got to JellystonePark, we quickly set up camp and Tim took Mason to the pool while I started dinner. 

Two of our closest friends visited us at this campground too and we had a blast drinking by the campfire and posed the age old question: What sound does a turtle make? 

Here are some pics of our time at JellystonePark!