Vermont Relocation Vacation {9/16-9/19: Getting There}

Maybe you know about our big trip to Vermont and you're visiting our blog to get updates on our adventure. Or maybe this is the first you've ever heard of our grand plan to spend the fall in New England. Either way, here we are! 

We made it to Jay Peak last night (September 19th at about 8 pm ET) and immediately checked into our condo which will be "home" for the next six weeks. I'll share (hopefully) weekly updates here so you can follow along on our adventures. Here is the first installment: Getting There, which is documenting our journey by Subaru across the country. Spoiler alert: it went SO smoothly. Our kids were complete rockstars in the car and we kept saying how amazing they were at handling it! (And kept remembering a time oh about seven years ago when we thought a trip like this may never be possible because of one little baby girl who used to scream in her carseat every. single. time.) 

One key road trip "hack" that Gregg came up was a complete game changer for us! He suggested we eat in the car and play at our stops. (Usually we stop and get out and put lunch in front of the kids and make them sit and eat, beg them to "sit down and finish your food so you can go play." Instead, why not use the fact that they're already strapped in a seat to have them eat then? And then when we're out of the car it's all about moving bodies.) So we packed all the food we'd need for our three and a half days on the road at the feet of the kids for easy access from the front seat. Whenever we got hungry, we'd just reach into the cooler bag or snack bag and hand out food. Then, when we got to our stops, we played and walked and disc golfed and climbed and swung and ran and MOVED! Then, after a half hour or 45 minutes or maybe an hour on a long stop, we were ready for another long stretch in the car. It worked out so perfectly! Gonna keep that one around for a good long while, I think!

(Day 1) Wednesday, 16 September 2020: Eden, UT to Rawlins, WY to Sidney, NB

We loaded up most of the car on Tuesday night so by Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 we were loaded up and ready to roll. Gregg's parents "happened" to be driving by on their way home from camping and stopped to say hi/bye (and replenish our stock of jerky and fruit snacks). We pulled out of the driveway at 2:30 pm and headed for I-80. Just before 7:00 we made our first stop in Rawlins at a park Gregg found via his disc golf app (travel hack number two from this guy: use the UDisc app to find courses in public parks along your route - it's even better than google for finding parks!). We played and walked and slung discs for a while, then hopped back in the car. Our plan was to continue to stay in Cheyenne that night, but we were feeling good and the kids were asleep so we pressed on to Sidney and checked into a Motel 6 we booked enroute on the hotels.com app. (Ah, technology! Making cross country travel in 2020 a breeze!)

Washington Park in Rawlins

Finished The Secret Garden sometime after Rawlins - we
had started this one sometime earlier this summer and had about
an hour and a half left when we started driving on this trip.

(Day 2) Thursday, 17 September 2020: Sidney, NB to Lexington, NB to Avoca, IA to Newton, IA to Princeton, IL

As soon as we woke up and got dressed, we hit the road (eating our breakfast in the car). Gregg didn't take work off, so he was working in the passenger seat while I drove. After a few hours we found another park (and disc golf course) in Lexington, NB to stretch our legs. (The only bad thing about these parks that we were finding was that the bathrooms were all closed! So we always had to make a second stop at a gas station either before or after the park stop to use the facilities. I don't know if this was a covid thing or just a bad luck thing, but it was interesting.)

The sky was so smoky from the west coast wildfires (I was shocked -
all the way in Nebraska?!) so the sunrise looked eerily like "that
Star wars planet that Luke lived on" (when I texted that phrase to my brother
he helpfully provided me with the correct name: Tatooine).

Cuties and champions.

In Lexington (at Plum Creek Park)
I told Callie a route I wanted her to follow across
the playground (up the ladder, across the monkey bars, down the slide,
etc) and then I'd time her on my phone. It was a great game!

Listened to this one driving through Nebraska and Iowa.

Sam kept himself busy in the car with all kinds of things,
including this new "coloring book" he got from Ky and Michael
for his birthday - it was full of all his favorite things, including
trains!

Avoca, Iowa was probably my favorite park of the drive.
There was a zip line!

And yes, another disc golf course (of course).

And these crazy black squirrels and trees squishy-soft
needles (I think they are eastern white pine?).

And a little free library!

A shot of the selection. I didn't take or leave any
books, but it was fun to browse for a second.

And a gorgeous walking path.

bonus video!

"Avoca, IA sounds like this"

And this cool old one-room schoolhouse.

And a river along the edge.

A familiar sight through the plains states.

We stopped in Newton, IA planning to find another
disc golf course/park, but we got to the gate (yes, it had a big old
gate) with brick pillars (there was a sign that the park is on the National
Register of Historic Places) there was a sign saying the park
was temporarily closed because of storm damage. We could see lots of
downed trees through the fence and had flashbacks to our wind storm
last week. So we backtracked to a school playground we passed on the way
to the closed park. There we noticed the same big springy-needled pine
tree and this time I took a pic. It was so cool and so weird!

Sunset on Tatooine.

Fun playground painting on the blacktop made a sort of obstacle
course with hopping and zigzagging and tiptoeing around a loop.

Those red lights are more windmills. They flash red at night.
(Who knew?)

(Day 3) Friday, 18 September 2020: Princeton, IL to Channahon, IL to Wauseon, OH to Vermilion, OH to Erie, PA

We stopped after only a couple hours so we wouldn't be smack in
middle of traffic close to Chicago at break time. The temps were cool at
Community Park in Channahon, IL, so we needed to bust out the jackets
for the first time on the trip!

So much green! I loved it!

More obstacle course time trials for this girl.

Isn't that such a cute little neighborhood? I never
would have guessed this park let alone these homes
would be here as we drove through industrial park
after industrial park between the freeway and McClintock
street. Such a nice area!

Pretty flowers near the playground.

And this was the first park with bathrooms that we could use!
(They were portapotties in front of the actual bathrooms, but they
were clean and open and we were grateful.) Gregg said that this was
his favorite disc golf course of the journey. It was legit! (I'm taking his word
for it, since we didn't even see him playing - he was back on a dedicated
course in the trees far away from the playground area.)

AND! The sky was blue here! Who woulda thunk it would take us
to nearly Chicago to see clear skies?

Imagination Kingdom in Wauseon, OH was the busiest
of parks we had stopped at (until this point we were the only
ones playing on the playgrounds!) (and the cinderblock
structure bathrooms were open!).

Pizza from Sbarro at a travel plaza on the Ohio Turnpike.
It is Friday after all!

We got off the freeway to get a bit closer to Lake Erie. We made a pit stop
at Sherod Park in Vermilion, OH, which had a cute little sandy beach
so we could get up close an personal with the great lake.

It was windy and COLD down by the water!

And we watched these big vultures just hanging in the wind.

She nearly got her feet wet from one of the waves. Then it became
a game, with squeals of delight screeching from her each time the
water got close.

The playground here was okay. Nothing to write home about.
But better than nothing.

And even though there wasn't a disc golf course here, there were
discs thrown anyway.

I took a walk on the path and found myself in a scene from Anne of
Green Gables. At least it felt like that. Doesn't that big house look
like the White Sands Hotel? And my blowing hair reminded me
of Anne's blowing in the wind while she and Diana talked at the shore.

It was quite the gnarly cliff with long roots and grasses hanging
over the edge and mud churning at the bottom.

Can you see the mown path in the grass? It's just shorter grass than
the surrounding grass, and they meandered all over the big park area.

On my wander, I spotted a few of these little nesting
boxes (?) I think that's what they are.

And these giant leaves and seedpods! Whoa nelly!

This is what it looked like inside. I have no idea what
kind of tree it is. It's so fun to spot new-to-me species!

Driving past Cleveland at sunset was quite spectacular.

The view from behind was unreal - too bad the photo-through-the-
window didn't capture the beauty.

A bit better, but still not like real life.

(Day 4) Saturday, 19 September 2020: Erie, PA to the Adirondacks, NY to Jay Peak, VT
After discovering on Friday night at 11 pm that our plan for grocery pickup in Plattsburgh, NY for Saturday evening wasn't going to work out . . . (Backstory: we thought we'd get our two weeks worth of groceries in New York before we have to quarantine in our condo in Vermont for fourteen days and I figured that a walmart pickup would be the quickest and easiest and safest? way to do that so I spent an hour with my list and my walmart.com shopping cart getting a big order put together. I clicked purchase and then read my confirmation email. It gave the directions for pickup, which included keeping our windows rolled up and popping our trunk so a worker could load our car directly. And we would have to provide our own bags because they don't have them for pick up orders. Hmm. A nice idea in principle, but practically tricky with our set up for this trip (bike rack, loaded middle seat, nearly full cargo area, no bags). So I canceled the order. And we went to plan B.) . . . we went with the next best option of shopping in person in there Pennsylvania (their travel restrictions are less strict that New York and Vermont). So Gregg dropped me off at Walmart near our hotel and took the kids to play at a park while I shopped (and he rearranged things so we'd have a bit more space for the food in the back). I had to tweak a few things on my list (since I didn't have tons of cooler space so I couldn't get all the frozen things I had planned), but I got my load and we stuffed all the bags (my checker used SO. MANY. BAGS!!) into all the nooks and crannies in we could.

Then we were off on the Thruway through New York. We got off I-90 near Rome and followed a series of scenic byways Highway 365 to Highway 8 to US-9 till we got to I-87 going north to Champlain. We only stopped at travel plazas and wore our masks and stayed away from people along the route. (Minus the one stop near Plattsburgh for gas (and a gallon of milk I forgot to grab in Erie . . . and an apple cider donut that was a total impulse buy near the cash register).) It was by far the longest-feeling day in the car. But it was beautiful driving through the Adirondacks and seeing the beginnings of fall creeping into the landscape.

Finally we were crossing the bridge over Lake Champlain and halfway across we entered Vermont! Praise and Hallelujah! There was great rejoicing from the backseat. We still had a ways to go, winding through the Vermont countryside, and it was dark by the time we pulled up at the Hotel Jay to check in. There was lots of paperwork (ipad-work, actually) signing the quarantine agreement, but we finally got our keys and entered our home away from home just after 8 pm.

The kids immediately made themselves at home with their boxes of toys we had stashed in the back while Gregg and I unloaded the car and unpacked the stuff. We got everything in place and a late dinner of gromlets (such a fitting meal for our first night, I think) and snuggled into bed by 10:30 pm. Whew! We made it! We'll have to wait till morning to see what it looks like outside our window. ;)

Gregg spotted Aldis down the road from Walmart.
Someday I'll make a visit!

Ted took a turn at the wheel every once in a while.

Another one bites the dust somewhere along
the New York Thruway.

Cruisin' through some small New York towns in the country
with blue skies and changing leaves. It was glorious!

Lookin' like fall at the High Peaks Rest Area.

So hard to capture the beauty, but it was a gorgeous area!

Interesting info signs.

For Nate, the John Brown fan-boy.

We saw little purple flowers all along the sides
of the freeway (I don't know if they were these
or something else, but I snapped this at the rest area
so I'd remember them). They reminded me of the purple
asters in the picture book Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn
by Kenard Pak that we love. I never thought of purple as a fall color until
I read that book, but it totally is and I notice asters and other
little purple flowers all the time now because of that book.

No park? No problem! We'll just balance beam
along the guardrail in the parking lot!

The drive was much prettier than this view through our dirty
windshield portrays.

Here comes the bridge over Lake Champlain. Straight ahead is Vermont
(and to our left is Canada!).

The faces of two kids who were ecstatic to be in Vermont at last.

bonus video!

"the day we arrive at Jay Peak"

(Callie was getting very poetic on our drive and even turned this one into

a song, which she turned into a song while we were waiting for Gregg to check

in.)

Home Sweet Home.

All put away. . . . Oh wait. What's that on the stove?

So. Many. BAGS!!!

Gromlets for dinner!

Come back soon for a tour of the condo and to see how we're surviving quarantine!

Sneak peek: Good mornin' indeed!