Another week has come and gone already. Last week, Jason and I concentrated on making the Thanksgiving holiday as special as we could for the family. It's our first big holiday spent away from our people and we wanted to celebrate instead of focusing on what we were missing. Thanksgiving has always been hugely celebrated with Jason's family. His mom hosts a massive gathering at her home every year where it's no surprise if there's 50-60 relatives showing up. After the feast is the Thanksgiving trap shooting - which always happened on our property next door. But this year, it's just us five, in a 34' Winnebago named Wanda, thousands of miles away from loved ones, camping at Club Naples RV Resort. Jason and I thought of big and grandiose ideas - anything to get our minds off missing home,
but what it came down to was that we wanted to spend it with family, and this year, that meant just the five of us. We finalized our simple plans and the boys were excited about it. This year, the boys ran the menu. Ryan, Barrett, and Cord each picked their favorite Thanksgiving dish, then Jason and I added ours. Ryan chose cranberry sauce - the jellied, slides out of the can with a slurp, kind of cranberry sauce. Barrett chose bread rolls - a boy after my own heart. And Cord wanted rainbow jello - a specialty my mom makes every year. Jason and I, being the responsible adults, added in the protein and vegetables: turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, and gravy. Our plan actually turned out to be awesome. Boys were thrilled to video chat with family and tell them how they got to pick what they ate this year. Since my mom was always the one to bring the rainbow jello, I had no idea how she did it. So the jello gave me an extra reason to talk with my mom about her recipe (sour cream in jello? Sounds horrible, tastes delightful) and plans for Thanksgiving. Our buffet of goodies wasn't as long or as elaborate in flavors as the years past with extended families,
but it was filled with our favorites - and consumed by my favorite humans. Bear stepped up to serve himself and said, "This is awesome! It's, like, my perfect meal!" And with that, my heart settled and I was confident that this Thanksgiving, though different and a far cry from what our traditions were, was a success. Oh! The boys also decided on our desserts: brownies and ice cream. Not your typical pumpkin pie treat, but no one disagreed on it, and that's a big deal when it comes to these boys.
Black Friday came and went with us only taking advantage of one Black Friday Deal: $5 off at Shark Frenzy. Jason had heard about how easy it was to go panning for shark teeth off the beaches around
Venice, so we planned the trip for Friday after Thanksgiving. We stopped off at the Shark Frenzy store to pick up our supplies and tools for our hunt. The shop keeper gave us a brief lesson on how to find the teeth in the shallow waves of the coastline, gave us a map of the best beaches to find teeth, and we were on our way. We spent about four hours altogether sifting the sand and finding shark teeth, among various other shells and fossils. We found so many teeth, we became picky about what we kept. If any part was chipped
or broken, it wasn't kept. Our smallest tooth was found by Bear in a miraculous feat of vision. At the widest part, it's no bigger than the thick end of a salad fork's prong. I can only assume there's a baby shark somewhere waiting proudly for the tooth fairy to come. Jason and I found the longest tooth, reaching for it at the same time. It's fairly narrow, but it makes up for width with it's long, pointed end. the process of finding shark teeth is both calming and thrilling. The boys loved the excitement of finding a tooth in the screen of the sifter, and I loved watching the tools work their soothing magic as they gently filtered the sand and sediment through their grates while the water washed over the top. Shark teeth hunting will definitely happen again in our future.
We spent our last day at Club Naples enjoying the amenities of the resort. We went swimming at their pool (and hot tub!) in the warm afternoon sun, then took advantage of their large community hall.
Jason watched football on one of the many TVs and played an occasional round of billiards with the boys; Ryan and Cord played a heated game of Battleship, then Barrett joined in; and I started a Christmas puzzle for future residents and guests to finish at their leisure. It was getting late, and the poker club that had come in started getting rowdy, so the boys grabbed another board game to play in the RV, and we headed home. We hadn't settled in for long when Jason came from the back room of the RV and said that "burning smell" is really bad. To back it up a bit, Jason and I have been smelling a weird burning odor for the past couple of weeks, but couldn't put our finger on what, or where, it was coming from. The smell came from our back bedroom, but we couldn't find the source. So when the bedroom was overwhelmed with the odor, Jason went outside and started looking underneath. Mission accomplished! Jason opened the back outdoor panel where the electrical wires are coming in and out for the RV, and smoke billowed into his face. Yikes! Jason came to the RV door and declared, "Shut it off!!" To which I had no idea what he was talking about. We had the two A/C units going, most of the interior lights were on for the boys to play their game, I was using the air fryer to cook dinner, and had the water running washing dishes. Obviously, I responded, with a heightened tinge of concern creeping into my voice, "Turn what off?!"
"ALL OF IT!!"
So basically, our precious Wanda the Winnebago almost burned to the ground. We went without the rest of our planned dinner, either A/C unit, laptops, TVs, and the microwave for the rest of the night. Jason worked on the electrical connections further that evening, and finished up the next morning. Now, we're back in business for all electrical appliances and systems! Thank goodness for Jason's 20-year background in electrical know-how.
We moved again last Sunday, and are now pleasantly situated in the Florida Keys, specifically, we are staying in Grassy Key. It's getting more and more crowded as we push South. I guess we aren't the only ones chasing sunshine and running away from frosty temperatures. Jason planned another outing yesterday that took us into the heart of Key West. Again, it was buzzing with more people than I thought would be out and about on a Monday in November. Based on the crowds we maneuvered through yesterday, I know I don't want to visit Key West during peak season. There was a solid 20 minutes of driving around the one-way, narrow, no-particular-grid-that-made-sense roads until we found a parking spot - and the spot we found (in the midst of a construction zone) was even
questionably legal. Once we were parked, we enjoyed a delicious, kid-friendly menu at Hard Rock Café, then walked a short jaunt to the Key West Aquarium. The Aquarium was a hidden gem among the hundreds of store fronts packed into the town. There are about 20 tanks to look through with various species of coral, fish, crabs, shrimp, and lobsters. They also had three large, open ponds in the middle. One pond was for touching crabs, starfish, and other crustaceans, then there was one for the giant sea turtle that was totally adorable, and the largest of the three ponds had seven nurse sharks in it swimming around. During the time we spent there, the staff did various presentations on oceanic life around the Keys, and the big finale was supposed to be the feeding of the sharks. The shark
feeding turned out to be a complete bust - the sharks remained in their "cuddle puddle" at one end of the pond and had zero interest in the food being shoveled into the other side. The Aquarium was the boys' favorite stop of the day, and I'd have to agree.
While in Key West, we also bought some snorkeling gear from a legit professional scuba shop (Jason and the boys are currently at the RV park's swimming pool getting some practice in), ate some ice cream on the pier while watching the sunset cruise ships sail by, and visited the Ron Jon Surf shop. Ron Jon's, of all places, introduced me to my newest obsession. Ryan said that he had found the perfect thing for me living in the RV: micro puzzles!! I'm already regretting only buying one. They come in tiny test tube bottles and the 150 pieces are no bigger than half your pinky fingernail. What a great idea for anyone that lives in small quarters, or is low on storage space, but loves time spent on a cute puzzle.
I've been writing in this blog once a week, for 20 weeks now. What I have found most peculiar about living on the road and homeschooling, is that every day is just... another day. There's no limitations to what we can do. No waiting for the weekend to adventure, no jobs that take up part of the day, holidays come up fast and are over just as quickly, we can move campgrounds/cities/states any time we choose, we aren't waiting for our next "vacation", and there's zero obligations or priorities other than our own desire to create memories. It's surreal, and my mind starts spinning when I try to comprehend our different our lifestyle is. For example, while listening to one of the presentations at the Key West Aquarium, the staffer asked, "How many of you are on vacation?" Ryan started to raise his hand, but then looked at me, confused, saying, "Kind of, yes? Or is it no? Is our whole life a vacation now?" Well said, Son. I have no idea what a vacation would look like for us now. A stay in a motel instead of the RV? Flying home to see family and staying with them? I'm not sure. We're currently in a state that we would only otherwise "vacation" in, so is this just an extended vacation for us?
Jason and I have been tossing around the idea of renting a house or condo for Christmas week. My thought is that if we're in a house, we can really break out the Christmas spirit: hang lights, get a Christmas tree, bake all the goodies that comes with our Holiday traditions, and the boys can actually come out of a bedroom on Christmas morning and open gifts. Which brings me to another eye-opener about our life in the RV - personal space. We all knew coming into this that there would be no "my things, my space" mentality allowed. We all have to share everything. Barrett and Cord's bed is the couch during the day, Ryan's bed is the dining and school table, Jason and I's bedroom is the only "room" in the place if anyone wanted to lay down for some quiet time on their kindle or with a book.
Everyone share's everything. It's the only way this lifestyle would work for us. Anytime someone asks the boys what they miss about living in a house, they all agree - they miss having their own room. A place to call their own, where their belongings aren't shoved in and combed through with everyone else's. I completely get it, and crave the same thing. Which is another reason maybe we could take a "vacation" from ol' Wanda and spend a jolly-spirited week in a brick-and-mortar home for the next big holiday coming up. Until then, we have the next week or so that is unresolved with boat hunting. There are two boats that are on our radar and Terry, our broker, is trying to get us a walk through. Those walk-throughs should happen in the next week. I keep thinking, our decision on where we go next will be clear once we get on those boats. But I honestly don't know if they will give us any definitive answers, or just more questions and variables to consider with our next stint on this journey.
So here's to new traditions in the making, finding fulfillment while living in limbo, and redefining the word "vacation".
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