Ready? Set. GO!

This week has been all about getting ready for the camping road trip I'll be making with the children. We got new brakes, because we want to make stops. We got the car super-clean, because it was super dirty. I found a 4th sleeping bag and a lantern, so now we'll have camp light and everyone will have a sleeping sack. I've started packing a mini kitchen... had to add s'more supplies, because it is no fun to sit around a campfire without something to burn.

I'll do one more load of laundry today, so we have plenty of socks and the rest of it. I am going to streamline my whole operation and see how few clothes we can carry. It means stopping to do laundry, but that's always necessary any way. With the car carrying a tent and sleeping bags, a campstove and all the gear the boys will want to bring along, we may be a bit snug. Ambitious me wants to pack the car tonight and be all ready for an early departure.

Realistic me knows there is a lot left to be done, so a pre-dawn departure is not too likely. Oh, plus there is my eye. I went to bed with a very tender, almost weepy eye. Gee. Why do these things happen over the weekend? I guess it's pink eye. Ick.

I finished my epic essay for the 4th of July post. It's freakin' long, and I'm glad I decided to finish it before I leave. If I can't post during our adventure, I will be making up for it with my extra jumbo post on Independence Day. Today I will prepare everything for Quilt Swap, so I can finish it during the adventure. Note to self: Take sewing machine and blue fabric to Anne, take Tamsyn her shoes. That's right: I get one last hug from Tamsyn, before she flies to Virginia. Of course I also envision leaving the house clean, including the refrigerator.

I will be missing Mom's Night Out at Karen's. I making up for this by promising myself visits to Farmer's Markets all along our drive, so that I can be a "Local Hero!" I love the term: Local Hero. Chicken Betty left me a comment about how in her neck of the woods, they salute consumers who shop locally with T-shirts and bumper stickers. In my own quiet way I am challenging myself to be a Local Hero, but trust me, I am bending the rules considerably. I feel overextended and dazed enough, without relying on searching out our puny Farmer's Market once a week for enough food for our crew. A little whiny, true, but my hands really are full.

I already miss Geoff. He's on the sofa with Maria, but I know in a few days, I will be wishing he was with us, driving along the coast, discovering new sights, sampling campfire dinners. Last night he read me Tennyson. He knows me. Geoff knows that I get an aching that cannot be denied and so I make my annual road trip. He read to me:

"I am a part of all that I have met.
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and forever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!"
--Ulysses, by Alfred Tennyson

I love to runaway from home almost as much as I love to come home. I will savor all the fun and challenges, the beauty of nature and the pleasure of visiting family, and then I will start to think of home, where my sweetheart is waiting for me. I look forward to sharing all of our new stories with him.