Burning, Flying Marshmallows

Welcome readers of CBK’s Flew the Coop blog! Our 30-day cross-country adventure started as of 6:15 a.m. yesterday morning. Actually, that’s when it was supposed to start, but it wasn’t until about 15 minutes after our planned early morning meet-up time that B & C arrived at K’s house. (This general tardiness is something we affectionatly refer to as “Caitrin time” – a term we are sure to use frequently on this blog during this trip.)

We packed final bags, pillows, and car snacks into the car, and after a round of “before” pictures, hit the road at 6:58 a.m. K took the first shift driving, and B beat out C in a round of Rock, Paper, Scissors for the front seat. (One of our road trip “bylaws” is that shotgun is always determined by Rock, Paper, Scissors. Despite her loss, the back seat turned out to work well for C, and she curled up for a nap.

We drove until we passed Buffalo (close to 4 hours) before we stopped to stretch, fill up with gas, and use the bathroom – surprisingly K’s peanut bladder had made it that far. We passed through the border of New York and Pennslyvania, and were all ecstatic that we didn’t have to spend more than an hour in PA (after years of school in southern PA and Virginia, we are all tired of driving through Amish country.) Cruising on, we hit both Ohio and Indiana that same day. We stopped briefly in South Bend, IN to walk around the Notre Dame campus, where K’s dad and B’s uncle went to school. Rivalries between families became apparent when C’s dad (a Penn State and Joe Paterno fan) suggested that we steal Touchdown Jesus (a JUDGE advocating stealing?!) Turns out, TJ is 13 stories tall – a little too big for our Honda CRV to run away with. All three of our dads were excited about us seeing Touchdown Jesus, so we took lots of pictures.

After South Bend, we drove a little further to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore to camp for the night. We found a nice campsite, and C & K impressed B with their newly developed camping skills by setting up the tent without any instruction from B, our most experienced camper. B immediately set up camp just like her mom would – by rearranging the picnic table and laying out the tablecloth. Crossing into the Central Time Zone gave us an extra hour, so we decided to do a little exploring before dinner. We promptly repacked all the food, kitchen gear, etc, that we had just unpacked and set off on a walk down to the dunes. We discovered along the way that B has the best sense of direction of the three of us, as she stopped C & K from taking a wrong turn, while on the phone checking in with her family (see what good children we are?) The shore of Lake Michigan was about a mile and a half walk, and we arrived just as the sun was setting. We could see the Chicago skyline to the west, silhouetted against a pink sky. Looking out onto the lake gave us an unobstructed view of the sunset’s progression from east to west. It took us several minutes before we realized that the dunes we were expecting to see were not there! But it was getting dark (good thing C made us bring that flashlight) and our stomachs were growling, so we decided to head back to camp.

Chef C made us a delicious dinner of pasta and tomato sauce while B started the campfire. The campfire turned out to be hard to start because we didn’t have enough paper, but in the end, B succeeded! (Thank you, Mr. Gill, for your phone support!) Dinner was delicious, but it was universally agreed upon that in the future we should try to eat before dark. We roasted marshmallows and ate s’mores for dessert. B & C quickly roasted theirs and scarfed down a s’more while K was still patiently waiting for her first marshmallow to brown to the perfect shade. But, in a moment’s glance away, her marshmallow caught fire, and she quickly waved her marshmallow stick back and forth to put out the blaze. Turns out, she was a little too aggressive in her waving, and the burning marshmallow flew off the stick, nearly hitting C. Exhausted from our first day of the trip and a long drive, we cleaned up, got into bed, and quickly fell asleep.

Happy Trails!
CBK


Miles driven: 771
States visited: New York, Pennslyvania, Ohio, Indiana

Yellow car count: (Car game popularized by K’s family – for every yellow on the road, the first person to call “yellow car” receives one point. Yellow Hummers are worth five points, and stretch yellow Hummers automatically win the game. Calling a “yellow car” when it is actually a commercial vehicle subtracts a point.)
C – 22
B – 18
K – 18

Highs and Lows: (A tradition of K’s family “Cousin Camp” – recording of the best part of your day and the worst part of your day.)
Group High: Starting the trip of a lifetime! Watching the sunset over Lake Michigan.
Group Low: Forgetting the cookies in the freezer (not that freezer Uncle Walt!) – Enjoy Snell Family!

C high – Sitting around the campfire, s’moring it up! (Even after the burning, flying marshmallow incident).
C low – Forgetting my sleeping mat

B high – Successfully making the campfire!
B low – Sleeping through 2 hours of car conversation.

K high – Using all the cute camping equipment!
K low – Not doing as well in the yellow car game as I should be.