Hello and welcome to day 2 of our 2024 summer adventure. My crew all decided to wear their Minnesota shirts today for our arrival day. I forgot/didn’t think to pack a MN shirt for myself. My bad. I packed 4,000 other things, so not upset or surprised I didn’t pack one to be cute.
We had some thunderstorms in our area last night, but nothing too crazy. We got up and moving and left our campsite around 8:30 am.
Here I am prepping and filling all the beverages this morning, and if you can believe it, a few are missing! These contain a combo of water, smoothies, and coffee.
They all have spots between our truck’s cupholders and our bonus drink caddy that lives on the floor between the driver and passenger seats. It works brilliantly for us and keeps everything contained. The drink caddy has been very helpful throughout the years and I recommend you get one if the number of beverages you’re traveling with is more than 2.
Messi bear! He is always soo happy to wake up at a campsite. It’s a good thing Messi likes to camp and to explore. When we first got him, just over a year ago, he didn’t do well in the truck. He threw up numerous times, I think due to some anxiety and not knowing what was happening. Luckily, he doesn’t do that anymore so traveling with him isn’t a problem.
Today for lunch, we ended up having our smoothies, some bananas, granola bars, and other snacky-foods. Unfortunately, we hit road construction and traffic around Chicago at our lunch time so we didn’t stop to get into the camper until we were past Chicago’s craziness. (Fun fact: Chicago is the 3rd biggest city in the US).
Today’s snack recommendation: PeaTos. They are vegan. A pack is 70 calories. They are slightly healthier junk food. And they are YUMMY! I found them on Amazon and they come in some other flavors, but I haven’t tried any others yet.
All this traveling wore out Amelia. She had a great night of sleep last night but apparently needed a nap, which is fine with me.
When Amelia woke up, she hardcore noticed Jackson and wanted him to get closer… so she could snipe his glasses. Little nugget is predictable! These two are cute tho and have spent time holding hands or “feets-ing” (what we call it= touching toes/feet together… Amelia loves this) while driving these last 2 days.
Amelia wasn’t in the mood these last few meals to eat orally. Fine by me. That’s why she has a gtube. This is what it looks like to feed her while driving. I lean back and connect her every 5-10 minutes and give her a 60 mL syringe of her feed followed with a water flush. I repeat until her feed is finished.
For dinner tonight, DJ and I had veggie trays with hummus. Jackson had a Nutella sandwich with veggies and a cutie. (And we all had some mint Oreos!)
Once we were almost to Minnesota, we passed by my old college stomping grounds of UWRF in River Falls. While we didn’t go thru River Falls, it was still fun to see the area and the nearby city of Hudson (where I waitressed and also had an internship).
Timing wasn’t great for us as we hit the Twin Cities right in time for the evening rush hour while it was raining. DJ managed beautifully and we got thru without problems and even took the camper thru the Lowery Tunnel.
We got to my in-laws house and got the camper parked just after 7 pm. I should note, we could stay inside at either grandparents’ houses, they have the space. (Jackson does swap between houses). Amelia just requires so much stuff/supplies/meds/etc… it’s just easier to keep it all in the camper and organized. Plus it’s a familiar home-away-from-home environment for her to sleep in.
The camper is currently tucked around the back of my in-laws house. Quite the camping spot!
My parents also stopped over to hang out with all of us and arrived shortly after we got here. My mom was determined to fix the fact I hadn’t brought a MN shirt (which I had mentioned on Facebook this morning), and so wasn’t in the club with my family. Now we are all moto!
We had a lot of fun hanging with both sets of grandparents this evening for a couple hours. It works well seeing everyone, since both couples live in the same town (only about 5 minutes apart). Gotta love being from a small town and graduating high school together. Makes seeing our families effortless whenever we do get back to MN.
I need to finish getting settled and get to bed! It’s an hour later in VA and I’m usually in bed by 9-9:15 pm. I gotta sleep when Amelia sleeps as I can never guarantee a full night of sleep with her.
Good night from Minnesota!
Adventuring with Amelia 