I arrived around 1pm, just in time for Mikki (my MIL) to offload Molly and the kids at the RV and head out. It was nice having her here to give Molly and I some much needed time away from the kids, not to mention chauffeuring the family around while I was out working. The kids were excited to show me all of the amazing shells they found, and they found quite a few. Sanibel definitely lived up to it's name as a world class shelling beach.
After spending Wednesday meeting with clients, we planned to visit a local church for service that evening. Not knowing anyone in the area, I googled local UPCI churches. The church we found was small, and as expected, we didn't know anyone. As is typical, they had us fill out a visitor's form when we arrived. When the pastor stepped into the pulpit I could tell he was probably reviewing the visitor's card. He promptly looked up and said "I see you're from Texas; I just have one question - are you related to J.R. Ensey?" (If you don't know, that's my grandfather.) Come to find out, he had attended Texas Bible College during the time that my grandpa was the President. It's cliche but true, it really is a small world.
After I finished working Thursday, we went and looked at motorhomes. (Now, I'll pause because most of you reading this are probably thinking we're crazy since we just got a fifth wheel! While it's highly unlikely we would upgrade anytime soon, we actually have a few good reasons to look at them. We love our fifth wheel and have no complaints about the size and space, the only downside is when I need to make a quick stop by an office, I either have to find a place to drop the trailer and unhitch or park the trailer and then take a cab. While that scenario doesn't happen often, it would be nice to have a tow vehicle to unhitch and drive while Molly and the kids stayed in the motorhome. It's also much easier to boondock (park overnight without hooking up) in a motorhome since they have an onboard generator. And the best perk would be that Molly and the kids could be "in the house" doing whatever they wanted or needed while I drove us to our next destination instead of all of us being cooped up in the truck.) So, we went and browsed, and ended up finding one we really liked that would work! Now to figure out how to upgrade... :-)
Friday morning we pulled out and headed to Ft. Lauderdale. One thing we've discovered is that moving days are really draining, both physically and mentally. Something about packing up your whole house, going through the process of loading up, hitching up, then rolling down the road at more than 25,000lbs and 60' long through urban areas in tight traffic, then resetting everything up is exhausting. With that said, we pretty much did nothing Saturday.
On Sunday we were able to visit The Pentecostals of Cooper City pastored by Mark Hattabaugh. Although we hadn't met personally, he knew my family and I was aware of who he was. As he was making his way to the platform, he stopped to introduce himself (you get good pastoring points for doing things like this). He and his wife ended up taking us to a local hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant after service, and the food was only topped by the company. The Hattabaugh's are fantastic, genuine people, and it's easy to see why their church is thriving.
Most of this week was fairly mundane - me working during the day while Molly and the kids did schoolwork and then went to the pool. (Yes, I failed to mention that Molly started the kids back to school last week). We forayed out to eat Cuban food on Thursday evening, and it was very tasty.
Something else we've discovered is that living in a 450sq ft space and only having one vehicle means that we all need breaks. Molly and the kids need a break from the RV and RV-parks since they're stuck during the day when I'm not there, and I need mental break after spending several days in a row on the road visiting clients during the day then often continuing with my weekly workload in the evening. Since we were this close to the Keys, we headed out around noon on Friday and made the trek down to Key West. I had booked us a room at a small resort there, and we arrived around 5pm. It was a beautiful little place, covered in tropical foliage. We took the kids down to one of the four pools on site and let them swim for a bit while we lounged poolside in the shade. We had a little bit of excitement when Annie, who normally wears floaties but didn't have them, stepped a little bit too far into the pool. I had just told her less than a minute before to come back closer to the steps, but in-between the time when I said that and the time she stepped off, I had gotten a little distracted by Jack dunking Grey under the water. Sure enough, she went up to her eyeballs in the water; fortunately Molly saw her immediately and jumped up to snag her. Annie was fine, just a little shaken up. And hey, a little healthy fear is good. We wandered around Key West for a while, grabbed some food, then went back to the hotel to relax. We didn't want to waste any time since we weren't staying long, so we headed straight to the beach when we got up yesterday. After letting the kids play for a while, we packed up and headed to Bahia Honda, a beautiful state park. Our next stop was the Islamorada Fish Company. We ate out on the patio overlooking the ocean - alligator, conch, crab, grouper, and clam chowder - it was fantastic.
As we drove back home yesterday, I was drawn to the fact that in-between the work and play and church services and fun excursions, memories are being made, experiences are being had, and lessons are being learned - we're all growing. The kids are growing literally, both physically and mentally as every child does, but they're also learning some things locationally that they probably wouldn't have if we weren't traveling. Molly and I are truly learning patience (you try dealing with three kids under 7 for hours on end in the cab of a truck!) We're also learning how to depend on each other more than we ever have before; being "alone" forces you to do that. I'm also getting to spend some amazing quality time with my kids. Yes, I would still have spent time with them at home, but we had many obligations there that took our time; this journey is breeding a sense of closeness in our little family I doubt we would have otherwise. They say travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer; I would add that traveling with the ones you love makes you a wealthy man indeed.
~J
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