Day One of the Patterson Cross Country Trip

We’ve always talked about doing a cross country trip with our kids.  Joe had done it when he was a kid and wanted to do it with our kids.  Old enough that they would have great memories but not too old that they wouldn’t want to spend a few weeks on the road with their parents!  We planned it this year since Joe’s camp would be complete in June and we’d have all of July to travel.

Anne had just finished studying the parts of the United States this year in school and enjoyed it so much.  She will get to see and experience what she just learned.  She is also keeping a journal of this trip.

Ever since we decided we were going on this trip, the kids have added “a good cross country trip” on their list of prayers during family prayers.

The planning of this trip was mainly all Joe.  He put together everything we were interested in and put our itinerary onto an excel spreadsheet – start, destination, duration of trip, mileage, etc....  Everything looks great on the spreadsheet, the challenge is seeing if we can stick to it the schedule.  That would be something, huh?

Destination: Hyndman, PA

The end of the school year was busy and preparing for this trip was really put on hold until the last minute.  I had laundry in the basement waiting to be folded for about two weeks.  I was really wondering if packing was ever going to happen.  Joe was also really busy with camps and wasn’t around much.

For some reason, I work well under pressure and got all the kids packed and brought everything we’ll need for the next few weeks, I think.  We’ll see – won’t we?

This past week, I had my two nephews staying with us because they were attending Joe’s football camp.  This was also Tommy’s first camp ever as well.  I was a bit nervous about how he was going to do, but he did so well and really enjoyed it.  It certainly helped that his cousins were there with him.  Anne also went to football camp, but helped Daddy by being the water girl.  Joe said she was such a great worker, she deserved to be paid for her time!

Our first destination is what we call, the Farm.  This is where my nephews live.  This particular weekend is special because all of Joe’s brother’s families are gathering so we can all compete in the Grand Loop.  It’s a foot race around the surrounding mountains with obstacles  - about 3 miles in length.  It’s the kind where you get really dirty!  We’ve been talking about this for months as well and we were all so excited to race!  We were just hoping no one got hurt because we still have the rest of our cross country trip to do.

Joe arrived from his last day of camp at 8pm and we made it on the road at 10pm!  It was great traffic and a smooth drive.  We made it safely.  We all went straight to sleep looking forward to what is to come the next day!