Weaver Family Trip of a Lifetime

WEAVER FAMILY TRIP OF A LIFETIME

We are starting a family Blog Site at the request of a few people, and will try to keep a posting of our travels. You will also be able to view more pictures of our trip if you desire at: community.webshots.com/user/travislw. You can also view Travis’ own web site about this trip at travislw.blogspot.com, if you would like to. We would love to read your comments.

This is one trip I have been dreaming about for many years. It’s been at least 10 or 15 years I have been dreaming of this trip. My dream was always to do it as late as possible so Renae would be older, but not so long that Travis or Nicole would not want to go. Each year for the past several years I asked Travis (the oldest), if he thought he would want to take a trip like this the following year, and he always said “sure”. With that in mind we decided to go the summer he graduated from High School. About two months before we were going to leave last year we had to face a big decision. FMC bought two GV’s and I knew it would be very difficult for them to have me leave at that time. They never asked me to change my leave, but after much discussion with the family I decided to offer it. I was a bit concerned after Travis was away from home for a year he would not be as excited about returning to “family dynamics”, but we would also have the advantage of spending an additional summer with him. Anyway, now I’m glad it didn’t happen last year, because now we have this entire year to enjoy it – it’s not only a memory - yet. Of course it would be nice to have last year’s fuel prices. The idea of the trip was to make one BIG trip for family memories. We want to “make memories” that we will keep for the rest of our lives. Hopefully most of them will be good memories  One last family fling – when we are all together. I also think in looking back this will work great, and I’m no longer concerned about Travis not “fitting” back into the family life - the past school breaks and times with him have proven that. I’m also happy that all the kids are so excited about the trip, and all looking forward to it with anticipation. At one point Nicole wasn’t sure she would like being gone from home for so long – she is a bit of a home-body - but she is now really looking forward to it.

After a trip I took in 1975 with two other friends I always said that was probably the last time in my life that I will be able to live for three months without a schedule. So it’s good to get another chance – something I didn’t expect. After leaving Iowa the first weekend we do not have a schedule and will not know where we will be the next night. GREAT! We are winging it. We will take it as it comes - that is the way I like to travel. The only disadvantage I see will be certain busy parks etc., where reservations are required well ahead, but the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages, I believe. We have all our information along, and will research as we go. Hopefully WIFI at Flying J’s will work, and we will have good internet access. They also have free dumping, and RV Islands etc. We are completely self-contained with a generator and a large gas tank to supply it. We will stay at Wal-mart and Flying J’s and WHEREVER we feel like. The worst that can happen is to get kicked out. We will stop and sleep where we want, and when we want. A vote may be required, of course. OH NO – what about a tie? We’ll deal with that when we get there – remember we’re winging it. We will get campgrounds if we want to use the facilities for some reason. If we want to swim or stay “put” for a while, we will definitely get a campground. We will also use campgrounds in the National Parks etc., however if we are just “passing through” we will save that expense since we have everything we need and are completely self-contained.

Oh yes and the big decision – we got a TV for the camper. We probably will seldom watch TV, but it does have DVD and a VCR so we can watch movies. We will also be able to see our home videos mostly from when we lived in Botswana – something we have never done. It will be fun to see those videos for the first time since they were taken 12 – 19 years ago. We do not have a TV at home – and WILL NOT put this in the house when we return, at least not until after the kids are gone, but we do have one for this trip. It was interesting we had to make a family decision to get one, and it was voted down by the kids. They really didn’t want one, and the parents had to convince them we should get one. After we got it, we also had reservations and almost left it at home, but in the end we put it in. The kids want to be sure it doesn’t steal from our family time though, which of course we agree with. We were very surprised they did not want to get a TV, after not having one their entire lives. We all value the family times we have, and that would probably be reduced if we had a TV in the house. When the kids are gone that may change, but for now we like it as it is. We survived fine without a TV while we lived in Botswana, and decided we could do the same in the U.S. of A, and to this date we have not regretted that decision. The fact that the kids support that decision makes us feel good as well. Are we letting the genie out of the bottle by putting one in the camper? – we hope not! So here we go – we are leaving the day school is out, and don’t need to be back until the day school starts in the fall. Wishing ourselves – “HAPPY TRAVELS”. – posted by Roger.



5-JUN-2004
We left around 7:30PM and we told the kids since they worked so well they could eat anywhere they wanted and could order whatever they wanted, as a celebration. We thought they deserved it – they worked very hard the last two days, often while it was raining hard and very cold. They were soaking wet, and worked outside last night with lights etc. They chose Ichiban’s, a Japanese Steakhouse. We splurged and had a great meal. We already thought of several things we forgot. We forgot to take pictures of packing up and getting ready, taking pictures of the kids in the rain, and taking a “beginning” family picture before we left. We also forgot a tripod and beef jerky in the freezer. So it goes. After eating we drove to the truckstop along 322 north of Harrisburg and went to bed. It is hard to believe this trip is finally happening. – posted by Roger

7-JUN-2004
We drove to Goshen and did some organizing in the camper and bought some supplies – still getting things for our trip. We picked up Travis’ bike at a friends house in Goshen (Anna Yoder), and then stopped and spent the night fairly early at a Flying J near La Salle, IL. posted by Roger.

8-JUN-2004
We had to stop and buy cheese curds at the cheese factory in Kalona on the way to Wellman. YUM YUM! – posted by Roger

10-JUN-2004
We drove to Cedar Falls to be with June and Marc and family today. We stayed overnight and will return to Wellman tomorrow. posted by Roger

13-JUN-2004
This morning we went to church, and in the afternoon had the 50th celebration for Jolene’s parents. It was a fun time seeing some people which I hadn’t seen for many years. After that we all just sat around and reminisced for a while. -posted by Roger