Day 9: Hello again, Shady Dell.

So here we are on a cross-country road trip. A road trip that will take us to new places to see new things. And where was our next stop? A place that we have been to twice in the past five years. Because we love it so. Hello again, Shady Dell. We’ve missed the hell out of ya!

As you can see above, the Shady Dell has spots for trailers. But they also have vintage trailers to rent and a cute little diner too.

I guess I should have taken lots of fancy pictures of the trailers to show you how awesome it is here. But we did that last year for you. And I don’t think you ever said thank you. Nice. Real nice.

So when we get to new camping locations, Dan does all the macho outdoor stuff that gets him greasy and I go inside to hang out with the girls and take care of the indoor stuff. It usually takes us a bit to get settled in. But this time, things went a lot more smoothly for the both of us. Dan found our campsite to be perfectly level. Yeah for him. And I had one kid still asleep in the car. Yeah for me. I’m not sure what Dan did with his “free time” but I took advantage of it and washed the floors.

And when I needed some extra time to clean the bathroom, my babysitting cat came to the rescue.

Thanks Yoda.

Now with the younger kid asleep and the older one awake, Ava and I had some special mommy and me time. While pregnant with our 2nd kid, I thought taking care of a newborn again would be the hard part. But it turns out that taking care of the toddler is the harder part. Her acting out and testing boundaries comes with getting less attention from us.

So I think little moments like these help the both of us a great deal.

Ava had a blast exploring this vintage trailer park and even made a new friend.

Before we knew it, Mila was awake and was ready for a little fresh air.

We walked into the graveyard next door to look for some ghosts. The last time we were here, Ava told me that she saw a lady staring at us. One that I could not see. So we took her here again to see what she would see and she saw nothing. Not one thing.

Mila? You are now the chosen one. You are the next ghost hunter!

That night we headed to the grocery store and found a cool pizza place called “Pizzarama, Gus the Greek”. The pizza was seriously delicious. Oh that crust. And the gyros were yummy too.

On the way home, Ava asked if she could go to her favorite playground with her best friend Grace. She keeps asking to do stuff with the people she loves. We tell her that she can’t because they are so far away… and they only way that she can is if we end our trip short. And when I give her the choice of going home or keep camping for a bit, she always chooses camping. But I don’t think she gets where we are and how far from California we are. So Dan busted out the map. He pointed out the city we live in and that is it near the ocean. She looks at the rest of the map, points to Key West, Florida and says I want to go here. Dan and I both start giggling. That’s the plan, kid. That’s the plan.

the end,
marlene