Lover got up bright and early to get all of the insurance paperwork done before he headed out to get the emissions testing and registration for the new van. He headed out, and I handled the kiddos while doing laundry and starting to pack us up. I also did some yoga and helped the kiddos with breakfast, and then we cleaned out the old van. We got rid of big trash, collected all our stuff, and made nice neat piles for easy transfer to the new van when Lover got back.
I’ve started packing big ziploc bags with a change of clothes for everyone, and we just pull one out each night at the hotel, especially when we are changing places every night. It’s working well and I just have to separate it all once when I do the laundry. Pretty good system! Lover spent the morning (five hours!) waiting at the emissions testing, and then waiting at the DMV. When it was his turn, the lady went to lunch. Then when she came back, she refused to issue the final registration, even though he had all the proper documents. Annoying! But, we got the temp tags, which was the important piece to be able to travel.
Once he got back, and rehydrated, we headed out to the Denver Rescue Mission to donate the old van. Lover and Paul had transferred everything over to the new one ( I think we’re calling it Big Red?) I drove the new van (so nice to have AC!) and Lover toughed it out in the old one. The donation process was super simple, and then we headed back to collect the kiddos. On the drive I thought of the song “The Goodness of God.” There were so many things that could have gone wrong. We could have broken down in the middle of nowhere. We could have been stranded. We could have had to pay a fortune because of being stranded. Instead, we were in our home state, surrounded by our friends, and God provided a van quickly and well below budget. He is a good God!
Sandy had once again kindly watched the kids so they didn’t have to spend more time in the van. Then we finished loading up, and headed out on the road! Whew! It was a super busy, full day.
I fell asleep as soon as we got in the van, and slept for about an hour. Then a little while later we switched and I drove for a while. I drove for a little over two hours, and then we hit a HUGE Nebraskan storm! It was so strong that I pulled over and Lover drove us the rest of the way. We finally got ahead of it, and got checked into our hotel in Lexington, NE right before it hit the town. Never seen so much rain! Crazy!
The kids had lots of questions about lightning, which sparked a conversation about different states of matter, why cold water has different density than other things, and lots of other science-y things. Charges in molecules, protons, neutrons and electrons, how elements are formed and how they bond. It was a big science lesson! We pretty much went right to bed – everyone was worn out from our fun and long weekend!