Our drive from Texas to New Jersey!
Our drive from Texas to Virginia summed up in one word: exhausting! 
We drove 12 hour days, in the pouring rain the first two days. And the next two days we meandered the remaining 6 hours. The drive was beautiful! I had no idea Virginia and Maryland were so pretty!
We boon-docked (parked to sleep without electric, water or sewer) for the night outside of Lynchburg, Virginia on the second night! We found this spot because a very generous person on the Fulltime Rv’ing Facebook page offered his land for anyone passing through! It just so happened that we were passing through there the day after he posted his offering!! We drove our rigs through the hills of Virginia and found his home. His family was welcoming and we are so glad we stopped for the night and had the chance to meet them (and get a good night’s sleep)!
After Virginia we stopped in Maryland to visit with family from Patrick’s side! It was so nice to see people we haven’t seen in over 8 years! The boys loved meeting them and running around their place… I think they were in a sugar coma most of the time due to the cupcakes they made with Aunt P! They had an unforgettable time and are already asking me to go back and visit! Luckily we are only two and a half hours away so we’ll have plenty of time to visit our northeastern family!
We left Maryland and only had a short drive to our RV park. The park wasn’t exactly what we were thinking it was going to be (more on that later), but it will do!
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A little setback!
We were suppose to leave for New Jersey this morning, but yesterday one of the guys in our convoy had a blow-out on the way to us. All is good with the tire and the guys decided to leave tomorrow (Tuesday) morning instead of trying to get out of here today.
The good news is I kicked the boys and the men OUT of the RV for the day and I plan to get some “pre-trip cleaning” done.
Today’s agenda:
Dust, vacuum and mop floors.
Deep clean bathroom.
Clean house in general.
Clear all counters of moveable items.
Move, tuck, snap, clip and stow everything away so it doesn’t move during our drive.
… And much more after more coffee.
I do (as the Lundy’s say) the pink jobs.
Hubby does the blue (outside, gross, man) jobs.
Towing an RV across the country isn’t all fun! It takes a day to a couple of days of preparation making sure everything is in its place before we hit the road!
… Maybe I’ll sneak a nap in here somewhere!
-till later
Jenn
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We are on the move!
Monday morning, April 22,@013, 5:30am we load up the RV and head east! Here is our route!
To say that we are excited is not enough! The boys are already asking questions about New York and the beaches of New Jersey! Yeah, we are a little more than excited!
Maybe if you are along the route we might be able to see you!
…on the road again
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Tour the wild, wild west: Old Tucson Studios!
We had the opportunity to check out Old Tucson Studios on a recent trip to Tucson, Arizona. Old Tucson is a movie studio and theme park. Great westerns such as Gun fight at the OK Coral and Little House on the Prairie were filmed there. We got free tickets and had zero expectations of what we were going to encounter there. The only thing we knew was it was a replica of the wild west.
We pulled into the theme park and parked. We started noticing that we were basically the only ones NOT dressed up. We just so happen to go to Old Tucson on the one weekend that they have the Steampunk Festival! It was so fun to see all the super creative costumes and weaponry. I am told that Steampunk is basically what people from the 1800′s thought the future would be like. It was super wacky with all the gamma ray guns and half-robot people.
Upon entering Old Tucson it was like we stepped right into the late 1800′s! There were old buildings, entertainers in character, horses, a stagecoach and an old mine. We got our “agenda” for the day and started walking! Our first stop was the mine! Our tour guide, “Terrible Tom” was HILARIOUS!! We would have done the tour twice just to listen to him and his jokes!
Next the boys spent some time riding the carousel, driving old cars, and then we went to a show! The first show we checked out was a show about Saloon Girls… the head Saloon Girl sashayed and danced into the audience while singing and picked Patrick to dance with her. I don’t think she was prepared to be swung around the dance floor by a good ole Texas boy! The crowd loved it!
We grabbed some lunch at the Bar-B-Q restaurant. If I had to do it again I would just take an ice chest with lunch and leave it in the car. It was crowded and the food was pricey. The Bar-B-Q ribs themselves were really great though!
After lunch we paid $5.00 and our whole family rode around “town” in the stagecoach! I am sooo glad we have cars now! That ride was so bumpy and dusty!! It was still super fun though! We got off the stagecoach and went to grab our seats for the gunfight! The boys LOVED the show! Owen wanted to watch more of it! Even though it was cold and raining off and on the boys (and us) had a BLAST!! It was PERFECT for their ages and we would totally go back again!
In addition to all the rides and gun fights there was also a puppet show and craft booth… the boys chose to make creatures out of pipe cleaners! The entertainers were so patient!
General Admission Adult: $16.95
General Admission to Old Tucson Studios during regular daytime operating hours includes select rides, shows, and tours.
General Admission Child: $10.95
Children ages 4 to 11 General Admission to Old Tucson Studios during regular daytime operating hours includes select rides, shows, and tours.
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Adventus MusIQ: A TOS Review
We were recently given the opportunity to review an innovative program aimed at teaching children to play the piano from the comfort of their home. Adventus has a fun, computer based program called MusIQ. The program uses the computer and a midi keyboard.
MusIQ lessons take about an hour and teaches variety of music theory and history. There is a game to reinforce the lesson and printable activity sheets to go along with the lesson they just learned!
MusIQ comes with everything you need for a well rounded music curriculum. For this particular review we reviewed Children’s Music Journey Volume 1. Volume one has 25 lessons which is plenty for the year! The lessons begin with a fun, interactive, well-known composer who teaches the lesson. My kids were glued to the screen!
We used Adventus MusIQ three times a week in addition to our regular home-school curriculum. The boys didn’t mind the “extra work” and they even learned to play a very simple song.
There is no way that I could teach them anywhere close to what they are learning with Adventus Children’s Music Journey Volume 1! I can’t wait to see how much more they learn as they progress.
Adventus MusIQ is very affordable. You can buy the program wholly or you can download the software and pay a subscription fee of $10.95 per month. When we were doing traditional music lessons they were $90.00 a month! This is a great deal!!
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WINNER!! 50 Best travel blogs!
Thank you to my fans who nominated and voted! We won with a whopping 94 votes!! You guys ROCK!
