I would describe our family as rather hobbit-like in our habits. Steady, stay-at-home, boring-is-nice folks. So how did we come to be crammed together into a bedroom on wheels, with an appointment three weeks and 2000 miles away?
My dad's siblings live in Michigan, on the west side near the top of the 'mitten.' Last year my dad invited us out for a bit of a family reunion. The kids and Rob, of course, have the whole summer off, and I had three weeks or more of vacation time. We made the arrangements to rent a small RV and planned to travel across the upper Midwest and see some of America together before the kids grew too old to have fun traveling together. It turned out that my employer was downsizing and I was laid off at the beginning of July. There's a lot of backstory to explain why I felt happy with the layoff and calm about a big unknown future, but I won't go into that here. Instead of using my vacation time, I was laid off and given a severance package that included a payout for unused vacation time.
So, there you have it: Mom, Dad, 14 year old and two 11 year old girls, in an overpacked RV, heading east.
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