Teenagers and a Stray Kitty

Thursday, June 25th

I’ve been wanting to write this post for a few days now. But to be honest, I’ve been pretty emotionally drained. Having a teenager with an eating disorder is no easy task. Since therapy, she’s been forced to face the demons and it’s been a lot of ups and downs. But we’re making it through and progress is being made.

On a lighter note, I told you we’d be checking out a few Thousand Trails this summer, remember? It just so happens that right now we’re at Harbor View RV Camping Resort in Colonial Beach, VA. We’ve been here for two days and are getting settled in. This campground, like most Thousand Trails I’ve been to, isn’t much to write home about. However, the big plus is the staff is very nice. I’ll share the link to my review in a later post.

The one gem I was hoping to get out of this stay was a pool for the kids to swim in. And we do have a party to attend for my awesome, beautiful and smart great nieces 2nd birthday. And she just happens to live in Colonial Beach. So alas, we’re here. But, to my dismay, upon arrival we found that the pool was closed folks. Yep, it’s the end of June with sweltering temp’s last week in the 90’s and the pool is closed. To say I was disheartened was mild. But we’re promised it will be opened tomorrow – fingers crossed!

Keeping things light hearted

So you may wonder what we’ve been doing to pass the time? I didn’t pull the toad because, well, it’s not ready to tow yet. Soon, really soon. I knew my husband was coming to join us on Friday night and we’d be okay without a car for a day or two. So we put on our walking shoes and investigated the campground and beyond.

The first thing we went in search of was the harbor. I don’t think it’s affiliated with the campground and I’m not sure why they chose the name because there really isn’t a view of the harbor from the campground. Go figure.

But we walked the docks on Thursday afternoon and got a glimpse of the water. Little did I know that there was a “no trespassing” sign on the docks until my darling husband pointed it out to me later. Good thing nobody saw us!

After our trespassing fiasco, we went home to start dinner. A thunderstorm came through making all kinds of ruckus. Then sheets of rain poured from the sky. We stayed safe and dry in Perl’s embrace. The kids showered and hit the sack, resting up for what we hoped was sunny skies.

Friday, June 26 

A new day did indeed bring rays of sunshine our way. I was hopeful the pool would be open today. We poked around the RV most of the morning. I fumbled with sewer hoses that weren’t quite long enough to serve their purpose but managed to shove two together in compromise. I had to drain the gray water tank or bust!

You probably don’t want to hear this but when I pulled the sewer cap off, there was a little spillage. The valves weren’t open so I have no idea why that happened. It was a first for me. Glad I had my rubber gloves on. So of course I had to spend extra time cleaning out the bay, throwing away trash that really didn’t need to be in there and rinsing off all the hose connections that were in a bin. Yes, the bin and its contents were christened, what fun.

You know, I’m not sure I’ve shared this before but my twin tweens don’t embrace this RV lifestyle. In fact, they hate it. So as I was, quiet literally,  hosing crap off and out of everything, I listened to them debate whether they’d like to go back to school in the fall. Not that it’s a hundred percent their choice. They bring this up so they don’t have to head west with me when my daughter gets better. It was like listening to a sitcom:

daughter 1: I don’t know if I want to go back to school in the fall or continue to be homeschooled.

daughter 2: Well, if you ask me, I think you’ll be eaten alive.

daughter 1: Yea, maybe you’re right. But not if I make lots of friends.

daughter 2: True. I think I’d be eating at the lunch table by myself a lot. But you could probably get some good fashion tips. You love fashion. (as if THAT’S why they should go back to school)

daughter 3 pipes in: I thought you hated school when you went, I don’t want to go to school.

daughter 2: It wasn’t that bad. Besides, I could use some real curriculum so I can get a good job (we currently unschool them).

me: We can start a structured online curriculum like we did before, you don’t have to go to school for that. I’m thinking of doing that this fall.

daughter 1: Oh no, I want to meet a lot of friends.

You see what I’m dealing with here {sigh}. And so the banter went back and forth. All this between the youngest asking, oh, about every 10 seconds, “mom are you done yet”, “mom, can we go check out the pool now”, “mom, are you done nooooooow”, “mom, are you allllllmost done yet”. Yes, today is a day I could very well lose my mind!

Back to the teenagers, you’d think it was the end of their lives because their mother wanted to take them in a CLASS A RV (no less) and show them the United States. I used to camp in tents and sit in a classroom ALL day. Those bathroom runs in the middle of the night sucked! I don’t know about you but if I could have a year long field trip in a moving house instead of sitting in a classroom, I would have been all over it! I often wondered what the day would look like with two teenagers at once. Can I have my toddlers back please?!

So a few pairs of gloves later, tanks empty and the mess cleaned up, we headed over to the pool. The sign read, “closed”. You’ve got to be kidding me. I just listened to an 8-year-old beg nonstop to go for over 3o minutes and it’s CLOSED? Noooooooooo. I ask when it will be open and I’m told this afternoon (NOT).

So our final option is putt putt but alas the balls cost a $1 each and I don’t have any cash on me. This awesome man was kind enough to give each of the girls a dollar so I wouldn’t have to walk back to get my wallet. At that very moment, I really needed that act of kindness. The world can be a good place :-). I now need to pay it forward.

Where did that ball go?

We head on over to play putt putt and this cute little kitty follows us. It turns out that she’s  the campground cat. It’s been granted a flea collar but it looks oh so lonely. It meows to be petted constantly and she looks pregnant to me. I want to take her home but I also don’t want fleas. Flea collar or no flea collar, I’m fairly confident she still has them, scratch, scratch, scratch. She stops. Then scratch, scratch, scratch, bite the tail, scratch the ears. Poor baby.

After putt putt, it’s lunch time and then a walk of the campground loops. We check out the bath house and poke around here and there. I throw frisbee with the little one because the teenagers are back to whining again about how horrible their life is. Such a travesty, she unhooks us from our electronics and forces us to play outside. I’m too grown up for this. All I can think is, “I can’t wait until daddy gets here. I did see signs for a winery not far, haha!”.

Just as I’m serving dinner, dad rolls in. Perfect timing. We eat, catch up with current happenings and walk around the campground for a bit. Then we hunker down for the night. I hear faint meows at my RV door. This kitty knows I have two at home. I know they’re feeding her, I saw them. She just wants love. I may have to find a place in the car for her. Poor sweet thing.

I’m hoping that tomorrow the pool will be open (never give up hope). I will keep my fingers and toes crossed. And tomorrow, we have a friend coming to visit. It feels good to be back in the RV again. I missed you Perl! And don’t let those teenagers hurt your feelings, it’s just the hormones talking.

{HUGS} from the Crew!

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