Tuesday, December 19, 2023
This morning Betty and I went on a nice morning jog, and then we packed up everything for Utah.
A word on packing:
I’m pretty proud of the system that we’ve got for packing right now. Before we left, I went through with everyone and made a careful packing list in Apple Reminders for each of them. Recent updates have made it possible to group to-dos in Reminders into groups like Shoes, Outerwear, and Hygiene, so it’s easy to keep everything organized. And they way the kids have packed makes it so that everything in a group is packed into an individual bag or packing cube inside of a bag.
I then saved each list as a template and shared each list with each person. They then were able to access the list and make it a template on their own device. We can also share an active list with each other.
So this makes it possible for me to tell the kids generate a new list (from the template), share it with me, and pack completely up. Then I can follow on my phone to see how they are doing.
Sounds like a perfect system, right?
Well, not exactly. We have run into two problems. One is that Betty packed a bunch of things after she and I made her list -- like complete bags full of stuff that is not on the list, a juicer, and a bathroom scale. So her list is not an accurate reflection of what she needs to pack. The second is that the kids are having a hard time with the concept of “actually see the the thing with your eyes and/or hold it in your hand before you mark it as packed,” which leads to a bunch of things not being packed because they were assumed to be in the right place but weren’t actually there.
It’s a work in progress.
We also had the problem this morning of not being on the same page about how long packing would take, or how much cleaning of Grandma and Grandpa’s house would need to be done before we left, so we ended up leaving way later than some people wanted to leave. It all led to a carryover of the irritability from the past few days. When we finally started driving I ordered everyone to just put a movie on their device and be quiet.
That worked.
The drive to Arizona went really well. Nobody was in much of a mood for conversation, and we didn’t stop much, so the time went by really quickly.
The highlight of the drive was definitely stopping at the Wahwheap overlook.
When I was a kid my Grandma Mack had a timeshare on a houseboat (Kingfisher II) at Lake Powell, and we would go down at least once a year for an adventure with Mack cousins. She eventually sold her share, but Lake Powell will always be a magical place for me. We always docked in Bullfrog Marina, so I wasn’t as familiar with Wahwheap. I’ve driven by this overlook a hundred times and never stopped, but the light in the sky was so perfect that I couldn’t resist.
We weren’t disappointed.
One more memorable thing happened on the way.
Just south of Sedona and north of Phoenix there is a little town called Camp Verde. It’s on a reservation. There is a big Casino there, and Montezuma Castle National Monument. Anyway, we did a quick pit stop there. Betty was in the gas station, and I was in the car with the kids. I turned around to say something to them, and my knee accidentally bumped the button that opens the back hatch of the Sequoia. I didn’t realize until the door started opening and stuff started falling out. The worst casualty was our bathroom scale (one of the other things that Betty snuck in the morning of Day 1), which was made of class and completely shattered.
The scale was a sad loss for us, because it’s been one of our best tools in our weight loss journey this year.
Anyway, I quickly hopped out of the car, hoping nobody had seen. And an old Native American man looked at me and just said something like: “It looks like you didn’t close the back up tight.”
I sheepishly walked into the station and asked for a broom to clean things up.
It was so great to finally get to Janie’s house in Queen Creek, Arizona. Her kids are adorable. They love us, and we love them.
Unfortunately, there was a bunch more grumbling among the crew about sleeping arrangements, but finally everyone got to sleep.
Let the next stage begin :)
Hours in the car today: 11
Total hours in the car: 39
Miles Driven: 655
Total Miles Traveled: 2,255
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