Day 2 - The set-up

5% fun, 95% admin


Today is all, unfortunately, about admin and errands. There is no way around it. At least if you have to run errands all day, you can do it in nice weather? Man LA is nice!

We start the day off with a trip to the Santa Monica pier. We stroll the boardwalk and enjoy the ocean, but we are there so early the rides aren't even open. This was met with much consternation from G. I learned that the Santa Monica pier is the end/start of route 66. Fun! We will be driving a lot of that route, in theory. After our one fun thing for the day, we head to Carson City, near Long Beach to get groceries, car seats, camping supplies and finally the RV.

Our sad attempt at a family selfie on the Santa Monica pier.

 

Two wild and crazy little guys!

After approximately 18 hours of Walmart, Target and drugstores, we get lunch at Panera and go to pick up the RV. We get there and they tell us to come back in an hour as there are 5 people ahead of us for set-ups. Whomp whomp. This will put us in rush hour going back to LA in an RV and having to drop the rental car at the airport on the way home. Le sigh. We attempt car naps and Lo snoozes for a bit and then wakes up screaming his head off. We try and console them with cake pops from "Starbocks" (Lo) but it's no match for jet-lagged, over tired kids. Lo hates facing forward and upright it seems. We go back and get our RV without much ado thank goodness. It seems straight forward and I hope that holds true. It also seems huge. Our plan is for Mike to follow me (and kids in rental car with me) to return the car at the airport so he can get a feel for driving it without everyone else in the car.



This plan was flawed.



I tried to merge in rush hour traffic onto the freeway in LA while giving Mike enough space in the RV to follow. Of course I immediately lost him as a tractor trailer came right in the lane after I merged. I stress out and try calling him and texting him the next 15 miles to the airport. I am near tears, presuming he (obviously) immediately crashed without his wife driving in front of him. The kids are driving me insane and I pretty much yell at them to shut their faces the entire drive. Did I mention yet G is obsessed with counting everything and math? And that he frequently demands the adult with him uses the calculator their phone to do larger math problems for him? And if he asks "what is 60 times 8?" That means you just told him it will be 8 minutes until you do something or he gets something and you best be able to deliver because HE WILL BE COUNTING THE SECONDS TO HOLD YOU TO YOUR PROMISE!!!! Life with a brilliant 4 year old is nothing but exhausting. It's not like he's winning a scholarship to day care or something. I try and keep positive and nurturing in math though because college is expensive. And so will be my retirement home.



I digress. Mike did not die! Or crash! He made it to the rental car place before me because I made a wrong turn and stopped to get gas. Mike was super understanding of me losing him on the freeway. NOT. Oh well.

Home sweet home! And so easy to drive!

We bring the RV back to the cousin's house in their VERY nice residential LA neighborhood. Needless to say they had a homeowners association call within 5 minutes of us parking our unsightly vehicle in front of their house. If you've seen Christmas Vacation, we played the Uncle Eddie role to a T.  Did I mention our RV had a fake dog sticker in the window? Yeah, we named him Fart Butt Face Feldman per G's request.




Lo, Mommy, Fart Butt Face, Daddy, G

Getting used to the new car seat set up. Kind of. This was "configuration 1."

Breakfast with the big cousins- great kids!