Day two of our snail paced journey took us from Sandpoint Idaho to Spokane Washington. We said “so long” to our first stop at Hi-dee-ho Campground. It was spitting rain, with puddles abound, but we needed to walk Nixon, and Josh figured a jaunt to the Golden Arches for coffee might be an order, so we walked the short half block. Yes, half block. The campground was in the centre of town, between a grocery store and an RV store. Just outside a lady was getting out of her camper van, and commented on Nixons’ harness and how it wasn’t meant for pulling. Things started out friendly & casual, but progressed to her talking about how he could pull 35 lbs of food for us to eat when we were living in the bushes, and if all else failed we could eat him, so we should keep him around and train him to pull. He could last another 10 years, even though he is nearly 10. Because that is what the world is coming to, she said. Then, as the topic went from casual to crazy, I bid her good morning. Wow.
When we got back to the trailer, the little one already needed a nap, so we put her down before pulling out at the 11am check-out time. Of course it was a bit of a marathon nap, one you’d wish she would just take in the car so we could move on.
We recently switched her into the convertible carseat (the Clek Foonf because it had great ratings, and a friend recommended it) but for some reason, baby girl has failed to sleep for longer than about 35 minutes in it, no matter how comfy she appears. We adjusted the recline, bought an overpriced head-hammock, made head rolls from a blanket, held her head with my hand, played great music, put the dog in a crate, ride silently, smooth roads, curvy roads, different vehicles, different nap times, etc. You name it, she won’t sleep any longer. I don’t think its the carseat, as she wasn’t a great car sleeper in the baby seat either… But, it really makes for a LONG, loud, tiring travel day when she is awake and angry, and has such a short sitting tolerance. To make matters worse, she is on the verge of walking and so that’s all she wants to do. But, sigh, at this rate, we will make it to So Cal before she is 2. And, we are not in a hurry, at least we aren’t yet.
We have stooped, (yes, some days I feel that way) to letting her watch Sesame Street on the iPad, and now when she gets in the seat, she points at it. “Turn that on for me”. Oh boy! The only other way to keep her busy for longer than 10 minutes is to feed her tiny snacks, which, is actually a great time killer. About 30 minutes per snack to be precise.
Not much else to write about on this short distance travel day, except that we stopped at camping world and found a new poop tube, some toilet paper, and a new upgraded heavy duty shower head for when we turn on the water and dewinterize.
Onto Spokane
Exciting times, we decide to spend two whole nights in Spokane so we could check out the….wait for it…. the Carousel downtown. We chose the Alderwood RV park in Mead, WA because it had trees, and the ambience was better than Hi-dee-ho. The indoor pool and washroom facilities were pretty dated, but seemed clean enough, and we cared less as we turned on our water here. Once again close to a McDonalds and a grocery store, but not much else to walk to. We roamed the RV neighbourhood with our dog and our baby with her pink plastic push-jeep and marvelled at the beautiful fall leaves.
The sleeping situation has been sub-par with mulit-night wake ups due to hatred for the new playpen placed in lower bunk cave scenario. Hopefully this improves soon, as getting up at 5 with a screaming baby is probably not favourable for the neighbours for long. Nap time was at 7:30 with a crankster like that! Then, around 10 we headed downtown to check out the amusement park. It was similar to Eau Clair Market, downtown Calgary, just along the river. The Carousel was a huge hit with the little one as she has recently taken a liking to “ponies”. She squealed with delight was we went round and round at high speed. Ok, we must be old, it seemed really fast, for a Carousel. A couple of families were feeding ducks at the river shore, also a big hit. And, the highlight for dad was the GIANT radio flyer wagon slide that was situated just off the bank. It was a quick visit there, as both the water crazy lab and the baby wanted to participate in river-related activities. She to chase the ducks, he to swim laps.
Afterward, we had a relaxing afternoon, napping, pushing the jeep around outside, eating french toast, and listening to our new jazz radio station on the RV sound system, which by the way, ups the glamping ambience by at least 10 points.
Tomorrow, we’ll be lucky to hit Seattle. At least, that is the plan.
