June 9

Today was supposed to be our marathon driving day. But we did so well pushing through last night that we only had about 8 hours to do today. And other than a quick gas stop we drove straight through. We left a rest stop just north of the South Carolina border around 8:00am and arrived in Richmond Virginia around 4:00. We decided to stay at the Pocahontas State Park. It was beautiful. I am really loving these state parks. They have got it all the electricity, pools, laundry and showers I need to feel human and the peace and beauty of nature that brings me joy.

We got pool passes when we checked in and decided to go right over and go for a dip. Their website promised an Olympic size pool with slides. We were really looking forward to it. After almost an hour of “exploring” the back roads of Virginia and cursing our GPS we finally found the pool. It was really nice. I can’t get over how paying the 25 dollar camping fee got us all tickets for the pool that usually costs 8 dollars each. Same thing in Louisiana (although it was Sunday so we didn’t go to that pool). Seems like everyone would just get a camping site even if they didn’t spend the night. Anyway the pool was great and the kids had a blast. Rachel is getting braver and braver she was thrilled with herself when she went down a slide all by herself. She was having so much fun she just couldn’t stop to go to the bathroom, when I noticed her doing the potty dance I grabbed her and took her to the bathroom. It was closed – there was only about 15 minutes to close so I told her she would just have to wait but warned her not to go in the pool. The warning came a little too late because as I watched her run back to the water I could see little brown lines going down her legs and a couple drips in the pool. I ran and grabbed her at the edge of the water. We had the quite the little wrestle as I made her get out and marched her to the Rv to change luckily we found a bathroom on the way and I got her cleaned up. She was quite upset that I wouldn’t let her get back in the pool and very sorry that she didn’t tell me she had to go. She just was having so much fun and a trip to the bathroom would have ruined it. I am not sure what I am going to do with that child. It is a good thing she is so cute and her little smile melts me heart because there are times when the idea of selling her to the gypsies might be quite appealing.

After the pool we went back, did some laundry, grilled some chicken, and chased some fireflies. The kid, especially Anna, were enthralled with the fireflies. I think the whole camp was privileged to her Rachel’s rendition of “Fireflies” as she ran around trying to catch them. It was fun to see and cute to hear. We got to bed about 11:00 and with our air conditioning going we all slept great. Thank goodness for AC, I don’t know how people lived without it on the east coast. If I were a pilgrim I would have marched right back on the Mayflower and headed back to England. But then again while driving around, with the AC on, in this beautiful country I dream of living here. I love the green trees, the forests and the rolling hills. The mountains of Utah are truly beautiful but I would take the forests any day. Too bad you can’t have green without so much wet.