McLains on the Road: An Essay by Adelaide McLain

Wow, 74 days on the road and we actually made it. That was an adventure. Although I loved it I think it will be a while before I do that again. In this blog post, I am going to talk about the trip over all. Some of the things I will talk about are family, the RV, sites, and people.

One of the best things about the RV trip is hanging out with family both on the road and exploring a town. Although they are the ones that wake me up in the morning with their noise, I still would rather travel in an RV with them than fly everywhere. By the way, I plan on getting a lot more sleep now that I am home. It is fun playing with them on the road. Some of the games we played were Yatzee, Rummikub, and Monopoly. Yes we played Monopoly because, remember, we are on the road for a long time.

Well where do I start about the RV? I guess I'll start by saying it has become my home and that I will miss it. I remember cleaning it when we spent time hand washing the dishes, sweeping the floor, and moping the ground with Clorox wipes. Every morning you cook in the same tiny kitchen, eat at the same little table, and brush your teeth in the same little bathroom. What I am trying to say is the RV grows on you.

Oh my gosh, has it really come to sites? Well have I got a list for you. We saw so many things stretching from the civil war, to Taos Pueblo. Let's start from the beginning and I will name some of the things we saw: Lincoln's home and museum, Cedar Point (an amusement park in Ohio), light houses in Portland Maine, all that Boston has to offer, New York City and Broadway, Hershey, PA, Gettysburg, PA, Washington DC and all the sites there, New Orleans, Dallas, TX, Taos, NM. And to think that is only about 1/10 of the list. Oh, I forgot Schlitterbahn, the best waterpark in the world. It even has a water slide that goes uphill. I slipped and hit my face on the shower floor (and it still hurts).

People is my next topic so I'm going to tell you about a few of the people I visited. My Aunt Anne and Uncle Tom in Omaha where we had barbeque, my cousins Noah and EJ in Springfield, IL where we visited the Lincoln museum, my Great Grandma Wilma in Orland Park, IL where we played at her house, my cousins Joseph and Micah in Montpelier, VT and then we drove with them to Maine and then to Boston, my Uncle Bruce in Winston Salem where we played in his pool (he gave us model cars), my friends Dylan and Hayden in Punta Gorda where we zip-lined over their pond and Dagny's party. The last group of people I am going to talk about are the Hatfields where we went to caverns. I really enjoyed hanging out with people on the trip, so everyone that we met with, thank you for taking time to meet with us.

This was one of the best summers of my life and I will never forget it. I hope you get a chance to do this.

- Addie