Lessons from one month on the road

We have officially been on the road for one month! I've been thinking about what we've learned, and decided to share it here. First, I'd like to clarify that I know one month isn't that long! Nearly everyone we meet has been on the road much longer, and knows infinitely more than us. But this blog (newsletter???) exists in part as a time capsule for us to revisit later on, and I look forward to reading this back some day and laughing at what I deemed worthy of inclusion here.

1. There are so many more people doing this than I expected. Probably 50% of the traffic we see on the highway is other caravans, and we never have a campsite to ourselves. One thing I was nervous about before the trip was my own ignorance putting me in danger (eg jumping in a body of water where a croc is lurking). But other people around makes it feel much safer.

   

2. One of the best purchases we've made is 2 buckets. In the afternoon when its way too hot to do anything and the kids need to play and be outside, we put a few inches of water in buckets and both kids happily spend hours "swimming"

   

3. Colin is growing so much - in ways that mirror our life. He is fearless in the water (I wish he had more fear since the kid cannot swim), absolutely loves all insects and animals, and he is so good at making a whole play universe out of sticks and a bucket. On the flipside, seeing very few kids his own age - and rarely seeing the same kid twice - has amplified his reserved demeanor. A kid tried to engage him at a playground last week and he burst into tears.

   

4. Pat and I have had to learn a LOT about patience (and we still have a ways to go). I would have characterized us as patient parents before this trip, but the first couple weeks we were having a hard time with endlessly telling Colin no, escalating his defiant behavior, and ending up in a full toddler battle by bedtime. We watched other parents around us having a much more pleasant time and knew we had to change something. I'd summarize our new approach as: if your kid is annoying you, make them laugh. Half the time they'll walk away and do something else after. A quarter of the time, you'll find more patience after a nice moment and let it go. That still leaves 25% of the time they require telling off, but at least its less frequent.

   

   (Not a real abandoned car)

5. There are abandoned cars all over the outback. This is a strange thing I didn't expect. People either wreck them or they break down- and they're just way too far from anything to tow or repair. We probably pass 2-5 a day. I don’t think you’d be allowed to do this in California - it's just one of those things that makes me realize how sparsely populated the outback is.

   

6. No matter how bad my night of sleep was, getting outside first thing pretty much always makes me feel 90% better.

   

7. One night sitting around the fire, Colin told us the flames go up up up into the sky, and that's where stars come from.

   

8. Being copilot is a fair amount of work. I am responsible for everyone's snacks, water, and entertainment. Colin is the neediest, but Pat usually wants whatever snack Colin is having. And Inny (as is her personality) is extremely easy until she decides she’s over it - at which point she’s inconsolable. But to be fair I have managed to knit almost a whole sweater exclusively while driving, so I guess I’m doing alright.

   

9. We can’t travel much more than ~350 kilometers a day if we want to avoid a situation where everyone is crying when we arrive (me included). We usually leave between 9 and 10, take a 1-2 hour break at lunch, and arrive at 3ish.

   

10. My two biggest stress triggers are: Inny not sleeping, and ants. Unfortunately I am locked in a weeks long battle with ants at the moment. But I’m currently winning the war so it’s manageable. The sleep battle, on the other hand, is much harder to win. Every day I have to bribe Colin to not scream in the car while Inny naps, which he does because he's bored and he wants to talk to Inny. I can't relax until it feels like she's slept long enough.

Here’s to what we’ll learn in the next month!