June 30th - Day 18
For months leading up to our trip, many people would ask us what each of us were most looking forward to on our trip. Everyone would quickly respond that they are really looking forward to seeing our good friends in other states, some of which who are more like family. Today our family was finally able to meet up with the Mucci’s at Four Mile Creek State Park on Lake Ontario, just north of Niagara Falls. They will be camping with us here for two nights and then we will all head south to their home in Harrisburg, PA for the 4th of July.
We have known the Mucci’s for about 11 years now. Becca first met Mandy when she was pregnant with Elias and they were the same midwife class at the hospital. Mandy was pregnant with Mia at the time and our two families would soon build a lasting friendship. Over the years, our families have remained close despite their move from Portland to PA, and all eight kids (ages 15 down to 3.5) get along great and are bonded like cousins. We will treasure these days together and the memories made as our kids are growing up fast!
A few highlights/memorable moments of the day:
We left Lake Erie this morning, but not before we first got our feet wet in the lake. Due to being near the Ohio islands in Lake Erie, the lake felt significantly smaller than Lake Michigan.
Shortly after heading out for the day, I spotted a self-wash car wash that was big enough for me to pull the RV in. Elias and I got out and began washing all of the bugs and dirt of the RV while the rest of the family visited a produce market. $17.00 in quarters later, we got to a point where we said it was clean enough.
Today was the first real time that we experienced traffic delays on our trip (after about 4,000 miles). This was a combination of accidents, road construction in multiple states, and city traffic driving through Cleveland and Buffalo. For about an hour and a half, it felt like Google Maps continued to say that we had 4 hours and 15 minutes remaining to reach our destination, meaning mounting frustration among our kids.
Tonight we learned about mountain pies from the Mucci’s. These are apparently Pennsylvania’s version of a smore on steroids. Though new to us, our family certainly enjoyed partaking in them. They consist of two buttered pieces of Wonder Bread (and for Becca’s sake, we learned Wonder Bread is dairy free), with some sort of filling (Nutella, canned fruit pie filling, or something else, and/or marshmallows) put together like a sandwich and toasted over the fire in a “pie iron”. Aubrey might just be putting pie irons on her Christmas list.
