We left the Nashville KOA Thursday morning around 10 am. Nashville to Atlanta is an easy drive, only about 4 hours. We stopped halfway there, at a restaurant called Wally's. We chose Wally's because my grandfather was named Wally. We all called him Wally ever since we were kids. Wally and Granny. When we were pulling off the highway, we saw the sign for Wally's, and given the family trip we were on, we thought it would be good karma to stop and remember Wally. There were 10 of us. My family, Sis and her 2 boys, Debbie and her daughter Ashley, and my Aunt Di. The whole Nashville crew.
We pulled in, and I dropped my riders off at the door, and then drove way into the back of the parking lot to park the RV. They had a lunch buffet filled with midwestern comfort food. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, blueberry cobbler, and much more. During lunch, I got a text from my partner Jeff that he needed to chat about something really quick. I was nervous, as Jeff isn't the guy to call for no important reason. It ended up there was a challenge on some deal we were working on. Normally, I would get worked up about work issues pretty fast, but in this moment being away from work for so long I was proud and happy to share with Jeff I trusted whatever result he created, and went back to my meal. He's such a great partner. I clearly couldn't do this without his support.
My brother Steve lives North of Atlanta, in a suburb named Alpharetta. After a few more hors of driving, we were in Alpharetta. The last 10 miles or so were on very skinny country roads that were very windy. I was pretty nervous driving the huge RV on these roads, but we made it sucessfully, and the kids were super amped to see the other cousins.
When we pulled in, we all had a laugh because Steve lives in a very nice gated neighborhood, and anyone we saw outside we honked and waved. I'm sure they were wondering who the hell was driving a 33' RV in White Columns Country Club. When we got to the house we parked the RV, and Aunt Liz and the kids all came running out to greet us.
We traded the RV for a Ferrari for a little while
My brother Steve married his high school sweetheart, Liz, who I've known since they were 16 or 17 (I was 12!). He has 4 kids Jack (12), Will (10), Alec (8) and Annie(8). We all quickly put our swimsuits on, and jumped into the pool to join the kids. Steve has a Golden Retreiver puppy thats less than two years old named Molly that was swimming in the pool also. Tucker quickly jumped in and joined the fun. We swam for an hour or so and then ditched the kids with cousin Ashley (17) and the adults went out for dinner.
My sister's husband Greg was still driving down from IL, and would join us later in the night. We went to a local restaurant a few miles away and we were all happy to eat normal food in a clean restaurant after living the RV life for a handful of days. The RV gets dirty and dusty really fast, especially with the kids coming in and out. We sat down at dinner and chuckled because directly behind us was a painting of a camper.
We were assigned LIz's mom's room, which was great. It's way bigger than our master bedroom at home, and we appreciated the space. The kids slept on air mattresses on the floor. This room is tucked back into the corner of the basement, which is darker and quieter than the rest of the house. This is great for us Mountain Time guests who generally sleep later than everyone else. The two hour time swing is a lot! That night we got the kids to bed early, as everyone was tired from traveling.
Friday 7/4
I woke up and went upstairs to start making breakfast. One of my all time favorite things to do is make a big breakfast with all of the kids and adults. It's amazing how much food 18-20 people can go through. Dozens of eggs, loaves of bread, gallons of milk can be consumed in 15 minutes. I always try to be a part of making breakfast for all of the kids when we're all together. Over the next half hour, the kids and adults would all trickle in grab a plate of food and devour it before the day's activities. There is a pond in the backyard, so the bigger boys went fishing, while some of the other kids played video games in the game room.
We mainly swam and relaxed during the day. Tucker swam with Molly and we all had a blast. It was nice to just hang out after a few very busy days. We planned on taking it easy before the night's 4th of July festivities. That party started at 7. In the late afternoon, Steve and I went over to check out the parking situation at the country club where the party was going to be. The club was very fancy and southern. Lots of wood trim and white pillars. I felt concerned it would be too stuffy, but it proved to be a great group of people. This area of Atlanta is beautiful. Alpharetta/Milton area was basically a sleepy town of nothing until the late 90's. All these beautiful forests were turned into houses and golf courses. Some of the old farms are still around. The area has a lot of charm, and the houses here are gorgeous. We asked the manager on duty if they minded if we drove the RV and where we should park it. After a few moments, she politely informed us she thought it would be best we not drive the RV. I laughed and figured it would be better to take 3 cars anyway. With that many people you never know what will happen, so having three potential exit strategies made more sense.
On the way back from visiting Atlanta national, we stopped by a friend from my hometown, Woodstock's' house. Jamie Macdonald and his wife Carrie (formerly Goad) moved down to Alpharetta a few years ago. Jamie's sister Ellie was one of my closest friends growing up, and although we rarely talk, I still consider her the same. I was glad, and proud to hear Jamie's been reading the blog. Lots of people have told me that during the trip. It feels good to know people are actually reading it. I'm mainly doing it to be able to print it all into a book for my kids, but deep down, I hope it inspires some families to do an amazing trip themselves. It was great to see Jamie and his family. I'm really happy they are comfortable down here. I know how hard it is to move away from friends and family, having done it after college. I always looked up to Jamie, and enjoyed seeing how nice of a life he has created for his family down here.
I should say another thing about blog. I'm the brainstormer. Tracy probably writes half of it. Her and my sister have spent countless minutes, possibly hours, making fun of how poor my writing/grammar is. Funny because my partner Jeff pointed out how well it was written even saying "who knew" after he read the first post. I told him Tracy proofreads it all, and he said he should have figured so. It's hard to keep up when we're all together and connected to technology. I found it way easier to write when we were in Mt. Rushmore and had nothing to do at night. Throughout the day, I make an effort to take notes, to remind me of what happened that day.
We left for the 4th of July party around 630 and beat the rush. There was one road into the club, and they were checking in manually, so I figured there would be quite the traffic jam eventually trying to get 800 people into the party through one security gaurd. As soon as we arrived we took our chairs down to set up, to ensure a good view of the fireworks. We took the last row nearest the exit so we could leave as soon as they ended. There was a huge circle drive in the front where all of the kid's activities were set up. They had jumpy castles, cake walks, golf games, egg toss, and more.
The highlight for me was when my cousin Debbie ran up to me, with a burlap sack in her hand, and exclaimed, "Matt, let's go, we have to win the three legged race." Of course I immediately went with her, and we got our game faces on. Debbie is probably 50, or so and I think the world of her. She is a great older cousin. When we were in Nashville, her daughter was saying how I am her "cool" cousin, that took her to the Honky Tonk bar, and got her up on stage. I let her know her mom, and my Aunt, who was there also, were the "cool cousin," and "Cool Aunt" when I was a kid. I remember Debbie had a red Geo Tracker convertible with the license plate DEBRINN (Rinn is her Maiden name) on it. My aunt Di had a yellow Mustang. I remember getting into it and she had a Bob Marley tape in her stereo. She also had the Thriller Beta tape! For anyone reading under 25 feel free to google "cassette tape" and "beta". Back to the three legged race. Debbie weighs about 90-100 pounds. We put our two legs in the sack, I picked her up and basically carried her through the three legged race. We won, and were ecstatic!! After a buffet dinner and some great fireworks, we hustled out of there around 10 pm. The kids were exhausted and all fell asleep quickly.
Favorite part of the day:
Debbie - 3 legged race
Di - telling Alec a secret and him immediately turning to the kids next to them and telling them the secret
Davis - when he got ice cream and the jump house
Greg - taking a 2 hour nap
Matt - when Alec, who is a man of very few words, answered him with a one word answer at breakfast... after telling him for 4 minutes why he should have 4 pancakes at breakfast so he grows big and has big muscles, his response was "one".
Colleen - when Arden said Aunt Colleen was tanner than Tracy
Ashley - fireworks
Tracy - getting back to a bed, a house and a bathtub. And getting People, US Weekly and every other smutty magazine at the grocery store.
7/5
Saturday morning Tracy and I both woke up early, and she looked over at me and shushed me very quickly. She always yells at me for waking up early and waking everyone up. We broth looked over at Davis bed and didn't
see him and it looked like the bed was empty. There was a small bunch of blankets in the middle of his bed but it didn't look like enough for a kid to be laying under it. We both laid back down for 30 seconds and looked up again. He was peaking his head out from under the covers. The bed must have been slightly deflated, and he's so skinny you couldn't see him under the blankets. We both laughed and he had a big smile on his face. Davis always has a big smile on his face in the morning. It's always a great part of the day.
We didn't have much planned for Saturday. My old college roommate Todd Rittmueller, who lives in Alpharetta, planned on coming over with his family. He married a girl we knew in college, that lived on my floor freshmen year named Carolyn. They have 4 children from 1-10 years old. Todd and Carolyn are both great people, and I was really happy to hear they moved down to Atlanta 10 or so years ago. Todd and my brother talk occasionally. Todd has had great success becoming a homebuilder himself, after the company he worked for basically shut down after the housing crisis of 2008. I've had a lot of fun times with Todd. He and I took a trip to Colorado in the summer of '97 to see The Alman Brothers Band play at Red Rocks. That trip is a large reason of why I live in Colorado. A handful of us guys went and while on the trip we all talked about moving to Colorado after we graduated. Todd's parents, in a roundabout way, actually gave me the idea for this trip we're on. When he graduated college within a few months his parents sold everything back home and hopped in a 5th wheel, and traveled around the US for probably 10 yeras. They finally settled in Oklahoma over the last few years. I remember being 21 and thinking how much fun it would be to RV around the country.
After we swam for a while with the kids, Todd, Carolyn and their family had to go home because their neighbor was having a birthday party. I followed them home because I wanted to see Todd's house and the subdivision he lives in, as he built all of the houses. There were probably 20 or so houses built, and maybe 50-60 lots. The hosues were beautiful, and Todd being the builder, had his house decked out with all the upgrades. I wrote previously about how friendship is all about time and distance. Todd and I have one of those friendships. I can see him every other year, but we pick up right where we left off. He and his family are great people, and I am very thankful we were able to spend some time together.
When I got back the kids were fishing and swimming some more. We planned on watching the movie Frozen in Steve's movie room at 7 pm. The only kid that came by at 7 was Ashley our 16 year old cousin. The other kids were too busy playing. A handful of us adults watched the beginning of the movie, probably lasting an average of 10 minutes. We were all exhausted.
We finally wrestled the kids to bed around 830 or 9:00. After we got the kids to bed, my sister Colleen and I played Kings in the Corner, while my sister in law Liz set up for Sunday's festivities. My sister won the first 2 games handily. I won the next 2. She won the 5th and the best of 5 series. I heard about it for days. I'm confident she cheated.
I'm so thankful to be able to have a great family and extended family. We have spent a week in Georgia the last 5 summers, and it is the highlight of the year for the kids. It's special they have such close relationships with their cousins, even though they are all so far apart geographically.
Sunday 7/6
We all slept in Sunday. We've been running pretty hard and the rest was well deserved. Sunday was my nephew Austin's 13th birthday. It was destined to be his best yet by the end of the day.
We all ate breakfast at the house, and afterwards watched Austin open presents. All of my nieces and nephews are truly wonderful kids. Austin and Caden, my sister's kids have a great sense of gratitude for anything they have. I always tell people they are the two best behaved kids I know, and she's the best parent I know. When they were little if they did something wrong there was no counting to 3, no "if you do this again you'll get in trouble", if they thought about doing something wrong she would punish them. I don't mean turn off the Ipad or go in your room for 5-10 minutes. She would make them sit in their rooms for an hour or miss an important birthday party. She also makes the boys do all their own laundry and cook for themselves when they can. As a result the boys are super thankful for any gift they receive or anything people do for them. Austin got pretty lucky on his 13th. Having everyone there, meant he got a present from 17 people. As he opened his gifts he was smiling from ear to ear. Kind of like his brother Caden, when he was standing on 2nd base after hitting a double a few weeks ago at his baseball game. Afterwards we tried to make him go through the spanking machine, but he was too embarrassed. It got me thinking is the spanking machine a Midwestern thing? I remember being a kid and having the kids line up and having to crawl underneath them as the birthday boy got his special birthday spankings.
We planned to leave around noon to all go get lunch for Austin's birthday. Ironically as we were packing up the RV I found Arden and Annie in there watching DVD's in the bunks. It was really cute. They're the only two girl cousins and it's great to see them get along. They spent a few hours in the RV that weekend watching movies. My brother and I planned on taking the RV with all the kids in it to drive to Greensboro, GA where his lake house is. As we were leaving I came out to the RV to see Tucker sitting in the front seat wearing a pair of aviator glasses. Arden had got him all ready for our drive.
We drove to Chili's for Austin's birthday lunch in a caravan of four cars. After lunch, we sang to Austin and embarrassed him. He was smiling really big again which was cute. My sister and her family then left with my Aunt and cousins Debbie and Ashley to go to the Atlanta Braves game. My brother and I left in the RV with most of the kids. Liz and Tracy and drove behind us in the two other cars. We were on our way to the lake house, which is a less than two hour drive.
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