Hello and welcome from a totally different climate than last week! Mid west is beyond hot and dry during this time. In winter it’s way frozen, so I’m unsure of the allure… Not like I haven’t been through here a bunch but we did take a new route through Chicago.
Honestly not my favorite traffic was horrendous.
Mad dash’s are generally not my favorite, but we’re on a mission to get the kids’ homeschool paperwork filed.
It’s been hot and I’m fighting with Matilda’s temperature gauge. I think the water pump is going cause it depends on the outside temp and my speed and how many hills we conquer on how warm she gets. I’ve had to make a couple cool down stops.
We’ve literally been driving, pee breaking, and fuel spange stopping. It’s been like two fuel stops a day and we’re doing it Caleb’s style of pulling to the pump and actually engaging people on our need instead of just passively waiting. It is more efficient, but also way more taxing and stressful.
That’s why I made a facebook post for fuel assistance. Especially since yesterday and today are the hottest days we’ve experienced this year. We were all tired and miserably sweaty. It was super heartwarming to have such an immediate response. My mom, Birdie, and my dad all sent us some loving help.
So today the plan was to get up early and make it to this state park which failed at multiple ways. We didn’t get going as early as I wished and then the state park had no shade and none of the lakes were for swimming. We found a spicket and washed ourselves in it before I found a little swimming pond right off the highway for free! So that’s where we’re at. I’m in the shade. The kids in the water. Caleb’s gschafftlhubering trying to stay sane with projects like connecting his fridge to his phone.He’s still healing.
We left New River Gorge on the 15th. We got to meet Keith, the owner of the cabin we were allowed to stay in for the first part of Caleb’s healing. He’s a very laid back, social and respectful climber dude, who had nothing but kindness.
From there we drove to Pennsylvania. I got to meet Caleb’s second, true family. They were all very inviting and kind. They’re very colorful and close knit. I’m glad we got to hang out, though I was also kind of recovering from the exhaustion of the last few days of driving. We stayed up there for a couple nights before going down to Carlisle for the climbing gym.
From there we headed out on the 30 hour drive towards Montana. Obviously not capable of doing that in one go, but we’ve made some pretty good headway about it. Kids have been doing their homework while I’m driving, getting help on the hard parts and waiting for a driving break when I need a closer look to figure it out, though Atreyu has helped Galixy figure some things out,too!
I do want to talk about what happened in Altoona. I had a lady and her enthusiastic husband come by. I wanna be clear that he was enthusiastic and all smiles. She was not. She critically asked me questions and brought us two loaves of bread, two big jars of Peanut butter, and two huge jugs of grape jelly. I tanked her for her kindness and generosity and she retorted that she thinks I keep my children in filth. That she treats her dogs better. That my kids deserve better.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love peanut butter and jelly (not particularly grape but I wouldn’t ever do anything but graciously accept gifts of care) but with so much sneer, I wish she had kept it all to herself.
I even made a video to demonstrate the amount of peanut butter we have…
But then, I think she also decided to call the cops. They showed up and checked on the kids. Once again wasting everybody’s time for her negligence of research that’s readily available and posted all around us.
Besides, by my standards she abandons her dogs by leaving them behind the majority of their lives. Does that mean I don’t think she loves them? Or that I’m being presumptuous in that statement just because I didn’t see her carting her dogs around with her?
Well, that’s all I really wanna say about it. I had some stuff to work through about it and posted on Matilda’s facebook and started and abandoned a blog post…
I’ve been very uncommunicative lately. It’s probably because it’s not the easiest of times, but Iwant y’all to know that I truly appreciate you.
I gotta tie this up. I’m literally reporting to report.
On that note, I must reitterate that we do run mainly on your kind donations and I greatly appreciate your contributions. Every little bit helps and gets us to explore just a little more of this exciting world. I accept donations via CashApp: $MatildaBugus and paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/matildabugus
If you’d like to peek at our Amazon wishlist follow the link below. We really appreciate those special wants/wishes/deferred needs finding their way to us possibly via your help! https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3LUAOP5L0M5FY?ref_=wl_share
We now have merchandise ready for you to order! Represent and support at the same time! We love these shirts and we love you! Check it out!
https://matildabugus.bigcartel.com
CashApp: $MatildaBugus
Venmo: available upon request.
Feel more than free to Contact me. You can establish such via the Contact Me page here on the blog, OOOOOOOORRR! get on your facebooks and join the group “Spotting Bugus” or like the Matilda Bugus Page. Also availble on Instagram, Youtube, and the TikToks.
Thank you so much for being on this journey with me.
Many blessings and stay grateful!!
Matilda the Bugus 