"Pour Some Suga' on Me" or as Eric put it, "The Vacation by which all other Vacations will be measured against."

Now that I have been home from our RV Road trip for over a week, I decided it was finally time to post about it. For those who don't know, we loaded up our four kids and Eric's brother- Steve, into a RV and traveled for a total of 7 days to go watch the Utah Utes play in the Sugar bowl in New Orleans. You may be wondering why a decorated BYU alumni like myself would go to such lengths for her alumni's arch enemy. Let's just say it is a testament to how much I love my husband. Also if you are looking for this to be a breakdown of the actual Sugar Bowl, you have come to the wrong blog. The recollection of the events from our road trip will be brought to you Kari- style. So I present to you:
Lessons Learned from 7 days in an RV and 2 days in New Orleans

or
7 days in an RV does not make the Utes 'weak'.

(Me on the other hand - it makes a bit tired.)

1. Do not use generic brand diapers when traveling all day in an RV. Between only stopping when absolutely necessary and basically giving suzie an IV of juice to keep her content in her carseat, they just can't handle the job. We found Huggies worked much better.



2. It isn't called "Old Maid" when you play it with Jazz Player face cards. Annie and Katie were trying to find an Old Maid in some Jazz cards we had. Finally Annie said, "I guess we will have to play 'Old Man' cause there are no ladies in this deck."


3. You don't have to pay sales tax on Reservations. I did not know this.

4. In the flatlands of New Mexico and Texas there are 3 prevalent, well-advertised pastimes. I will leave it to your imagination to guess what those might be.


5. There are surprisingly a lot of nice RV parks all across the country.

6. I could never be flight attendant and if you give your 2 year old a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to eat while barreling down the highway at 70 mph in a RV, she will most likely end up looking like this:
7.Suzie is the life of the Canton, TX RV park children's New Year's Eve party.



8. It is pronounced "Suga' Bowal" not "Sugar Bowl."


9. People might look at you a little hesitantly when you walk through the French Quarter at night with a stroller- especially while passing Bourbon Street.


10. We don't talk to people who wear hats. The first night we were in New Orleans we were leaving the French Quarter and witnessed two "sketchy" hat-wearing people arguing in a parking lot. Annie made some movement toward them and Uncle Steve pulled her away saying, "Annie, we don't talk to people like that." Annie couldn't figure out what "like that" meant so she came up with- "We don't talk to people who wear hats?!?" Here are some pictures of us in the French Quarter during less controversial hours.




11. Whether a boy is raised in the south or is just there for an afternoon- playing in the heat and humidity will always do this to him. (My siblings will recognize this face. We all got it a lot growing up in Georgia.)


12. Alabama fans are very gracious (define as-indulgent or beneficent in a pleasantly condescending way, esp. to inferiors) in their pregame cockiness and they are very gracious (define as-pleasantly kind, benevolent and courteous) in their post-game tail between their legginess.

13. Tom Kirkland will pick up a Utes pom-pom that your daughter drops over the edge of the seats- if you ask him.


14. There is nothing more endearing or fun than to watch someone you love get all crazy and excited about something they are passionate about.