Note: Bilbo is a cookbook author who has lived in the suburbs of Hartford for his whole life; and Thorin was an Air Force recruiter who met him in a bookstore in the city. They fell in love, married, became Frodo's guardians when he was less than a year old, and Thorin has since retired from the military.

As for the rest: Frodo is currently four years old, Gimli is eleven, Kíli is fourteen, and Fíli is seventeen (and all of their ages correspond to the ages of my own children, who have done most of the things that the boys do in the story!) - and that is all you need to know to start out with!

For any other information, please visit me on Tumblr, under the "Fleetwood" tag on the URL "kindly-whisper-tolkien". There will also occasionally be photos posted there that go along with certain chapters of this story!

We are currently living in the trailer in a campground in the middle of nowhere, so until we get to a campsite with stable internet, updates will be sporadic! Sorry!

May 30

At last, Thorin and I have done what we have been talking about since before he retired!

Frodo is four years old now (almost five!), and he is growing so fast! Too fast, it seems. And because of that, we thought that we might find some way to spend some real family time together before he starts school next year; so, we have bought a travel trailer! We haven't bought a new trailer, of course. They are far too expensive for our purposes; and really, the older trailers have so much more character than the newer ones. We actually bought an older Fleetwood. A 1995 Fleetwood Mallard, to be exact! It is thirty-five feet long, I think. And it cost us only $3200!

There is plenty of room for all of us, too! There's a cute little bedroom for Thorin and me up in the front (with enough space for a queen-size mattress, even - though there's only about a foot between the bed and the wall on either side!). And in the back of the trailer, there's a room with two bunks (though Frodo will only be sleeping on the lower one)! Well, actually there are three bunks back there, if need-be; but one of them is really rather small, and it folds up into storage space, and it is pretty high off the floor, so I don't think we'll be using that one at all.

There is a bit of a separation between his room and ours, as well. There's the door to our bedroom that leads into the living-room/kitchen, then there's the bathroom (which has a door on both sides) then, at last, there is Frodo's room. And though when all the doors are open we can see to ether end of the trailer, at certain times the doors will most certainly not be open! Because, well, Thorin and I will be needing our privacy, won't we?

Oh, and about the bathroom situation: there's only one, and in it there is only a small shower and no tub! But I think we'll be able to make do. It does have a strange toilet though. No one-flushing handle! You have to pull one lever to fill it up with water, then another to empty it. It will take some getting used to, but I'm sure it won't be long before it is second nature, even for Frodo.

The trailer is a little untidy at the moment, as it doesn't seem to have been given much love in several years - but it won't be long before we have it nicely set up. Overall, anyway, it is in great condition, and there's very little rust and no leaks. Well, there was one leak in the bedroom closet, but that is all sealed up now. Surprisingly, even the awning looks good! Most of the other older trailers we looked at had rather ragged awnings, but this one seems almost new. We were really lucky, I think, to get such a deal!

We've already registered and insured it, and we are in the process of planning out our route (which will take us down the coast, from Connecticut to Florida, then back again). And some of the best news is that our Chevy can pull it, no problem! That was really rather a worry for us, of course! Not much sense in getting a trailer if you can't tow it! But when Thorin went up to Ware to pick it up, he said there were no troubles. It rolled well, nothing fell off, and everything seemed in wonderful working order.

So, there we have it! Soon, we will have the trailer cleaned up and stocked with food and ready to go. Oh, this is going to be so wonderful! It will be great for us, I think, to spend so much time together! And Frodo will get to see so many new places! Already, he has been going on and on about having an "adventure"!