August 17
We left Florida this morning and are heading back north now ("On The Road Again", as the boys won't stop singing!). It's been going okay so far, as the road is pretty straight – and also, we gave Fíli some ginger ale and Dramamine, so he hasn't had much of an upset stomach (though he is a bit drowsy).
The only real problem so far is that another tire on the trailer went flat. In Georgia. Again. But at least this time it didn't explode. So, while Thorin and the older boys went to go find a place to get a new tire, I and the younger kids were stuck in the powerless trailer at a rest stop, surrounded by huge trucks! It was fairly noisy, but it didn't bother us much.
The freezer was in the trailer, of course (hopefully still keeping the food inside cold!), so I mixed up a bunch of cornstarch and bottled water, and let the kids make a mess of it on the freezer top. I've long given up on keeping the trailer "sparkling" clean, anyway! And while the kids were playing, I made pickles to fight off my own boredom.
The cat and dog were fussing in the back room, clearly unhappy with being stuck there; but they, at least, were cool enough! We opened the ceiling vents and cracked the windows open back there (not enough for the cat to slip out, though), and set up a couple battery-powered fans to circulate their air, and made sure they had plenty of water. So, they were cooler than we were in the front of the trailer, but still I am sure they were going stir-crazy.
But anyway, Thorin and Fíli and Kíli eventually got back with the new tire. And this time, Thorin also picked up a new, stronger jack so they could easier get the tire on. So soon we were on our way, back to singing songs and looking forward to our stopover in Virginia! We should be there soon, I hope!