We had to go radio silent for a couple days.
Our family is watching us closely. (It's appropriate!)
But after covering 700+ miles in one day while also stopping at a museum we knew we could make it happen so we stayed quiet.
This has been quite a ride. We were only planning on being gone from Michigan for 3-4 days. Fly out to California on Friday, get the motorhome on Saturday, visit Yosemite and then be in Muchigan on Tuesday.
Yeah, that didn't happen.
First, inspection of the motorhome took a lot longer than expected. So Yosemite came on Sunday.
Second, this is our first time driving any RV, and we had no idea that it cannot keep up with Google Maps' expected speed.
Third, there's too much to do and to see in this world. We prefer slow travel over drive 20 hours a day.
And finally, once I cancled some of my appointments from last week we realized there was less of a rush in getting to Michigan.
Putting all that together with the fact that Becky's parents and brother were driving to Atlanta to visit her sister and their family, we just had to visit.
As it worked out we arrived Friday evening after driving some 850+ miles from Chactaw Oklahoma (just outside Oklahoma City). The Jusinos however weren't home. But we didn't know this. So we found a parking spot on their culdesac (not easy) and quietly snuck up to their house at 9 pm, fully expecting the kids to be asleep and the parents to be in the living room.
The lights were off. There was no minivan in the driveway. But surely their home, it's after dark on a Friday night, they have little kids.
After all that planning, and they weren't home.
We had to find a place to boondock for the night without them seeing us.
We'd surprise them in the morning.
So we camped out near the local grocery store. Wondering where they could be and if they'd be home on Saturday. They had three guests coming for a week and they're scheduled to arrive on Sunday.
Radio Silent
We not only needed to stop blogging and facebooking, but we had to stop answering the phone on Friday. Becky's sister called once and her Dad called once on Friday and once on Saturday. He's a former truck driver. One of his first questions will be where are you. And we cannot lie. Telling him on Friday that we were in Arkansas would have blown the whole plan.
(He knows that heading to Michigan from California via Oklahoma City would never take us to Arkansas.)
So Friday night, putting a sad crew to bed in the motorhome we were tempted to text Becky's sister to say where are you?
But that would have let the cat out of the bag. She would have asked where we are and saying boondocking at a Kroger would have tipped her off.
Turns out the Jusinos were at their church for a church wide game night. They didn't leave church till 11:30 pm.
Some alibi that was ;)
The First Sut-tize
Zander is almost 3 years old but sometimes things don't click. And then suddenly they do click.
Friday morning explaining that we're going to go surprise the cousins he was just like 'okay.' But later in the day when he realized we're going to see cousin Tabitha he got so excited all he could do was shout surprise. However due to his younger tie it comes out as sut-tize!
We latched on to that and our mission was to sut tize the cousins. And Zander was excited!
So Saturday morning we parked our 37 foot motorhome as quickly and quietly as possible (facing the wrong direction on the road because that was the available parking spot.) We ran to their house and didn't make it to the porch steps.
Becky's sister had spotted us, shouted "No Way!" And came running out the door. The rest of the family (some had still been in bed, remember it was a late night for them) came out groggy and excited.
For her part Christy kept repeating "No Way!"
There was much laughter and the celebration had begun.
Saturday was spent hanging out. Letting the 10 cousins play (it's been a year since we saw them, right before we left for the Philippines) and getting little jobs done in preparation for the rest of the family to arrive on Sunday.
The Second Sut-tize
Becky and Christy's parents and brother were scheduled to arrive around 2pm on Sunday. So we all went to the Jusino's church and then headed for their house.
Due to the travel time and church went longer we were all going to converge upon the Jusino's house at the same time.
We didn't want to steal the thunder from greeting grandma/grandpa and uncle Mike. So we parked the motorhome in a nearby neighborhood and hung out for 10-15 minutes while greetings were being had.
Operation Sut-tize part two then commenced.
Becky and her sister were texting back and forth sharing intel as to the locations of the targets... Er I mean the Edighoffers.
We once again we pulled the motorhome in to the culdesac parked quick and ran up to the house. (Some of the kids were crouching)
But this time we snuck in through the back door, stepped into the house and shouted "Suprise!" (One of us yelled sut-tize!)
Becky's dad (not unlike Christy on the day before) shouted "I knew it!" And kept pointing. "I knew it".
I guess when we don't answer our phone there's something going on. :)
This is the first time in two years that we've all been in the same spot.
We could only stay for a couple hours and now we're off to Michigan.
It was a well worth it detour. But now I've got meetings to get to.
Sometimes even when you're location independent meetings get in the way of fun ;)
So this is why we've been quiet. It was worth it as they all were sut-tized!
