Dear Happy Camper
We throw around the word “happy camper” like it’s thing.
And for my husband Mark - right here right now real time – he’s a real happy camper in a real RV driving a very real 62 hour 4256 mile trek from Chicago to Berkeley to pick up our California kids + their kids + their dog and bring them back to Chicago to stay with us for a month. This is a pandemic pivot that never in a million years would have otherwise happened.
this week's playlist: HAPPY CAMPER
It all started when quarantine started. Shutdown, lockdown, stay home, stay in, lay low, lay down, roll over, play dead… As the shock of that reality set in we started to realize the impact of distance – which was never a thing before because you could always jump on a flight and visit loved ones across the country – that was life as we knew it. And we justified it, “yeah, California is far, but a 4 hour flight is the same as a 4 hour drive to Indianapolis…” aka: not a big deal. But when you eliminate flying as an option… that’s a get together deal breaker.
Panic set in as quarantine wore on and spurred a real urgency to facetime daily with my granddaughter Maggie lest she start to forget us (vivi and papa) her Chicago grandparents. Facetime is great and I’m grateful for modern day technology, but you and I know that real memories come from real visits and real bedtime stories and real make believe and real lightening bugs and real blankets on the grass, and real play-doh castles. You can’t zoom that stuff.
So my husband (papa) dropped the first hint in April. “What if you kids drove to Chicago?” Maggie is 3 and baby brother Graham (whom we’ve not met yet) is 9 weeks old, and their black lab Winnie is well, a large dog. “hahaha” was everyone’s reply, “yeah, wouldn’t that be great?!” uh, don’t think that’s going to happen. Mark wouldn’t let it go. He brought it up again subtly in conversation, “ya know, you could rent an RV…” Well guess what, you can’t, they’re completely sold out across America especially that we’re now in camping season. Andrew said it’s actually a thing – young parents with kids in CA are all renting RV’s and driving to the Midwest to stay with their parents – in fact at one point he heard that CA was banning any more RV’s from leaving the state for a period. Hearsay? Who knows. Mark didn’t care. He started dropping less hints and more hardcore asks, “What if we found you an RV, would it make the long trip more legit if you stayed longer?” Mark wishes our kids lived closer. Then bolder, “what if you stayed for a month… you’re working remotely anyway right now.. Vivi and I would babysit… we’ve got you covered… “ I told Mark it’s time to back off. He was starting to sound more crazy than creative. A four day trek with 2 parents, a 3 year old, a 9 week old, and a dog in a self-contained mobile bubble with food, toilet, shower, beds, and steering wheel all in one? A veritable over the meadow and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go … Mark needed a reality check.
Then the kids called. It was a few weeks ago. “Are you sitting down?” they asked us. Could they be pregnant again? Is someone hurt? Does someone have covid? I was a bit numb as I braced myself for bad news, my stomach felt nauseous. “We’ve decided to make the trip. We have a line on an RV. We’re coming next week. We’re staying for 5 weeks.” It was like Christmas day to me. No, like a big surprise party. No, it was 5 weeks?!? The grandkids here in Chicago?!? Fulltime?!? Living in our house?!? 3 year old fun!! A new baby!! My knees were weak and we started to plan right then and there… What a day!!!
Andrew called back an hour later. No RV’s. The one he had a line on was gone, demand is high, a no go, nada, nothing. That’s when Mark went into super overdrive not to be stopped grandpa save the day mode and got on his phone. He wouldn’t stop. Calls, on hold, online, this make, this model, this is important, this is our grandkids, this is a must, this is his MISSION. Nothin’.
And then, as many things are in life, serendipity set in. One of my other sons just moved back to Chicago from NYC. We went down to see their new apartment and plant flowers on their rooftop for them; a quarantine visit that allowed us to do something for them without being together. As we were leaving, we passed his darling landlord who was on the way in to fix something – a nice young guy whose wife and two young boys were waiting outside for him… We had a quick introduction in the hallway and out of the blue landlord Mike says, “sorry I’m late, we just got back from the craziest thing we’ve ever done…” “What?” we asked. “We just drove cross country with our kids to California to stay with my wife’s parents for a month.” I screamed. And quickly followed with, “How did you possibly find an RV rental, there are none to be had across the entire country?!?” He said, “You’re right, and so we bought one.” I screamed even louder and yelled (I think I yelled really loud and embarrassed my entire family) “We’d love to rent it!!!” And what I didn’t hear him say because I was yelling was “and we’re looking to rent it..” We had an RV !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But it’s in Chicago. The kids are California.
In a nanosecond Mark said, “I’ll go get them.”
Everyone thought he was kidding. It was like a funny joke, a macho thing to offer, a crazy idea, a sickening thought, a scary nightmare…. But he wasn’t kidding.
this is the bad boy rig - mark's bachelor pad on wheels
(below) in the driver's seat with valslist t-shirt + playlist in ears
welcoming campsite a la schitt's creek ...
He left on Monday. A solo four day trek from Chicago to Berkely. He’ll pick up the kids, the grandkids, the dog, their stuff, more food and turn around and come back. And I’m going to share his journey with you.
I usually don’t post a lot about my personal life because I figure you don’t really care about what I eat, what I wear, where I go, who I’m with – the usual social media fodder. That’s why I usually just share music stuff with you, that’s why you read me and follow me.
But honestly the valslist side of me is only half of me. The Val side of me is family and it’s the important half that makes me whole. I’m private because I have all sons who probably don’t want their mother putting stuff out there (any boy would agree) so I don’t!
But there’s this whole other half – my better half – which is my husband Mark who is also my business partner (1 of 3) – he’s my chief strategist, chief investor, chief HR dept, chief creative partner, chief tech support, chief therapist, chief roadie, my +1 in life and work. And this story is about him. He’s the happy camper right now who’s driving cross country to bring his kids back home. This trek is a dream come true for Mark. He’s talked about doing something like this for a long time. Those plans always included me but this time there wasn’t room for one more adult so he’s going it alone. Alone on the open road in a big truck is probably any guy’s dream. Not having me barking at him from the passenger seat, “SLOW DOWN! PUT YOUR BLINKER ON! PUT YOUR PHONE DOWN!” will be his biggest nirvana. My voice will be replace by books on tape (we’re both reading Sapiens) and podcasts and of course, Valslist playlists, especially ROAD TRIP and HAPPY CAMPER (out today on spotify!)
We hope you follow Mark’s RV trek with us on Instagram and Facebook. We will be posting daily updates as well as IGTV Episodes everyday at 8pm. If you don’t know how to access IGTV – it’s Instagram TV – just click on the little TV icon and you’ll find it! We’re also going to post episodes on Facebook. Please chime in and send well wishes and tips to Mark on the road!
In music,
Val