The Events of Wednesday, March 2, 2011 

                Our morning started earlier today at seven o’clock with breakfast and our normal morning activities. A couple minutes before eight, we all piled into the van and headed to the dentist. Caitlin, Mom, and I took the first turn at 8:10; Dad and the rest of the girls had appointments at 9:10. Thanks to the hard work of our Dental Deputy (Caitlin) while we were away, our teeth were in almost pristine condition.

                Mom was picked up early by her coworker, Mrs. Wildermuth, for a business meeting. While she was away, Dad took us home, where we all prepared to pack for Europe. When Mom returned around noon, we enjoyed a lunch of leftover Chinese food. Since Caitlin, Lindsey, and Abby got a special fluoride paste on their teeth at the dentist, they are not allowed to eat hot or sticky foods for a few hours. So instead of enjoying a warm meal, they survived on cold chicken. Poor them. After lunch, we brushed our teeth in preparation for more tooth work – the orthodontist. Caitlin, Lindsey and I got our retainers adjusted and tightened; Abby just had a checkup to make sure her mouth is still normal.

                Once we got home again, more packing and preparing and cleaning and packing and preparing and cleaning filled our time. Before we knew it, it was time for dinner! The Mitzner family had invited us over for some ham and cheese casserole, brownies, and hang out time. The meal was fantastic, and it was great to see more relatives before heading away again.

                Exhausted from running up and sliding down the stairs with Timothy and Claire, we headed home and went to bed for another day of work tomorrow.

                For those who are number-inclined, I’ve crunched a few statistics from the US portion of our trip. We drove 27,082.4 miles in the RV. Averaging 7.17 mpg and $2.88 a gallon, we burned about $10,500 of gas in 246 days. With our other modes of transportation (i.e. walking, boats, buggies, public transportation, etc.), we totaled 28,544.65 miles in the US. That’s the equivalent of driving from Elk Grove to Norfolk, VA (coast to coast at our latitude) and back five times! Don’t ya LOVE numbers? They are SO fun‼ I know, I am a geek.