Life: Idiotropic

Oh, of course, I have something to say here, was quite an interesting 6ish hour drive to Valencia, but it's midnight on the eve of Tiara's 14th and so instead of getting completely caught up on this blogging thing, I'm going to use this as a place holder and call it a night. Must get up early tomorrow and make French toast for my special girl. Will be caught up by this weekend's end, photos and all. :)

Ok... so here's the deal. I have wonderful children who are finally at the age of the road trip where one can drive 6-7 hours with out whining, fighting, or the well known "are we there yet?"

It's amazing. Just a couple years ago we did a 6 hour drive to Normandy that is renown amongst us three elder as the end to all road trips. The "never again will I do a drive of this length with all these kids" kind of road trip when at least two of them were still in their screaming phase.

A couple months ago I did a long drive to Berlin and the kids were near perfect. So I shouldn't have been surprised on this one, but pleasantly, still am. Each little had her Reisenthal bag of goodies including her sunglasses and ipod shuffle. Each vehicle had another bin full of art supplies, paper, books, learning stuff, and little dolls.

And not one of our three long driving days did they whine, least of all this one - the 6 hours from Beziers, France to Valencia, Spain.

So, the drive was fairly uneventful. The south of France for us looked quite a bit like Spain, so there wasn't any dramatic shift in scenery. We enjoyed each time the Med came into view. I particularly enjoyed the way our drive took us completely to the side of Barcelona and completely out of any significant traffic. Tolls were expensive and embarrassing - one credit card line didn't accept any of my card, so I felt the honking wrath of the French behind me in line until I could get help, pay, then wait for my change during more symphonic honking. The next time it didn't work, I offered cash saying "keep the change." And finally learned to go in the "manual" lane where an attendant took the money. We paid over 50 Euros in tolls. Tiara took hundreds (literally) of photos of clouds and highways signs marking the shrinking distance between ourselves and Valencia.

We stopped once for gas. This was interesting because of the bins by each pump full of disposable gloves. "Use guantes." Some patrons even brought their own gloves and aside from Kirk and I, everyone who pumped gas had gloves on. Is this a rule? I'm not sure. I don't usually have a problem with gas smell on my hands, so I'm not sure why gloves would be important here.

There was absolutely no place to park for food, so though I grabbed some brioche that Luci loved, some paprika chips for Arianna, and some wafer cookies at the gas station, we weren't able to stop there for food. The kids still didn't whine. Thirty minutes later we pulled into another rest stop, this one a large one with the building acting as a bridge that went from one side of the highway to the other allowing a you to connect to amenities on either side.

As Kirk put it, this was a "sea of humanity." We parked nearest the entrance by the grassy area and some picnic benches, so we had to pass through 5 long shaded parking rows to get to the complex that housed a grocery store, restaurant, and bathrooms.

Cars parked sticking out of the lane facing each other allowing space for people to spread out blankets, towels, and rolled up clothing between them in the shade where many people slept sprawled out. People of all nationalities from everywhere. A lot of Dutch sleeping. A lot of large families with kids picnicking, playing, and sleeping in the shade of the bushes at the edge of the place.

We picnicked too. Sat out in the heat and allowed Misha to have some water. I don't remember what time we began to pull away, but as we waited for Tiara and Arianna I saw a man get out his prayer rug, place it beside his van in the shade, and begin his prayers. His wife was out of sight and his children played right next to him.













The rest of the drive went quickly and finding our temporary house wasn't hard. We're staying in a small gated complex of private bungalows on palm filled gardens, a gym, and two pools. There's a trampoline next to our place - a nice one, sunken in to the ground so that its jumping surface if flush with the grass. The little girls jumped until exhausted, Kirk and I played ping pong, and we finished our night on the bit of fruit and crackers in the welcome pack because I just couldn't bring myself to get back into the car and didn't want to try to call for delivery - not ready to speak Spanish yet.