Nelson Doctors, a Gift, and Serendipity
When we headed to New Zealand, all of the kids had colds. They were all starting to feel better, though, so when we packed our medicines for the kids, we brought enough for about 3 weeks in the event that they got sick again. Of course, our kids have been sick literally the entire trip, so we ran out of medicine as of this morning. We headed into the city of Nelson, which is big enough to have a number of doctor's offices, but they're all downtown and the whole city isn't really laid out in a way that makes driving an RV fun.
We ran into tree branches, forced people to move into parking spaces, and circled around for 20 minutes before finally finding a spot and walking a quarter mile to the doctor's office. We paid cash and kept the receipt, and an hour later we had enough medicine to last the trip. We piled back in the RV and headed to a huge local park complete with climbing equipment and a Morgan-sized swing set.
I had previously been searching for a gift for Eli that would be reminiscent of a trip 7 years ago where I took Eli to Ireland and proposed. October seems to be the time we like to travel, so when the anniversary of my proposal came, I had bought her a bracelet set with opals and silver that I hoped would be strong enough to handle children and acrobatics. Time will tell.
We played on the playground for a long time and eventually grabbed dinner in Nelson at a little bar just outside of town. We ate fancy fish and chips and wore paper hats, but everyone was super tired and ready for bed. We drove to the campsite that we had planned for only to find a rope blocking the way and a sign saying closed. We parked in front of the rope and started frantically searching our phones for other places to stay.
About 10 minutes later, with no good options presenting themselves, a man comes up and knocks on our window and asks if we're hoping to stay the night. We tell him, "Yes," and he tells us we're about two months too early. He laughs and says that it's no big deal and we can just come and stay the night. We tell him we're super thankful and get a whole campground to ourselves. The night is quiet and the stars are out, but by the time it's dark enough to see them, the kids are already asleep and it's pretty cold outside.
We ran into tree branches, forced people to move into parking spaces, and circled around for 20 minutes before finally finding a spot and walking a quarter mile to the doctor's office. We paid cash and kept the receipt, and an hour later we had enough medicine to last the trip. We piled back in the RV and headed to a huge local park complete with climbing equipment and a Morgan-sized swing set.
I had previously been searching for a gift for Eli that would be reminiscent of a trip 7 years ago where I took Eli to Ireland and proposed. October seems to be the time we like to travel, so when the anniversary of my proposal came, I had bought her a bracelet set with opals and silver that I hoped would be strong enough to handle children and acrobatics. Time will tell.
We played on the playground for a long time and eventually grabbed dinner in Nelson at a little bar just outside of town. We ate fancy fish and chips and wore paper hats, but everyone was super tired and ready for bed. We drove to the campsite that we had planned for only to find a rope blocking the way and a sign saying closed. We parked in front of the rope and started frantically searching our phones for other places to stay.
About 10 minutes later, with no good options presenting themselves, a man comes up and knocks on our window and asks if we're hoping to stay the night. We tell him, "Yes," and he tells us we're about two months too early. He laughs and says that it's no big deal and we can just come and stay the night. We tell him we're super thankful and get a whole campground to ourselves. The night is quiet and the stars are out, but by the time it's dark enough to see them, the kids are already asleep and it's pretty cold outside.