I mentioned that we had an incident back in Niagara and I finally wanted to share a little about it....
We have been running about 2 weeks behind with posts for the last month and a half. I am just now getting to the point where I feel like we don't need to be so far behind. We will still post after we leave a place of course, and if you are one of the lucky few, you'll know where we are when we get there or on our way there.
In Niagara, it started out that we were having fun, taking pictures, admiring the falls and seeing the rainbows that the mist produced. We had parked at Goat Island and started walking at that end and we were going to walk all the way to the Canadian side. Our first view of the falls was breathtaking! We carried Jackson up and down the stairs in his stroller as the kids walked in front of us. As we were walking from one part of the falls to the other, Kevin noticed a strange man following us. Usually, it doesn't bother us, we always have some sort of protection on us, but since we were going to Canada, we didn't have anything. I made sure Kyle left his knife in the car too because he almost got in trouble carrying it one time in Disney because he forgot about it, LOL.
As we walked down to the lower level the man followed us. Now, I'm not having a good time! He walked by us very slowly. We put the girls between us and the railing and I had Jackson strapped in the stroller. So, now we saw that part of the falls, what now? Do we go back up the way we came is there another way around? So, I walked over to the edge and snapped a picture really fast and went back to everyone. The guy was pretending to look at the falls, but kept glancing over at us. He didn't have a phone, or camera, so it was very weird. He was standing by the steps, almost waiting. I moved my purse around. I had all of our passports in there and that would be the easiest way for someone to take the girls and leave. We had Kyle walk behind us and we kind of backtracked behind a bush. I could see the man and he looked up, right to where we had been standing and then looked around really fast almost like he was trying to see where we went. I was shaking, and very upset at this point. We let him walk up the stairs and went around the handicapped entrance since we had the stroller anyways.
We never saw him again that day, but they don't usually work alone. Thinking back on it, I wish I would have gotten his picture, but I didn't. We even went back through videos and stuff, but when you are taking pictures, you don't want people in your photos.
About half an hour later, we sat down to have a snack before going over to the Canadian side. There was another man that was going to sit down beside Kevin and then changed his mind and went to sit next to Kyle. Ok, that was strange, but he kept glancing at us too. I took my sunglasses off and looked at him, he quickly looked away and was texting someone on his phone. I decided now that I would get his picture. So I stood up, and said ok, everyone look at me and I took a picture with all of the kids and Kevin and this guy that was sitting by Kyle. He noticed I took his picture. I threw away our snack trash and we went on our way, and never saw that guy again either.
Now, each time we stopped for pictures, I was looking around nervously. I had the jogging stroller that we were using and it has a strap on it that you are supposed to strap to your hand for safety of the baby when you are jogging. I attached that strap to Hope and tightened it up. She was now attached to the stroller for the rest of the day! Kevin has Faith's hand and we were all on watch. Once in Canada, I felt much better, but we were still on alert!
We were going to bed that evening and I got to thinking that the guy walked by us very slow, what if he threw one of the tracking devices in the stroller or something. Did we clean out the stroller? How do they actually work? So, Kevin went outside in the dark to look through the stroller, it was only 11pm, LOL. I got online and downloaded a tracker finder for our android phone. Well, it found a tracker, so we thought! Turns out that app was not a good app and they wanted you to pay to tell you where the tracker was. Then I remembered, we have an iPhone, we just don't use it. So I plugged it in and turned it on. We found where you can search for the trackers, so we checked and nothing! Ok, we can go to sleep. Well, I didn't really, I was up a lot that night.
After we left the Buffalo area, I was still very nervous. We did still advertise our blog, Facebook and Instagram pages on the truck and RV. I mean after all, we follow all of these full time people who make a living advertising on their truck and RV and posting where they are. Two nights later I told Kevin that I wanted all of the Mapshocked decals off the truck and RV. I just couldn't do it anymore. We aren't making a living by traveling full-time and advertising for us or anyone else. The kids' safety is our priority.
Going forward, we will still post where we have been, but not where we are going specifically. The most important thing is that I will not be two weeks behind! So, all of the posts that you are seeing daily right now, is us just playing catch-up. It is just too hard to be that far behind and still live in the moment that we are in now! I want to write and remember today when it happens, enjoy it and post it.
