However 4 turned into 12 because…

You can’t pass up climbing a tree that looks like it’s from Endor.

Nor could we pass up a quick stop at the Hoh Rain Forest, a part of Olympic National Park and one of the largest temperate rainforests in North America. To tell you the truth, I didn’t even know there were any rain forests North America.

Or  a stop at Ruby Beach where we stacked rocks and had dinner.

Finally around 10 pm the real adventure began when we arrived at our campground. We try really hard to not get into places after dark because once the sun sets there seems to be holes, poles, fences, guard rails, zombies, you name it, appearing out of nowhere.

We took a turn too tight and the wheels of the trailer got stuck in a ditch that appeared out of nowhere. Thankfully there wasn’t any major damage to the trailer, just a small crack, and a dent on the bed of the truck. However, to prevent further damage we decided to call a tow truck to pull us out backwards.  It was 2 am before the trailer was out and we got to bed.

As if that wasn’t adventure enough. The next day we needed to decide if we were going to buy our season passes to go back to Breckenridge for the upcoming winter. We had mixed feelings. On one hand we really wanted to go but on the other we weren’t sure if we should spend the money.

As it turned out the decision was made for us when I decided to take a pregnancy test that afternoon “just in case” because I was a few days late.

And…

=

Two pink lines.

Guess we wouldn’t going back to Breck. I’m adventurous but snowboarding while pregnant? No thanks.

To say we were surprised would be an understatement but as the news soaked in we got excited. We weren’t the only ones excited. My dad sent me this super sweet text.

And here I am 9 months later on his due date and still waiting for this little guy to arrive!

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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The Yorktown Victory Center is hands-on. There is a museum, a Continental Army encampment and a 1780’s farm where historical interpreters describe and depict life of the soldiers and civilians of that time.

The boys, of course, liked the war camp.

The equivalent to a light bulb.

The equivalent to a smart phone.

Yeah, I prefer my maps app. I won’t even talk about what we learned in the medical tent.

Thankfully there was era appropriate wear to try on in the officer’s tent. Lord only knows how much Thing Two loves to be historically accurate.

The battle at Yorktown was the last major battle of the Revolutionary War and Yorktown National Battlefield is a place to ponder the events that sealed America’s victory.

We stopped along the 7 Mile Battlefield Tour Road to explore the earthworks.

And look at the artillery.

Heading back to the truck after one of our stops we discovered something terrible.

A tick on Thing Two.

Then as we buckled up, I saw one crawling up my thigh. You would have thought I had found a stowaway cobra.

After sweaters were shaken out and bodies checked, we headed to our last stop on the 7 Mile Battlefield Road, Surrender Field, where British troops laid down their arms. I don’t know if it was the ticks, the setting sun, or PMS but, I’ll admit, I got teary-eyed looking across the field and then annoyed when all the boys could do was talk about ticks falling from the trees like paratroopers.

Maybe I should have listened to them because on the way home we found no less than 8 more stowaway ticks looking for a free meal. I think my skin may have thickened (no pun intended) at the medical tent talk because I ordered, “flick those intruders out the window” and I focused on one thing, getting this beast of a truck safely back to our campsite where I could collapse in Brent’s arms and cry about the ticks.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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Celebrating the Fourth of July in Boston with another family on the road!

Fourth of July fun with friends!

The weather forecast the morning of the Fourth of July was sketchy with a 50% chance of rain.  Large crowds give me slight anxiety. (Luckily, I’m good at disassociation that is how I brave lines at Disney World.)  However, being in a large crowd in the rain is one xanax away from a nervous breakdown.

Still I was determined. Determined to have fun. We didn’t drive all the way from California to miss experiencing the Fourth of July in Boston. So we packed up and headed to the nearest subway station.

Things started getting fun in the parking garage at Quincy Adams. This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had fun in a parking garage.

In a parking garage with over 2000 spaces, we parked next to another fulltime rv family. I almost couldn’t believe it either.

When I noticed a sign on the back of their truck, I did what any normal person would do. In less than a minute, I found them on twitter, took a picture of my children next to their truck, and tweeted them the photo.

They actually tweeted me back and we ended up meeting them at the celebration. Crazy huh!!!

Not only that they came over for dinner two days later. Of course, I forgot to take a picture but it happened here is the proof. They were shocked to find out there were other families on the road. Welcome to the world of fulltime rving families!

Fourth of July just kept getting better.

There were interviews by NECN.

Here is the link to the video.

There was singing.

There was dancing.

And a whole lot of other fun.

Until the a policeman behind us told we might want to pack up. Huh?

There was a nearby storm and they were thinking about calling the show. We were told everyone could be evacuated into a tunnel to wait out the storm. Since we were near the exit he didn’t want us to get trampled.

Trampled.

Yes, his exact words.

Comforting.

We headed into the tunnel with thousands of others.

Luckily, I’m stubborn as hell and don’t mind ignoring authority, i.e. ,policemen on bikes who kept telling us to move down, we were near the “exit”. Amazingly, I didn’t even get anxiety despite the crazy thoughts bouncing in and out of my head.

It must have been because we were with friends. I bet we are the only families to have a group picture taken in this exact spot ever.

We were only in the tunnel about 25 minutes before we got to leave.

The show must go on rain or shine or evacuation.

And rain it did. A sudden downpour during the firework show.

And this is where the fun stopped.

After the celebration, we tromped through the puddles to the subway. As soon as I saw the mob waiting outside the station I considered walking the 45 miles back to the campground. (I also thought about kicking the park ranger who told us, “whatever you do don’t drive into Boston on the Fourth.” Apparently, she has never ridden the subway on the Fourth.)

Our friends who drove into the city, granted they parked in Boston early, got home over an hour before us. They were also spared being herded like cattle and witnessing a fight on the subway at 1 am.

At 2 a.m. we pulled into our campground exhausted but grateful. Grateful for friends, fun, and freedom.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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Except I miss you.

I miss sharing our adventures with our little circle of friends.

So here we go. Catch up time. This week. For sure.

After we left Tennessee, we headed to Alabama but not without a stop at Chickamauga National Military Park. We are in hot pursuit of the special Junior Civil War Historian Badges which requires completing 3 Jr. Ranger programs at participating parks or 2 Jr. Ranger programs plus an online activity. Chickamauga is a participating park and we were ready.

Except we weren’t.

The time change. We drove as fast as we safely could to the park thinking we had an hour to browse the visitor center. As it turned out we had about 2.5 minutes before it closed.

Awesome.

Still we drove around and read the brochures I begged the ranger to give us before he locked the door to the visitor center.

The next day was better despite waking up in a Walmart parking lot.

We rolled out of Wally World and 20 minutes later arrived Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park. It was early, leaving us with a whole day for school and exploration. Tennehill Ironworks Historical State Park is a home roadschoolers dream. It’s hands on history complete with a museum and numerous old buildings in a beautiful setting. We took off on our bikes for the Iron and Steel museum of Alabama. Afterwards we checked out the cotton gin and made our way to the old furnace. I watched as the boys explored with excitement.

Yes, these are the days I dream of.

Almost.

Feeling overly ambitious, I suggested we take another route back to our trailer.

We headed over the bridge to what looked, on the map, like a short trail back to our campsite.

All was well and lovely until I looked back and saw this…

Somehow Thing 1’s back wheel had gotten out of alignment and it was sticking on the break making it extremely difficult to peddle.

And extremely difficult to stay calm. Notice the distance between Thing 1 (in the top right corner) and his bike? I’ll let you guess how it got there.

We carried on because “according to the map” the campground must be right around the corner. Wrong.

We rode and rode.

And I had some very unhappy, hungry, thirsty, tired, little boys.

What felt like miles later, we came to the end of the trail except there was no campground in sight. Uh-oh. Thankfully, there was a maintenance man and he explained to us that we had missed the short loop and had ended up on a different trail. He also offered to take us back to our campsite.

What started off like this.

Ended up like this. Thing 2 won’t even look at me.

Sigh.

At least there were deer right out our window. That always makes for smiles.

I think Meow Cow agrees.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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So we waited because we are clueless we thought it would be cozy and (much to my amazement) it was. It was also cold, really cold, but that didn’t stop us from having little adventures.

Arrowheads and coins in a red handkerchief. So simple, so little boy, so sweet that it almost makes me cry. And stop time. Please God.

I think it’s time for these guys and us to start flying south.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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The campground was nearly empty and deer were roaming. I’m loving the off season. The campground was lovely with large sites, many overlooking Lake Eufaula, the largest lake in Oklahoma.

Unfortunately, we discovered the panel that holds in the insulation on the bottom of the trailer had come loose. We also realized that was why a guy was honking and pointing to our trailer earlier that day. When we stopped we couldn’t find whatever it was he was making such a fuss over. Now we know. Just dragging insulation. No biggie. :-/

After dinner we drove off the curb around the campground to look at the Christmas light display. The display was impressive and included a giant brontosaurus. Like I said, impressive. It was cozy in the cab of our truck with four people up front listening to bad pop renditions of classic Christmas songs on the radio.

In the morning, we went to the nature center and I drilled asked the ranger about venomous snakes. I have a habit of drilling asking anyone who might know anything about snakes everything there is to know. It’s neurotic charming.

Then it was time to hit the road and head to Arkansas. It feels like we didn’t really give Oklahoma a chance. After talking to the ranger about the geography of Oklahoma I was wishing we had more time to stay and explore the state.

The drive to Hot Springs was loooong. Brent may or may not have insisted on stopping for Starbucks at the busiest strip center in all of Arkansas.

That evening we had dinner at a small restaurant in Y City. I picked up a paper and began browsing the real estate ads.  A four bedroom house on 20 acres for 155K?  The prices of real estate are unbelievable when you are used to California prices. Do we have any California friends who want to move to Arkansas with us?

I was ready to move until…

…we stopped for a bathroom break.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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Now you know the real reason we moved into an RV…Mommy can see or hear everything.

Except that I really want my children to like me so I try, as hard as it may be, to give them some freedoms. This means I let them decide if they want ranch or hummus with their carrots and when we are in private gated campgrounds I may let them explore a little as long as they have their walkie talkie. Oh the walkie talkies, not only are they the most fun words to say ever, they are the best purchase of the year.

This morning, Brent and I were sitting at the table still in our pjs trying to plan a route that we won’t stick to (not sure why we even bother) while the boys rode their bikes. It was a cool cozy morning and Brent and I were happily huddled up in our booth dinette when we got a call from the boys on the walkie talkie.

“We’re stuck in quick sand.”

Followed by static and laugher.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

Static, scuffling, and bits and pieces of a conversation amounting to nonsense between them.

Followed by…

“We’re stuck.”

“Give it to me.”

Silence. More static. More Scuffling. Laughter?  What was going on?

“What’s going on? Are you stuck or not? Are you playing around? This is not funny.”

Thing 1 got on the walkie talkie and said, “Yes, we’re stuck in the quicksand. Come here.”

I’ve really been working on not getting upset at the drop of a dime. Some people call it “chilling out”. As Brent was rushing out the door, he reassured me that everything was fine, that there wasn’t any “quicksand”, and that they are just playing.

So I sat at the dinette and waited for a phone call that everything was just fine. Then I noticed that Brent had left his cell phone and taken our walkie talkie. What the…

“Breathe deep. Everything is just fine. Just keep planning the route that we won’t use. They will be back in a minute.”  I told myself.

But what if it is quicksand? Did you see Never Ending Story? I’m still haunted by the horse part. I better consult google. My google search for “quicksand dangerous” taught me in 20 seconds that quicksand does indeed suck people down. Not only people but cars and locomotives. It also traps people leaving them defenseless against the wild animals that maul them and holds people for the tide of the ocean to swallow up.  Somehow I missed the part that most quicksand isn’t dangerous and is only a few inches deep.  Maybe I didn’t see that part because I took off running in my Ugg boots through the campground.

When I got to the lake I found this…

..muddy buddies.

I was, at the same time, furious and over joyed.

Dirty rotten scoundrels.

So much for the new boots.

We took them home, cleaned them up, loved on them, and then reminded them they better never ever do something like that again.

Yeah…right.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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Remember what I said about planning? Well my map app and I don’t get along too well.  We had been on the road about an hour after leaving the park and I was talking to my dad when Brent says, “I need to talk to you.”

Uh oh.

Brent  – Were we supposed to turn back by the park?

Me – I don’t think so. This is our road. I think…

(Please God, let it be so.)

I look at my phone which has horrible reception and the map page won’t load.  Of course.  Finally, it loads and…we missed the road.

We. missed. the. road.

Again.

What is the navigator supposed to do??

Cry.

Sob.

Sob big giant tears and choke out, “Maps are just so hard for me. I’m a girl. My brain doesn’t work like yours.”

Yes, I admit I actually said, “I’m a girl.”

I know. (Boo. Hiss.) For the record, I don’t really believe that but I’m not above using it when it could get me out of potential trouble.

Brent, the sweet loving husband that he is, told me a few minutes later that it was okay because I was just “lost in the moment enjoying myself”. Enjoying myself I was. The vast barren landscape of west Texas is almost too beautiful for me to bear. I could stare at the horizon for hours. It’s a good thing because we had hours to go.

We pulled into Marfa, an eerily quiet town, hungry. It was already dark so we stopped at the first and only place we saw with a light on, Pizza Foundation. Unfortunately, they were out of pizza. They sent us down the empty street to Cochineal. One minute it felt like we were in a nearly deserted ghost town and then next minute it felt like we were in a trendy LA restaurant. Chochineal was full of hip folk and couldn’t seat us for 45 minutes. We headed back out into the empty streets to find Jett’s Grill at the Hotel Paisano.

The hotel is best known for housing the cast and crew from the classic movie Giant. After driving up and down the quiet streets, we finally found it and stumbled in tired and hungry from the long day of driving. Like Chochineal the patronage of the restaurant didn’t seem to match the town. There was a Woodey Allen lookalike in one corner, a hippie with skin tight purple capri pants and pilgrim shoes in another, a family whose young child disappeared halfway through dinner a few tables over, and us.

To add to the already surreal evening we pulled into Tumble In campground to this.

An empty “office” and an empty campground.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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I like this quiet little campground nestled out here in the middle of nowhere Fort Mohave. It’s not much more than a parking lot in a desert but you can see the mountains in the distance, it’s clean, and there is a little random cactus garden between the office and the parking lot.  This morning, I saw a roadrunner dart through the garden.

After a breakfast, we took the RV back to the tire shop.  As it turns out there is nothing wrong with the mechanics of the axel and suspension the tires are just delaminating. Unfortunately duck tape won’t fix this problem. The numbers are running through my head.  Once again as “luck” would have it, I had the exact amount in my paypal account from selling stuff on ebay before we left.  I guess I won’t be getting that new camera lens afterall.  Something about this trip is makes me feel like a college student scraping together money to buy a pizza.

We while we were getting the tires put on we drove over to Nevada and filmed a workout for Girl Heroes in the rain.  Shortly, after lunch we were back on the road shortly after lunch.  Not without a stop at the Goodwill in Laughlin where I found an adorable Marc Jacobs dress for $5 and a peacoat for Brent.

Back on the road.

Hours later we stopped at, Seligman, a town on Route 66.  We had heard there were cars painted like the cars in the movie Cars. (What a sentence.)  We exited the freeway and drove down the nearly deserted street to Delgadillo’s.  It was closed.  In fact, almost the entire town was closed despite it being 4:30 pm on a Saturday.  We got out and walked a bit and I had this eeery feeling come over me.  It was similiar to the feeling I got when I “met” Miss Havisham in Great Expectations.  The town seemed to be suspended in time, waiting for something that was never going to come.  Everything looked fun but frozen like a painted smile on a clown.  Bright colored signs advertising “Route 66″ were on every delapitated building.  A group of mannequins posed happily on a roof overlooking the empty street was about as much as I could take so we headed back to the car.

So much for getting our kicks on Route 66.

Love and Laugher,
Jenn

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Driving days are my favorite.  The endless black snake of pavement makes me feel like each cell of my body has a breath of it’s own.

While on the road my mind wonders.  Sometimes I wonder if I’m running from something.  I search every nook and cranny of my mind and heart looking for the thing that draws me to the open road.  If there is something, I’ve yet to find anything except the love of adventure that is around every corner or behind each mountain.

Today we didn’t get far in our exploration when we noticed at a rest stop that our two back tires on the right side of our rv were rubbing together.  A few days ago I mentioned to Brent I smelled burning rubber but he didn’t hear me and when the smell dissapated I passed it off as “the brakes”.  Have I mentioned we are newbies?

The rest stop was still a good two hours from the nearest town.  Brent contemplated fixing the tires himself but we decided for the safety of our family to take it to a shop.  Only problem was the nearest shop was a hundred miles away and the afternoon was slipping away behind the mountains.  I began making phone calls and found the closest tire shop in Fort Mojave. I told the woman we should be there by 4:30 just before the shop closed at 5 pm.

Wrong.

Arizona doesn’t observe daylight savings time. When I called her to let her know we were just around the corner she said they had closed.  Awesome.

I must have sounded pathetic desperate because she said one of the guys could take a quick look at it.  Unfortunately, it looked as if a bolt had been “sheared” and a leaf spring needed to be replaced.  They said they could take a better look at it in the morning.

As luck would have it, a campground in our RPI network was just two blocks away.  Literally.  Full hookups for $11. Living in luxury in Fort Mohave.

We set up camp and I set to “work” worrying about how much tomorrow morning’s repair was going to cost.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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