1-15 north and finding JOY

I am very much like my mother... I stress about everything... almost to the point of ruining the trip for everyone. I don't mean to I just want every thing to be great!! I want to know that I made good plans and that we will be safe...I want to know before we go... I don't think that is to much to ask.

I need to let go. We are on an adventure of a lifetime. Most people will never get to do this. I want to share with you our journey. I think that helps me focus on the good and not on all my worry.

I will keep it real. I will tell you when something does not go the way we thought it would. But mostly I want to find the Joy in this trip so that is what I will be writing about.

One of the worries I have and a question that I am sure is on of the minds that know our "situation" is how are they affording to do this?
This is the one thing that I hope to find joy in. They say you can travel and see the places you have always wanted to. There are a million and one blogs and web sites out there to tell you how to do it.... on a budget....  with a million dollars and every thing in between.

I don't have all the answers and every family is unique.  I will share with you how we are doing it and maybe that will give you inspiration to do something like this with your family or just prove that we are crazy.


We try and do local things. I also scour the  internet to find coupons on activities. Using the little community paper that was lying on a counter in the laundry mat. We found out about this great free activity happening at a library.

This guy was fantastic! His name is Duffy Husdon he is a Broadway and film actor. I had never heard of him but he did a great job. It was so fun. He told the great stories of Dr. Suess.

We also went to a car show for fathers day. Ray found out about it on a bulletin board. Oh my heck!

This was totally Awesome!! Rays favorite thing so far on the road. If you are ever in Murrieta CA on Fathers Day you should GO! It was free and soooo COOL.

I joined Goldstar http://www.goldstar.com/events/ it was free to join and it gives you discounts on events. There is a handling charge that makes it more than you were expecting, but we still saved money buying our tickets to the Renaissance Fair we went to.

They said it was a "little Fair" but it was bigger then anything that you can find in Alaska. The kids have never been to one. (Our mantra on OUR BIG ADVENTURE is "things we have never done before"). This gave me an excuse to put my geek on and go. We spent the afternoon there, Gabby really like watching the "battle" from a tree. 

To save more money we went to the grocery store before we went and I got fried chicken, some really yummy...garlic crusty bread and some big bakery cookies. I wanted the family to eat with our hands and have food "like" we could buy there, but not spend $9 on a turkey leg. It work out fabulously!

Of course we take advantage of all the fun activities at the camp grounds we are staying at...we have already paid for those.....

 my tips

1. be flexible

 2. check community papers

3. online deals

4. shop at the grocery stores

5. take advantage of what you already paid for

6. let go and try not to stress

  

14 days in an RV

I knew that it was going to be hard... well at least I thought it would not be easy. I think that at night  it is the hardest. We have such a good time during the day... just hanging out mostly. enjoying the company of each other. At night everyone seams to be a little home sick.

Last night we had a sleep over in a tent. who knew that you could have a sleepover while you are RVing. The girls and there friend slept out. It was kind of nice to not have to put down the table to make the girls bed and worry about stepping on there heads when  Ray or I need to get out of the bunk. It was funny to see them tucked into there tent with a laptop playing Flika 3 from a Red Box.... what you do not have to give up when on the road.

Like I said before we are taking it easy these last 2 weeks just hanging by the pool....Playing games.... watching movies.... Going to Sea World....

Sea World was supper fun and we had never gone before so we did not know what to expect. It did not disappoint the weather was perfect not to hot....maybe even a little cold at the end.

So far living in a shoebox has not been that bad.

And of course we spend a lot of time out doors. 

We are headed to a new camp ground today. It is only about 20 miles from where we are now and we are only going to be staying there 2 nights then we are headed to the coast for 5 days to dry-camp...EEK.

I am a little nervous about this. I know it will be fine we have done the dry-camp thing before but new things freak me out.. So we will have to see.

i-15 south

We are in Menifee CA. At a camp ground that is part of the Thousand Trails membership. If you are thinking about taking off and spending any amount of time in an RV. I would recommend you look into it.
The first few days on the road after leaving Utah were full of anxiety for me. Would the motorhome make it to our destination? Would we be able to work the google maps thing on our phones and not get lost? Would we kill each other in our sleep?
All of these question swirled in my head.

We sped through Las Vegas it was to hot and well to hot. So we set out sights on California. This was another VERY HOT drive for poor Ray and Kyle. The AC unit is not working in the cab of the motorhome and it got as hot as 110 going through the desert. The girls road with me mostly. Kaden would get in and cool off every once in a while.

One thing that I know about myself is that I hate to drive in traffic. (So why are you traveling in an RV? Good question. And one that I asked myself many times while driving.) Well I am here to tell you that there is traffic all the way from Las Vegas to Las Angeles. If you have ever driven this you know what I mean. I was scared out of my mind. Lily look over at me once and said, "are you stressed Mom because you look stressed." I am sure that I did.

I have several FB groups that are dedicated to full time RV Families. I would recommend Fulltime Families. They also have a web sight http://fulltimefamilies.com that is a great resource for families that are thinking about hitting the road.

 Anyway through this group we met a family that is staying at the same camp ground and has a daughter that is right between Gabby and Lily. They invited us to a BBQ... gulp.... totally out side my comfort zone.

 I put on my big girl pants and took my family to meet them. SUPPER GLAD we did. The girls became fast friends, and Diane is really cool. It is so nice to talk to some one that is really living full time in their RV for real. She has been a wealth of knowledge and needed friend. I don't feel so alone.

With our new friends we have spent time at the pool,  and berry picking, and they introduced us to candy bar BINGO!

We were going to hop from camp ground to camp ground every 4 days. but have decided to stay here for 2 weeks. I think mostly for my sanity. I needed to just decompress and wrap my head around what we are doing. It was such a whirl wind month before we left. Packing and studding for my boards. Which I passed by the way. I am an RN now. I have been just trying to come down off the ceiling. I think I am slowly very slowly. I even read my first novel in 2 years. Thank you Keri for The WALK. I cried and cried by the pool. It was awesome.

So that is it so far. I will check in soon.

Oh we are sending post cards to our friends through out our travels if you would like one leave your address.

Missed something important !!

So when you are busy doing... finishing school.. packing your house..studying for a major test.. You sometimes forget to document major things in your life.

Lily turned 12

That is a pretty big deal in  the life of a LDS girl.
Lots of things you get to do now.

go to young women's
go to girls camp

Stay up tell 9PM

wear makeup!!

So I wanted to take a minute and celebrate 

Lovable

Inspiring

Lovely

Young Women

Graduation!

I can't believe it is over. 

I know that this is just the beginning....

I have goals to attain....

 but this was huge!

I just want to take a minute and thank those who supported me.

THANK YOU!!!

We just kind of packed up and went..

Yuba Lake!!

This was such a fun trip. We just kind of packed up and went. It is so fun to have a motorhome. This trip really made me excited about our BIG ADVENTURE. However we have decided that we need to sell the motorhome and get another trailer to pull with the Expedition. We are all really sad about it. We have made it just perfect. But driving two vehicles is just not in the budget this trip. 

We know we will have great fun with or without.

 The trip will go on. 

Fishing,

 like I said this was kind of a thrown together trip so when we got to the campground we did not have anything planed, I had no idea what to expect. Luckily we have been storing the fishing gear under the  back bed so instant fun for the boys; even the girls did it for a while. 

GeoCaching 

I have kind of become obsessed with GeoCaching. I think this will be a fun part of our trip. 

Have you ever tried it. It is so easy now with smart phones. all you need is an app.

Playing card games 

We new it was going to rain when we pulled out of the driveway but figured it would be good practice for our trip. If we are going to be traveling in a camper or trailer for 60-90 days we are going to have rainy days. 

It was a success we all love to play games and no one got killed!

Hanging out

This is the part of our trip I am looking forward to the most. 

 Yuba Lake Oasis camp ground 

was great. 

Lots of room,  $ 20 a night for hook ups and shower rooms, It also has a boat launch if you are lucky enough to have one. 

Learning

 how to empty the Black water. I made the boys get out and help there dad. The girls laughed giggling that this was gross.  Little do they know that this is not a boys only chore and they will have to learn how to do it.

RV FOR SALE and a brain injury

Its the end of the month.. I know that I am  stating the obvious. How did  March go by so fasts? My list of things to do keeps getting longer and my time to get them done keeps getting shorter. 

In our getting ready for our BIG ADVENTURE, I am reminded of how far Ray has come from his heart failure and brain injury almost 4 years ago.

this is a pic from his hospital stay almost 4 years ago.

 He is still not the same... he never will be. And that is OK.

I was thinking about everything that he has over come and what the doctors said to me that day. 

They told me he was brain dead.

He is not brain dead.

In fact he is amazing.

This week he had defibrillator check and his favorite thing that night was that his heart is working well and it was paced 2% less than the check before.  (that's a good thing)  He told us that there is 5.5 years left on his battery.  The kids wanted to know what that meant. Lily really freaked out when we told her that Dad would have to have another defibrillator placed. 

"No Dad is all better his heart works just fine!" she kept telling us. It really broke my heart. 

I am so grateful that we get to go on this BIG ADVENTURE as a family it has been 4 years in the making. I wanted to take my family and run away after Ray's brain injury. but he needed time to recover, and I needed time to adjust to the "new" Ray. Although he is not fully"recovered" and some times I wish the "old" Ray was still around. I am so blessed that we are still a family and get to have many BIG ADVENTURES for years to come.

So like I said  we are preparing for BIG ADVENTURE and one of the things on our giant list of things to do was to figure out what we needed to tow the expedition...well to make a long story short we can not tow the expedition. We can not afford to drive both  the RV and the expedition.. What does this mean for our trip? Well it means we have a RV for sale and are in the market for a travel trailer that we can tow with the expedition.

Wish us luck.