Making our way, the only way we know how

Mesa Verde National Park was all that we had hoped and more. We stayed at an RV park just over the highway from the park, Ancient Cedars RV park and it was honestly one of the most amazing places we've stayed in this rig. We had full hook-ups with access to the pool and the miniature golf course. It was close to town and we were able to access Cortez, CO for groceries, restaurants and so on.

The park itself was amazing - cliff dwellings accessed by steep trails and, in the case of our tour a 30' ladder and two 10' ladders. Our guide was a first national, with ties to the local area and an in depth understanding, as much as is able, of the hows and whys of the people who lived in these scarily inaccessible places,  The kids enjoyed the experience and faced some of the fears of heights and tight areas while dealing with a little bit of altitude sickness.

Happy fourth of July!

Mesa Verde, before the tour

 Kind of a narrow tunnel to clear

 

The 30' ladder from the bottom

A view of the 30' ladder from the top

 The little ladder - 10'

The cliff dwellings across the canyon

The jungle gym that is daddy

Following Mesa Verde, we headed east and landed Colorado Springs at the Air Force Academy Fam-Camp, where we took the opportunity to get groceries and relax a little after driving the narrow roads that cross southern CO.

Next, we hit Salina, KS for the night, resting in a hotel and taking time to eat out at Buffalo Wild Wings. Our first hotel of the trip, and a much needed break for the kids to take baths rather than showers for the first time in three weeks and just something different. I slept so well, other than the too soft bed, and it was nice to be on solid ground for a night.

But the show must go on, so we hit the road again, and headed for Mark Twain's boyhood home in the town of Hannibal, MO.  We arrived at the RV park and I stepped out to go unhook the car and get ready to set up. Anyone who has followed our blog from the beginning can foresee what happens next. In case you hadn't heard, there is a recall on the steps to the RV due to a bolt sheering off and the steps becoming unstable. Yooooouuuu guessed it! I took a header out the door, busting the door spring that keeps the door open/closed correctly, tearing up my forearm, wrist, knee, ankle, big toe and achilles. Go big or go home, I say, and when I take out a staircase, I do it with pizzazz! I'm just glad it was me and not one of the kids, as it is quite possible that one of them could have gotten truly hurt.

A temporary work around until we can get the steps fixed

We stayed at the Mark Twain Caves, and toured the museum, Twain's boyhood home, Becky Thatcher's house and where the Justice of the Peace (Twain's father) had served. We also took a quick steamboat tour on the mighty Mississippi. This afternoon,we're heading into Mark Twain's Cave, so see what the fuss was all about (and cool off, it is naturally air conditioned at about 52* year round and we are out of sorts from the heat and humidity of Missouri in the summer, after being spoiled in CA for so long!

In the Mark Twain museum, captains of the river boat

Viewing the sights Twain saw on his tour of the world

Just before our riverboat tour

Life on the road, 2016 edition

Well, we hit the road again yesterday, spending night #1 at the south end of Las Vegas at the Oasis RV Resort. It was a nice enough park, if slightly overpriced, but the best part for us was proximity to Silverton Casino, which contains the Bass Pro Shop and the free mermaid show, both of which we invaded and enjoyed immensely. The RV Park itself had a pretty nice pool for the kids and two pools that were only for adults. The family pool was fun, but it seemed odd to me that they'd have three pools and that assignment of use, but maybe that is just because the family pool was super crowded and the adults only pools were nearly empty, Maybe it was just an odd weekend for that.

Crazy monkeys prepared to travel

Reading Gone with the Wind, how appropriate!

Welcome to Nevada, hasta luego, California!

Before leaving California, we had a rock truck cut us off in an effort to make an exit, and just to make it more exciting, he threw up a stone that chipped our windshield. Now, I'm no expert, but RV windshields are not inexpensive, and this chip seems too large and too deep to be repaired, so we've got that to look forward to when we get somewhere that we can take the time to see about fixing it.

Oops!

For now, we continue on, stopping for the night in Page, AZ, which was a questionable decision, but there aren't many other towns nearby, and we are on a mission both to cross the country and to see some things. We were actually able to get a reservation at near a National Park on a holiday weekend, so we'll be checking out a park we haven't seen before for the next two days, celebrating B's 6th birthday and the birthday of this nation before heading on toward our East Coast destination.

We've cranked out nearly 600 of our 3000 miles in just two days and deserve a few days R&R to enjoy the beauty of both Missy Sassy Pants and the United States. WiFi has been hard to come by, so I will post as I am able.

Weird roads, wind back and forth from AZ to UT and back

Utah is one of the prettiest states, in my opinion, just not that part

Below the dam at Lake Powell

That makes this the dam, right?

Everything old is new again

Taking a break from attempting to sell the RV, and traveling in it for the next few months, while we move from coast to coast. We thought we'd be in California for the rest of our time with the military, but as always, things change. Instead, we are moving to the East Coast, where we will be close to a larger part of our family, and it will be easier to transition to civilian life.

And so, I leave the new job that I started here in February, and am in the process of interviewing for new positions back east. We're hoping to buy a house and settle in as thing 1 starts middle school and the others make new friends and get to know their way around a new school.

In the meantime, we begin another adventure, leaving next week to see new things and enjoy more of this great nation. The kids are getting excited and it is becoming increasingly difficult to go to work each day, but I have only a few more days. three and a half, to be exact. I can do anything for three days, right?

In any case, I hope you choose to follow us on the next stage of our journey...

And so we come full circle

Today we listed the RV on Craigslist and Facebook. The last year has been amazing and the things we have seen and done, well, this blog has really only touched the surface of our experiences. It was funny, we took one of those Facebook poll things about national monuments and parks and things and the kids and I scored 100%, and had seen most of the ones listed, and have become intimately familiar with some and it made me feel peaceful with what we have done in this year.

For the most part, I never really believed we'd be able to keep the RV after our year of travel was up, although I would have loved it. In a fantasy world where bills aren't real and money is irrelevant to life and we have unlimited funds, I would love to keep the Bratmobile, and use it over the coming years, for things like summer vacation across country to NH and back each year, but again, the reality is, it adds time that we won't have and cost that we don't have and we really cannot justify keeping it even for once a year.

We won't be in a hurry to sell, and frankly we will ask for nearly what we owe on it and hope that someone comes close. It was a hard decision, mostly because it was a part of the family while hubby was gone and when we do finally get rid of it, I'll likely cry a little (and not from relief, I swear).  But since our family has been reunited, and I have begun seeking gainful employment, I have come to realize that we won't be able to use the RV, and paying to have it rot in a lot and never have time to travel or camp or anything would be more hurtful than getting rid of it.

So, on the market it goes, and if anyone wants to pimp our sale, feel free to share our link.  This whole thing has been a heck of a ride, and I still owe you a closing post, other than this one, but that will have to happen at another time.  Always remember the best of the ride...

Amazing views

Since our trip began, we have had an amazing opportunity to see the country, and this most recent leg of our journey has been some of the most beautiful of all that we have seen. While Thor worked on the RV, we visited the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and Warren Dunes State Park in Michigan, where the kids attempted to sand-sled as we did in White Sands. The sands are Warren Dune were less conducive to sledding, as it is thicker and not as soft, but they certainly made a valiant effort before abandoning the sleds for swimwear and a float in Lake Michigan.

Before leaving Elkhart, I felt like we needed to check out the area and the Visitor's bureau (which happened to be just across from our hotel) had a great CD tour of the Amish towns and businesses in the area and we took a great drive around checking it out. We bought some cheese, and a few little toys and the kids actually enjoyed the journey much more than I expected them to.

Once we returned to the RV, several days later than expected, we ventured only as far north as Great Lakes, IL. First off, my directions were horrid and I turned in to the wrong gate, the one for boot camp, where I proceeded to get stuck, kind of at rush hour as everyone was leaving their offices for the day. Then, once freed, I made it to the RV park, only to find that it was electric only, and we had to get water down at the marina and the sewer dump was also near the marina. It wasn't a huge deal, but I had looked forward to just settling in for a few days, and that wasn't in the cards. We did take the opportunity while at the marina to fill up our propane tank, which we had run since we left Nellis AFB in Nevada (the first time) without refilling. Not bad!

After Great Lakes, we wandered up into Wisconsin, then down into Iowa for a night, and then into Minnesota. The RV seems to be running smoothly and we sailed smoothly out to Ellsworth AFB so that we could explore the long awaited Black Hills and Mount Rushmore. We, of course, stopped along the way at Wall, SD for the infamous Wall Drug. After 104 signs directing us there, I think C's head would have exploded if we didn't stop.

Ellsworth AFB was a nice little base, with a small commissary and exchange that allowed us to restock things that we hadn't had a chance to fill up while the RV was in the shop. We mostly used it as a base to visit Mount Rushmore, Wind Caves, Jewel Caves and Devil's Tower. The kids did Junior Ranger badges for each of these and we had a nice time touring the caves and hiking around the attractions. We ended up spending an extra night on base due to a day of extremely high winds and advisories not to drive high profile vehicles. I think it was a good call, since the area we stayed in next was fairly open and provided little in the way of wind breaks.

We headed to the Badlands, after consulting our map, and decided to go with the primitive camp to the west, because a) it was free and b) promises of buffalo wandering through camp. What the map didn't say, or perhaps I misunderstood, was that the unpaved road was so bumpy that we had to take the 12 mile trek at about 10 miles an hour! Needless to say, we unhooked the car and drove that around until it was time to leave. We only stayed one night, but the kids were so excited when the rangers told them that not only is going off trail allowed, it is encouraged! We went on several small hikes off trail and the views of the Badlands were just amazing. I would absolutely go back at least a dozen times, and our trip to the Badlands was, sadly, too short.

We left the Badlands and traveled south, though the lower portion of South Dakota and past the Wounded Knee memorial. I tried to convey to the kids the hubris of early American settlers and the way our nation treated the First Nation people (or Native Americans, or Indians), but it was hard to explain between the glorified account of Wounded Knee on the memorial signs and the Lakota people who are at the venue trying to sell things. I literally had zero cash with me or I might have purchased something, but it was very sad to hear their lamentations about the 89% unemployment rate in the area, and I was again saddened that I was unable to help at all.

We wandered down through farm country in the hills and valleys of southern South Dakota and northern Nebraska, which was a fairly brutal day of driving for me. Ended up at a small roadside RV park in Ogallala, where we had a chance to refresh and regroup. Yesterday we drove east, destination fairly unknown, and ended up driving over 400 miles. We will not be doing that again, particularly when my GPS cannot keep up with us, and left us 3 miles away from some pretty necessary turns, that would have kept us on a paved road, but instead had us wander into miles of unpaved cornfield roads, in the dark,  I kept envisioning Malachi from Children of the Corn stepping out in front of the RV as we drove, it was just that bad. I eventually managed to find roads that would get us back on pavement and in the right direction, only to have GPS fail, again, and we drove right past our scheduled stop. By that point, I had had enough and decided to continue on to the next real town and a hotel for the night. There is never a dull moment in this life, and I am just grateful to be living the dream!

Back on the road

Following our break at the grandparents', we headed out on our trip to the Thor repair facility in Elkhart, IN. Along the way, we stopped in Pennsylvania for a few nights, so we could visit what is, apparently an iconic place in the region, Knoebels Amusement park and Crystal Pool. We took advantage of their free tickets for military families, and went on a few rides, but spent most of the roasty day at the water park, going on slides and swimming and jumping from the diving boards. We finished the evening on the ferris wheel, that reaffirmed H's desire never to ride on one again.

I know that I have driven through PA before, but I guess it is just different in the RV, taking well over an entire day to cross the state. We took advantage of another discounted RV site just inside the western border of PA (Mercer) for another good break, which allowed us to make it all the way through northern Ohio and into Michigan to visit with friends, new and old, a friend from boot camp who must be way older than I, as her daughter is heading out to college this week and they had a celebration party for her graduation.

Following that, we headed to Indiana and moved into a hotel for a week while the technicians at Thor rebuilt our jacking system and windshield wiper systems as well as fixing some cosmetic issues and repairing our broken slide. They added a rail that will allegedly help ensure that the slide doesn't break again. They also replaced the door that surrounds the girls' bunks that had been broken a few times, and glued and broken again.

While the repairs took place, we celebrated another birthday, this one was spent at the American Girl Store in Chicago, which was about perfect for the now nine year old girly-pants. Her dolls had their hair done and she got a few new things for them and generally just enjoyed the experience. We snuck cupcakes from Crumbs into a corner in the mall and lit a quick candle for her to blow out. In all, she was happy about it.

Our general plan while at the hotel was to spend one day active and one day vegging at the hotel, in the pool, playing Wii and watching really bad TV. Our second adventure involved a trip to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, where the younger two got Junior Ranger badges, and then Warren Dunes State Park in Michigan, where we both slid on the dunes with our sleds from White Sands and swam in Lake Michigan. The third day of exploration involved a drive through the Amish areas of northern Indiana. The kids enjoyed that more than I expected, and we bought some cheese and candies and ate ice cream and enjoyed the countryside.

In all, I think Thor did a good job and I guess I wasn't sure what to expect, but I came away feeling like it is just a matter of time until things break again, but I guess we'll see. So far, the jacks have worked properly twice in five attempts.

Six months and a little break

While we have been on a little break from travel, first at Grandma and Grandpa's house, then up on our family's annual trip to Hampton Beach, NH, we passed a major milestone of six months on the road. We have traveled a vast distance, and been blessed to see things that most people never see in their lives.

We traveled from CA to NV to AZ then UT (back to NV and AZ), CO,NM, TX, LA, MS, AL, FL, GA, (back to AL, MS), TN, AR, (back to TN), KY, (back to TN), NC, SC, (back to NC), VA, DC, MD (back to VA, DC, MD) DE, NJ, NY, CT, MA, NH and now, back to MA for a total of 25 states (and DC) in half of a year which is a very nice even number, half of the states in half of one year.

Over the course if the next few months, we'll tack a few more states onto our list as we venture back to the Thor factory for rehabilitation of the RV. I'm torn as to what I am looking for from this rehab. On the one hand, I am grateful that they are going to fix the things that are broken and whatnot, but on the other hand, I am not confident that it will be enough, and that the issues we've had will continue, particularly with systems that have never worked properly such as the windshield wipers and the jacks.

The windshield wipers were not initially a huge issue, however the fact that they've been tended to six times and still malfunction does not make me confident that they'll be repaired completely and properly. The jacks have had repairs to the electrical system, hydraulics and the motor and they are still not properly set to auto-level.

I almost hope that they'll offer to take the darn thing back and just let us start over, but at the same time, our six month journey has been in this RV and despite it's flaws, we have come to love the Bratmobile and call it home. Hopefully something can be done to rectify the issues, but I am not feeling confident right now.

Beaches of NH are lovely

An amazing sunset

Sunrise with the flags at half mast, in front of the monument to those lost at sea and to war