Oh The Places You'll Go

Another school year has ended. We're starting to get the motor home cleaned up and ready for our first voyage, a quick overnight to visit some friends a few hours a way. We're also starting to make a list of some of our “must see and do” items for next year. So far our “must sees” include Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse, the canyons out west, especially Zion, Bryce and the Grand Canyon, Northern California and of course...legoland. We're also exploring our different campground options and thinking seriously about the things we enjoy every summer in our own backyard. So, we have also made a short list of things we enjoy doing here that we would love to experience in other parts of the country.

Our fair regional area has some really terrific outdoor summer concerts priced reasonably cheap or completely free. Saturday night we saw Elvis Costello perform a concert downtown on the waterfront. It was fabulous! He played a good portion of his most popular tunes in 2 hours, without a single break! We have tickets to 2 more summer concerts locally (The Decemberists and Great Big Sea) and plans to attend several that are offered for free. One local venue is featuring free concerts each week by Peter Frampton, 38 Special, Pat Benetar, Cheap Trick, ZZ Top, and Lynard Skynard, just to name a few. It's shaping up to be quite an awesome summer, musically speaking! I would love to visit some summer music festivals in other parts of the country. The Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park looks really fun!

http://www.sfoutsidelands.com/

Billed as a festival featuring music, food, art and wine, in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, it features some really cool music and is located in a definitively cool city. I don't know who will be playing next summer, but this summer they have The Decemberists, and Arcade Fire is kinda growing on me. How could you not have a good time!

We are also fortunate to live in between acres and acres of vineyards and wineries. We try to take a couple of winery tours every summer. My Twitter stream led me to this article - http://www.rvboondockingnews.com/2011/06/spend-night-on-farm-or-in-vineyard-for.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

And another “must do” was added to the list. Camping, for free, at a participating farm or winery, with tours, tastings and fresh picked farm stand produce available for purchase. Ding, ding, we have a winner! This program, apparently popular in Europe for several years now, is just getting off the ground in the US. Sign me up!

So, now it's your turn...leave me a comment and tell us your “must see and do.” If you were coming along, where would you go. Or maybe you've already taken a trip like this...tell me what was the most memorable thing you got to see or do. Just maybe, you'll make the list!

The '80s Called...They Want Their Stuff Back

A couple more days until the end of school.  Next week we hope to start pulling everything out, cleaning the motor home out and getting ready to do some camping!  Here are some pictures I took last weekend.  We'll call them the "before's"

He better not get too comfortable in that seat...

The bunk up above the cab.  Note the "plush" pink upholstery.

The bedroom and bathroom in the back of the motor home.  There may be an issue with the shower.

Who's up for some Trivial Pursuit at the table while we cruise!  The lace curtains are a nice extra touch.

 

I love that the big, burly Marine we bought it from kept the fruit magnets!

I got a fever...and the only cure is more cowbell.  And of course more lace curtains.

We're totally keeping this sign!

King of the Road

Hours spent on Craigslist have finally paid off! We found and purchased a 1985 Chevrolet “King Of The Road” motor home. We picked it up Tuesday night. It's actually in pretty good shape for a 26 year old motor home. Everything pretty much works and most of the things it will need are cosmetic. The husband says the upholstery is beige. I say it's peach and therefore most of it will be going. It will sleep 6 and has a refrigerator, stove and very small oven. The boys have proclaimed it “Awesome” and my youngest has even begun packing...for next summer. I really hope that box of wine fits in the fridge.  Here it is!

We bought it locally and it has stickers affixed to the side and back that indicate it was originally sold through a local dealership. We think we are the third or maybe 4^th owners and it has been very well maintained. It does, however, have some issues. Which brings me back to our Tuesday night adventure. The husband spent a good portion of the afternoon at the DMV getting the license plates, so I had hoped once I got home from what was a very long first day of final exams we could relax, have dinner, then go pick up the motor home. But, since the husband was filled with all the excitement and exuberance of a toddler on Christmas morning he proclaimed that we MUST GO NOW. At rush hour. During exam week. Okey dokey. So we troop over, kids in tow, and the current owner has it running in the driveway when we arrive. This should have been clue number one. He goes over a few things and then we all pile in to take it for a drive around the block. That's when the current owner informs us of 2 facts:

1. Someone left a light on and the battery was dead. He had replaced it, handed us the receipt, and said something about it not being “fully charged so don't shut it off.”
2. He did not fill the tank and the gas was running low.

Now, those of you with children know that toddlers on Christmas morning are not known for their listening skills and at that moment, keys to his new toy in hand, neither was the husband. We all shook hands, I got back in the van to follow them home and we were off. The motor home had traveled maybe a mile or 2 when the husband hung a left. Into a gas station. On a 4 lane road. At the end of a freeway exit ramp. And it's still rush hour. And he shut it off.

I'm sure you can guess what happened next. After feeding it about 100 bucks worth of gas, it would not start. Wouldn't even turn over. And we were now blocking an entire side of the gas pumps. I remember a lot of car horns. And some “colorful language.” I was dispatched back to the original owners home for a set of jumper cables, a trip that should have taken mere minutes. However, in the time it took us to fill up eleventy thousand parents had arrived to block the road in front of the boys and girls club down the street while they dropped off their progeny for a little league baseball game. And the original owner was no longer at home. Half an hour later I hit up a home center, bought a set of jumper cables, and headed back to the gas station. It took about 5 minutes of revving the engine in the van, but we finally got it running and were on our way again. We made it home in one piece and I fed the kids eggs. At 8 pm. I'll let you guess what I had for dinner.

We put the battery on a charger the next day and I'm happy to report that we have since been able to get it started. We're beginning to plan our first trip, probably sometime in July, and not too far from home. I'll be packing the jumper cables.

And Away We Go...

Sorry that this is going to be so brief, but we are in the middle of final exams.  This time of year is absolutely crazy for 2 teachers and 3 kids, so please bear with me.

We bought a motor home and picked it up today!!  We've also had our first adventure, and yes, jumper cables were involved.  I promise the full story with photos soon...

Size Matters

I guess at this point I should probably tell you all a little something about us. We're a pretty typical family of 5. That would be me, your blog author, my husband, and 3 sons, who are 13, 10 and 7 years old. There's also a cat (male) and some fish (I've never checked...) That makes me the only chick in the mosh pit, so to speak. It also means, that spending 8 weeks driving across the country in a small, enclosed space could potentially try everyone's patience. We've put a lot of thought into just how much space we will need and also into exactly how large a vehicle we are both comfortable driving. There is also the cost of fuel to figure into the equation. Needless to say we've quite a lot to think about.

This week has been quite educational. We've done some searching online and also looked at and driven our first few contenders. We've learned that not all motor homes are created equal. There are two basic types...class “A” or the “bus type” which look like this :

and class “C” or the “truck type” which look like this:

There are advantages and disadvantages to both. We're looking in the 25-30 foot range as neither the husband or I are comfortable driving anything much bigger than that. In that size range a class “C” motor home sleeps more people because it has a bed over the cab. However, even though I am supposedly of average height, I can't so much see over the steering wheel of the class “C” motor homes we have looked at so far. A few sellers have suggest the use of a cushion. I didn't ask if it was to sit on or to smack them with. I anticipate this could be a problem on the open road. Class “A” motor homes are much easier to see out of, but lack the sleeping capacity that we need. The motor homes we have looked at also will require varying amounts of “fixing up.” Most that we have looked at are in good shape mechanically, but will still need some repairs (one had a broken refrigerator, most need to have the carpeting and upholstery replaced) and we would like time to do that. We hope to find something this spring so that we can fix it up and even take a few short trips this summer to try it out! I hope the cat likes it, but the fish are out of luck. They're going to Grandma and Grandpa's!   

See the USA in Your Chevrolet

Before we can decide the where to go and what to see, it seems we should figure out how we are going to get there. We have traveled, quite a bit actually, with our children. We've used planes, trains and automobiles and even have some cabin and tent camping experience under our belts. We've visited a few RV shows and cruised the internet looking at our options. We even bid on a repossessed motor home a while back, but it was not meant to be. Options abound to get us to our destinations, and we've narrowed them down to 3:

1. A car, living out of suitcases, traveling from hotel to hotel. Enjoying day trips to historic sites and attractions along the way.
2. A truck and camper, pulling our house from campground to campground as we criss cross the country.
3. A motor home, going anywhere the road takes us, pulling a small car to take us on educational day trips and endless adventures.

We have pretty much settled on option #3...and so begins the search. Budgetary constraints dictate that any thing we may purchase will be used. Just how used is up for debate. I believe at one point the husband uttered the word “vintage.” I've been on Craigslist and seen the photos...they range from shagadelic to totally horrific. We're going to look at one tonight. I've been told to “not worry about the hole in the side panel.”

It better have a refrigerator large enough to accommodate a whole BOX of wine...  

The Journey Begins

I don't remember exactly how the conversation started or which one of us first put the idea into words, but several years ago the thought came to us. Wouldn't it be great to pack up the kids for the whole summer and drive across the country? Think of the places we could visit, the people we would meet, the experiences we could give them! Those thoughts, first verbalized so many years ago are now beginning to take shape. We've made the decision to forge ahead and given ourselves a time line. One year from now we hope to be embarking on our adventure and the reality of the planning and preparation that a trip like this will take is beginning to set in. There are so many decisions to be made and things to be figured out. It's terribly overwhelming and fabulously exciting all at the same time!

So, why do I want to do this? For a lot of different reasons I suppose. As a mom I want my kids to see what's out there and to know that a whole world exists beyond the borders of the neighborhood where they go to school, play sports and hang out with friends. The teacher side of me sees opportunities to teach my kids about the rich history of our country, visiting museums and historic places along the way. Having traveled extensively on the east coast of the United States, I have a desire to see the deserts and canyons that are part of the western landscape. I imagine that landscape to be equally beautiful yet the complete opposite of the rolling green hills and farmland I've lived in all my life. The kids really want to see legoland...let the preparations begin!