The Love Playground in El Paso, Texas

  • Posted on September 7, 2011 at 4:51 am

We were stopped in El Paso overnight. It was 107 degrees and my pansy ass wasn’t the slightest bit bothered by the heat because the previous day we’d been in Mesa, Arizona roasting (OK… lounging by the pool with friends) at 112 degrees, so 107 was nothing.

El Paso… big city with lots of resources and things-to-do, but the Internet on my phone wasn’t working and I couldn’t look anything up.

Sometimes I feel like that guy in Quantum Leap who follows the main character around, looking things up on his handheld device. I love that I can answer some of this kids crazy questions instantly “When was this town built?” and “Where is the Alamo?” but when I can’t use it I’m worthless. Maybe “worthless” is an exaggeration, but I feel like my brain is missing when I can’t access Google. It is what it is :) We ended up asking the GPS system for advice and it sent us to a city park.

We were in luck because the park had a mister system, so we could cool off, not that I was bothered by the heat mind you, I had built new neuron pathways in my brain the day before and learned to associate the heat with pleasure thanks to friends like Brianna and Vicki in Mesa Arizona and I wasn’t suffering in El Paso at all.

But still, the misters were nice.

The nicer thing was the park itself. Love Park, it was called. It appeared to be built entirely by volunteers and donations. First of all, the playground was HUGE. There was a musical play section, two different swing areas and plenty of ladders, stairs, bridges, things to climb, things to hang from and places to explore.

Outside the park, there was a Girl Scout building AND a Boy Scout building. We felt safe and secure there, at the corner of Love & Shorty.

My favorite part of the day was the conversation I had with Gabriella and Madelyn about the construction of the park. Donors bought in at certain levels to fund the construction of the park. Some people donated enough to have a fence post carved in their name. Others were able to paint a tile that went on the wall by the entry. Also in the entry, some donors were able to have a walk-of-fame style sidewalk square with their hand prints.

We hadn’t been in town for 3 hours and we learned that there was a Jewish community because we saw names like Silverstein and Kaplan and Stein and Rabbi something. We learned that each piece of equipment was sponsored by a local – usually a business, whereas the tiles, fence posts and sidewalk squares were sponsored by individuals or families. We talked about the economics of collecting donations, about how wise it was for the planners to have different levels of donation, and how cool it was that everyone was acknowledged for their contributions. Before we saw that, it was easy to look at the entire park and see a great place to play but having the sponsorship list visible made it easier for the kids to look and see that the castle slide is separate from the baby swings, separate from the musical toys, separate from the mister system… We could see the whole and appreciate all of its parts. More importantly, it was magical to see how complicated and amazing the entire park was and to witness what beautiful things can happen when people work together to bring their dream to life.

I liked being able to expose the girls to such a great example of community action. Someone (the children of the community, it appears…) envisioned this park. Someone rallied up a LOT of people to make it happen and here it is, Love park… it was beautiful. The park, the time we spent with the kids and the energy that created such a magical space.

I can’t imagine teaching an 8 yr old about different business models in a classroom. At 8, I would have been able to memorize vocabulary words, but I wouldn’t have felt the deep spirit of cooperation or understood exactly how awesome it was that they pulled this off. This is living, this is life and this is just conversation. No lesson plans are needed, no vocabulary words, just plenty of time in the real world and conversations that answer pressing questions. How much simpler can it be?

Technical Edit: Apparently the name of the park is White Spur Park and it’s just the Love Playground that I’m writing about.

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Our Summer House in Malibu

  • Posted on September 5, 2011 at 10:02 am

Can you believe we boondocked in Malibu for a month? I can’t believe it’s even possible.. Just outside of Zuma Beach on  PCH, they allow overnight parking. We also enjoyed spending time at the tidepools and caves at Leo Carrillo State Beach

This was the longest we’d stayed in any one area during this trip and even then we drove into the San Fernando Valley to visit with family while we were there, so it wasn’t a continuous stay in Malibu. But still.. close enough.

It was close enough that I got used to hearing the waves lapping at the shore while I slept. In fact, after just a few days, I was missing the sound when we left.

Have you heard of Binaural beats? They’re sound waves that you play with headphones. Different frequencies are played in each ear and when they get inside your head, they can target specific parts of the brain for relaxation, energy, mental focus, even sexual stimulation. Listening to the waves must have had an effect on my brain because the way it felt to allow the rhythm of the waves to sink into my being was a huge experience. Being there just.felt.right.

One thing I felt strongly about when I first envisioned life on the road was that I wanted to really lay down a couple roots in every place we went. The time we spent in Malibu was really special.
We got to know the rhythm of the coast.

Every day, around 6 am when the sun rose, the local surfers would come by. They would arrive in their wetsuits and carry their boards out to the sea. When they finished up, they’d return to their cars, sometimes stripping down naked (without knowing about the psychomom in the RV watching them) and changing their clothes for work around 8 or 9 am. It was then that the morning fitness people would arrive. These are the runners, the joggers and the dog walkers. These people were usually locals, too. Locals park on PCH and tourists park in the parking lots. They would arrive between 10am and noon, setting up their camps on the beach with umbrellas, radios, colorful towels and coolers filled with snacks. Many of them would slather on a ton of sunscreen and head into the water or bathe in the sun, depending on their preference. Around 4 or 5, the beachgoers would leave and the fitness crowd would return. As they dwindled away, the sunset-gawkers would arrive. Sometimes you could feel them counting down until the sun dropped behind the sea and more than half of them would leave when the sun was no longer visible. Don’t make that mistake. I’ve learned that some of the best colors, cloud shapes and prettiest shadows come when the last remaining fragments of light begin to fade.

I always intended to play in the ocean, but every time I felt my feet getting numb I’d change my mind. That water was COLD.  I can’t wait to take my kids to the gulf coast of Florida so we can play in that water, from what I remember it’s so warm and clear. Hopefully the BP thing hasn’t ruined it.

Anyway, we familiarized ourselves with Malibu, deeply. We shared the community’s mourning of a local grocery store. Their land was bought out by the Wal Mart family and they’re replacing it with a strip mall.

We were lucky to have stopped into the Malibu Gardens Nursery, although their business card says Trancas Canyon Nursery and the owner tells me that their land was part of the buyout. A new nursery would be built on the site, but only after everything is graded down and started from scratch.

Malibu is one of the more expensive areas to live. Celebrities live in Malibu. We saw Cher’s house (which, incidentally, is the new Hannah Montana House) and we got to stroll the beach behind The Colony, where Pink lives (I totally would have asked if she had a trapeze in her house and begged to play on it if I saw her, but alas…)

Anyway, I just can’t believe how lucky we were to be able to spend a month in Malibu. I tried to have a beach party, but very few people could all make it out the same day. We found ourselves entertaining quite often anyway. Brandon’s friend from Jr High came out for a visiit with his beautiful family. Our family friend Diane came for a visit, she was the mother of one of our high school friends, so she had a bunch of fun memories to share with us (and DAMN, she remembers everything). I was ale to visit with my friend Teresa (it had been over ten years) and Mike Hedge, a badass photographer, came out to visit, here are the pictures he took that day.

Anyway.. Summer in Malibu… Surfing, tanning, wave play, tide pools, pier fishing, restaurants, night clubs and $5 a day for public transportation into Los Angeles.

Wow. I got through that entire post and never once complained about all the sand in the motorhome. You know why? Because it wasn’t really that big of a deal. Whenever I found myself cleaning it up (and it was a daily chore), all I could think about was how lucky we are to be here. Life is Good :)

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Denver… we WILL be back

  • Posted on August 9, 2011 at 8:18 am

Our stay in Denver was a quick overnighter. Brandon got word that he’s needed on location shortly and he has to get to LA for a few production meetings. He’s a cinematographer (which is a fancy way of saying that he’s the one who decides how the movie will look, choosing camera angles, lenses, filters, camera movement and designing the layout of the lights) Its all terribly glamorous, trust me ;)

Denver Bear Statue

Some of my girls posing silly with a bear statue in Denver

Here is a link to our Denver Slideshow (or watch it below in most browsers)

The kids enjoyed the stroll through downtown, posing with every statue we came across (of course).  I just love public art and it’s always been something that bothered me about Yakima, that we don’t have a lot of public art. It’s improved a lot since we’ve moved here, but they still have a long way to go. I got annoyed with myself for not climbing on the back of the Pegasus. I kinda just forgot that I wanted to.
On our walk, we stopped into this place called the Lucid Gallery. “Where Art and Music Collide” and discovered the absolute coolest art show. A guy named Tim from PancakesAndBooze.com travels around (Can you tell I’m hooked? I love traveling entrepreneurs- the freedom, the possibilities…) and he connects with local artists in every city and brings them together to display their work in one cool awesome show. Here are a few pictures of what we saw (When we were there, they were just setting up. Artists were carrying their work inside and setting up their displays. He gave us a little sneak preview). Check out the slideshow below and definitely check to see if they’re showing near you. If you’re an Artist, you might want to see about displaying your work. You don’t need several pieces, many of the artists just submitted one or two.

And that was it, actually, we missed so much. We definitely plant to return to the area; leaving hurt. Physically. We hadn’t even gotten started yet. I had lists of places I wanted to go and things I wanted to see. I could have spent WEEKS visiting the area. I had friends I wanted to get together with and I didn’t even get to visit one. So Shannon, Bridget, Sara, Sarah, Sarah, Amy, Lisa, Phil, Heather, Tiffany, Brad & Lucretia and Ingrid and everyone else in Denver, Boulder, Longmont and Colorado Springs (and nearby) … I will see you next time ;)

Glenwood Springs, CO

After Denver, we headed East on interstate 70 and found ourselves in Glenwood Springs. Here’s a small slideshow from our visit (we were only there a few hours but we managed to take a crazy-long-and-hot hike up the side of a hill to an old cemetery where Doc Holliday and Kid Curry are buried)

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Mystic Hot Springs in Monroe, Utah

  • Posted on August 1, 2011 at 11:29 am

When the light from the first few rays of sun began to glow on the horizon, I could tell there was magic in the air. I wasn’t sure if it was delirium or real magic, but it was something noticeable and profound at that moment and I later decided that it was magic, without a doubt.
Betty the Beaver had been climbing uphill for hours, the San Raphael Swell on Interstate 70 is brutal. She was getting hot and Brandon pulled over to let her cool down a bit. She’s old, though, and some of her (brand new) spark plug wires actually melted while we sat. We had replacements but no flashlight, so we slept roadside for a couple hours until the sun came up.

First rays of sunshine over Utah

Utah sunrise begins


We had no idea what the terrain would look like. In the night, whenever another vehicle would pass, I could see the twinkling eyes of a thousand hungry creatures reflecting from under the nearby bushes. I didn’t know if they were mountain lions, coyotes or rabbits, but I was sure that they were watching us.

As the sun began to rise, though, it wasn’t the ravenous beasts that caught my eye, it was the landscape. At first, of course, everything was black and then, slowly, the skyline was silhouetted and the shapes of the rocks were revealed at first, in shades of good-morning-grey that slowly transformed into the most colorful thing I’ve ever seen. The colors were straight out of woody woodpecker. The rocks were terra cotta red, bright white and deep saffron-yellow, in perfect stripes, columns and bubbly boulder shapes. Steep canyons were carved by ancient glaciers and gnarled juniper trees housed rattlesnakes and their prey.
Utah Sunrise

A little bit brighter now


I read that this land was desolate, treacherous and unfit for inhabitation. But here we were, housed safely in the Beaver, brewing coffee at sunrise.  While Brandon took advantage of the morning light to fix the wiring situation, I took my coffee outside for a stroll, braving the hungry beasts (because they’re nocturnal, right?) in order to see if there was, indeed, a downhill slope around the next bend (there wasn’t).

When I returned from my walk, Brandon was able to get the motorhome started again and we were on our way.

Again- maybe it was the delirium, but this place was so beautiful that it made me cry. Every time the road delivered us to a new view, the shapes and colors made me gasp, jump up & down with excitement and cry tears of joy. The song “America the Beautiful” was playing in my head as we rounded corners to find deep canyons, surprise spring-fed streams, Martian-like landscapes with the reddest soil you’ve ever seen. I took photos, I took videos and at every moment, I took complete gratitude for that breakdown. We would have driven straight through the area in darkness and never seen any of this, if Betty hadn’t demanded a break when she did.
Waking up in Utah

Utah Sunrise was AMAZING

 

Utah Drive Slide Show

 

 

Once we descended the mountains We arrived in Richfield and I googled RV parks. The first place I called didn’t answer their phone so we went to the second place. Only it wasn’t simply an RV park;  Mystic Hot Springs was a Gypsy’s paradise. First of all, Mike (also called Mystic Mike) was a sweetie on the phone, I felt welcome before we even arrived.
We chose a shady spot near the grass and we left Brandon alone to get a nap while we explored. I’ve never seen real hot springs before and this place was the most magical place in the world. The warm welcome made it feel like home, I’d been there 5 minutes and already knew I wanted to stay the night.  I had never seen real hot springs before and was anxious to check them out. WOW. If hot springs aren’t on your bucket list, please go add them right now.

We parked near a grassy area and when we stepped out of the RV we saw a real Gypsy Wagon, a homemade coach that was just as adorable inside as it was outside. On the grass outside were people sitting in a circle, drumming around a bonfire and singing a song (I couldn’t make out the words).
mystic (1)mystic (2)

Only here’s where I failed as a traveler. I made a mental note to stop and talk to the guy later. Except, he wasn’t there later, so these were the only pictures I got. I hope our paths cross again :) Lesson learned: don’t hesitate, tomorrow the opportunity may be gone.

 

We hiked up the hill to see the steaming ponds where the water bubbled up. That water was too hot to touch, but as it flowed down the hills and into the soaking tubs, it cooled down to a little over 100 degrees, leaving beautiful mineral deposits in a rich shade of orange-yellow. I hope the pictures are as intense as the reality was. I thought it would smell like sulfur, but it never ever did.

Mystic has two stages for live music and music just about every weekend. When we arrived, they were setting up the sound equipment for a show at the upper stage; Delta Nove was playing that evening. Because Mystic is halfway between Denver and Las Vegas, they can bring in bands who are traveling between the two destinations. I read an interview from one of the bands and they said that the environment at Mystic was so beautiful and friendly and magical that he thought it was their best performance ever. I believe it, some places just bring out the magic in you and this is certainly one of them.

Down the hill, where the hot springs flow into warm ponds there’s a grassy area with another stage. I was so excited to find hula hoops on the grass by the stage. The kids fed bread crumbs to the tropical fish in the pond while I rocked out to someone’s music and these borrowed hula hoops.

It was there that we met our tourguide.

Soleil climbed up and down the hills like a spider. She says she’s lived at Mystic for ten years or so. She showed us a hidden cave, gave us a list of rules for keeping safe in the rugged hills and showed us where the best flowers grew. We heard the legend of the dog who got caught and boiled in the hot springs, then was covered in mineral deposits before anyone knew. It was a cautionary tale and we all promised not to fall into the boiling water at the source. It was difficult to keep up with her, but her knowledge of the terrain, the plants and animals in the area was impressive. She’s 5 years old.

The kids played while I tended to housekeeping in the RV. I had a little laundry to wash, dishes to do and after a relatively sleepless night on the side of the road, I needed a nap.

When I woke from my siesta, the heat of the day was wearing off and other campers began to come out of the woodwork. The band has a trailer with 20 or 30 drums mounted to it and I walked up the hill looking for my kids and listening to the drumming. A guy on a bicycle slowed down and said “Wow, is that the band?” and I looked over and answered him slowly “I think that’s my kids.”  Sure enough, the kids (mine and other visitors) were banging away on the drums, cymbals and tambourines. Each was playing their own rhythm but it sounded like music. The band members were smiling as they unloaded their gear and didn’t seem to be offended by the cacophony, even talking to eachother almost as if there wasn’t a thunderous riot occuring between them. The smiles on the kids’ faces were so pure and sweet. Every now and then an adult would walk past and stop working for a minute to join in. I didn’t join in, I just watched in awe as the music in their hearts filled the air.

drum-trailer

As the evening wore on, live music from the festival below was drifting up the hills. Today was Monroe’s annual summer celebration. I’m not sure what the name of the event was at the bottom of the hill, but there were vendor booths and several stages and artisans and craftsmen and families walking around with snow cones and cotton candy. I found a Youtube video of the day’s parade and apparently the event commemorates the Mormon’s settlement in the area. We intended to walk down the hill to the festival, but couldn’t bear to walk away from Mystic once we arrived. The draw was very “Hotel California,” I didn’t mind missing the festival for a minute, Mystic was home for the moment and I don’t think we missed much.

The closer it got to sunset, the more awesome it got. I looked up at one point and the sky was filled with hang gliders. Someone said there were 60 of them in the air that night, I kept losing count. If you’ve never stood under 60 hang gliders and heard their howls of delight as they skim over treetops and, incidentally, hot springs… then you’re missing out. It was amazing.

The entire valley was celebrating and fireworks were everywhere. As the band played, the sun set, the hang gliders came in for their landing and the hot springs bubbles and steamed around us, I was grateful once again for that breakdown.  We would have driven right past all of this magic. I could have gone my whole life and not realized that heaven is in Utah.

The party went on until the wee hours of the morning. There was no bar, there was no cover charge, just good people, good music and beautiful Utah.

Walking down past the drum-trailer, jumping over streams and pausing to watch fireworks periodically, I was reminded of those Southern California rave parties I used to go to with my girlfriends in the summer of 1992. The changing lights and night shadows make everything look different, but here I was, tromping through the juniper in my flip-flops, just like I was 18 again. Only this time, I was sober and a mother of six and headed back to the shelter of Betty the Beaver.

Thank you, Utah. And thank you, Mystic Mike <3

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Cowgirls Up

  • Posted on July 24, 2011 at 3:09 pm

OK- I’ve never ever said “Cowgirl up” before, and I’m not sure what the term means. Is it a reference to “cowboy up” and is that a rodeo term and does that mean like “sit on that bull and show us how badass you are?” If so, then that’s the official permanent title of this blog post. But if someone sends me a note telling me it means something else, then I might just call it “Things we did in Cheyenne.” Either way, you’ll know.

It was over 100 degrees the first day we were in Cheyenne. We all felt cranky and two of the destinations we’d walked to were closed. Because it was Monday. Like that’s a reason, but I get it… if there was a good day to be closed, I’d rather they do it on Monday than on a weekend. But still. I didn’t feel much like a badass cowgirl that day.

Our 14 year old was being rather vocal about her dissatisfaction and anger just spread like a rash throughout the family. Each of us, in our own time, threw a temper tantrum and by the end of the night we were up to our ears in apologies, remorse, regret and confusion. I knew from other families on the road, that we’d go through some ups and downs as we all adjusted to traveling together 24/7, but it still wasn’t fun. I’m glad it’s over. I hope we all learned from it. I did. In the end, the thing that helped the most was the Peace Garden at Lions park. Or maybe the vegetable garden. Or the Greenhouse. Either way, as I edit this a few days later, we’ve all processed and the love is stronger, so all is well. The images below are from the Peace Garden and Labyrinth at Lions Park in Cheyenne.

After the cranky day, I had nightmares all night long but woke up feeling a hundred times better. Seriously- I’m kind of manic that way and I felt like a million bucks. I was singing and dancing while I made my coffee and it tasted like awesome sauce even though I failed to measure it right and still haven’t adjusted to food preparation in the new teeny tiny hobbit kitchen.  I’m sure my Pollyanna-sunshine attitude drove my husband a little nuts, so I took my cheerful self outside with the kids for a nature walk.

We were at the Curt Gowdy State Park and it was so lovely. The rock formations and pine trees reminded me of the Devil’s Punchbowl area in Southern California. They have the most awesome full moon hikes. Anyway, we identified a bunch of wildflowers (some without even consulting the field guide), we picked a bouquet and smelled every one of them. We saw deer poop and rabbit poop. We saw the furry bone of something dead. We climbed giant boulders, we chased jackrabbits, we threw teeny rocks into the canyon and then into a puddle, we saw Ponderosa Pine trees as tall as each one of us. The day was off to a beautiful start.

We needed oil in the engine and The GPS said there was a gas station 5 miles west. The grassy hills were beautiful, with farm houses, herds of cattle, horses, windmills and wooden fences. After 5 miles, the GPS decided we should go another 17 miles west. OK, so here’s a total of 22 miles opposite of the direction we needed to be.

We could have returned to Cheyenne by driving 25 miles East, but isn’t this the sort of adventure that road trips are made for?

Unexpected diversions often reveal some nice surprises, like a giant statue of Abraham Lincoln and a town called Buford, with a population of 1. And we met him, he’s a very nice man. Incidentally, he’d been featured on the Today Show that very morning. Here’s a picture of us with Don Sammons, owner of the Buford Trading Post.

Welcome to Buford sign

The real live Welcome to Buford Sign

The real resident of Buford, Wy

Buford's only resident, with my kids

If you click on the one of him and the kids (who were looking at me like “why the heck are you taking our picture with this dude? This blogging thing is going too far, mom“) , you’ll see the first attempt at that photo, which was just creepy. Sometimes I wish I was elasti-girl so I could stretch my arms all long & skinny and stretch my fingers until my hands look like ET and then maybe I’ll be able to use that gigantic heavy camera to take a self-portrait. That’s Ok, though everyone has their own skills ;)  Anyway…

As we cruised down the hill, grateful for the little surprises and unexpected reminders of goodness, the power in the motorhome stopped working completely. Totally. I held my breath as my husband white-knuckled the steering wheel to keep us from careening into a rock wall and pulled us off to the shoulder for safety. Cowgirl up; stranded on the side of the freeway a thousand miles from home with 5 kids.

My husband took 3 years of auto shop in high school and he’s always been mechanically inclined. He was able to look at the messy, dusty, dirty greasy engine and see a broken starter solenoid (thank goodness spell-check knew that word) Once he pointed it out, I could see that it had a big chunk missing, but I never would have noticed if he hadn’t mentioned it. Triple A was able to send out a tow truck with a new starter but unfortunately, the problem went a little deeper than that. Wires needed to be replaced. And other stuff. Dirty stuff. And not the fun kind of dirty.

The girls and I seized the opportunity to give each other roadside manicures and pedicures in the comfort of the motorhome. We painted flowers and stars and little swirly lines on our nails in purple, green, red, white and blue. Then, we did our toes. We played Monopoly. We ate cheese sandwiches and peanut butter and Jelly. We climbed a rocky embankment and looked out at the rolling hills. We noticed the differences between the granite rocks we’d seen near Rushmore and these shale and sandstone rocks.

We ended up needing a tow into Cheyenne (Thank you, AAA) and since there aren’t enough seats in the tow truck for our big family, we also owe a big note of thanks to Barry from Enterprise car rentals in Cheyenne. The auto parts store closed at 6 so we spent the night in the motorhome in their parking lot. Carrol from Los Amigos Mexican Restaurant cooked us a delicious dinner of fish tacos, cheese enchiladas, bean tostada, beefy nachos and even sent us back with extra hot sauce.

In the morning, I took the kids for a walk downtown, we took pictures and strolled through boutiques and antique shops in historic downtown Cheyenne. The folks at CarQuest did a fantastic job of helping us with parts and advice about the neighborhood. We even made friends with one of the ladies, Robin spent 8 years on the road with her husband, taking back roads from coast to coast, and was so excited to follow our adventure. We left Brandon at the motorhome to finish the repairs while we had a “girl’s day” together, strolling historic downtown Cheyenne.

He ended up calling in Mike Grey from Onsite Auto Repair, who had specialized electrical testing tools and was able to isolate the root of the problem and have us up and running again in no time.
While the boys were busy, the girls and I found the most awesome shop. Bohemian Metals is run by artist Brian Snyder, an amazingly talented guy who makes badass metal jewelry AND digs for fossils and turns them into art. We saw a 50,000 year old fossilized fish he was currently working on. In his shop he had a nest of dinosaur eggs, an ancient alligator-looking thing, an ancient rhinoceros-type-skull from Asia and several other absolutely amazing specimens. I could have stayed there for hours listening to the stories behind each piece, the slide show below has images from our visit.

Afterward, we hit up the Cowgirls of the West Museum. Did you know there was such a thing as a Cowgirl’s Hall of Fame? The museum had a replica of an 1800′s era kitchen and dining room, plus cowgirl clothing, boots, saddles, children’s toys and clothing from that time period and interpretive displays focusing on several cowgirls from the area, highlighting their claims to fame. The girls and I were completely impressed with the stories we read, about women who built their own houses, stood up to men who thought they should be following the norm, operated ranches and kept shops and saved babies and canned their own vegetables and rode in the rodeo and smuggled medicine and caught criminals and built fences and baked everything from scratch and sewed their own clothes and made their own soap and stored all their food in pretty stoneware that they probably like baked in their own earthen ovens, right? Either way, we were inspired and proud of our sisters-in-history.

Adjacent to the Cowgirl Museum is the Cowgirl Emporium. THAT was a treasure- they had tons of vintage toys and children’s furniture, like a little potty chair from the 70′s. They also had cowgirl stuff, country kitchen stuff… it was fun, but we were done. Great place for souvenirs and to share some nostalgia with my girls. By the way, we all want cowgirl boots now, but I want like three pairs. Red, pink and purple. The girls just mostly want pink. And to be clear, I want hot pink and a lighter shade.

On our way out of Cheyenne, we visited at the Terry Bison Ranch Resort. I didn’t see any real Bison, but we did see camels, yes CAMELS, we got to pet camels and while I was hunkered down doing dishes and laundry, the kids tell me that camels make a sound similar to cows. This resort is absolutely awesome, they have pony rides, they have miniature horses and we got to pet one that was only a week old, her name was Little Star and her mom’s name was Twinkle. We saw wild rabbits, more camels, ostriches, a train ride, a petting zoo, carnival rides that looked absolutely awesome, it was like steampunk cartoon, they were made from like tractor parts or something, they had big gears and visible pulleys and the were painted bright colors… just look closely at the pictures. These were some seriously funky rides, the kids kept saying “Daddy can build that” and now Brandon has to start collecting some metal drums and big gears ASAP. In addition to carnival rides and farm animals, the Bison Ranch has live music every night, a gift store / museum with a stuffed Jackalope (the kids were totally creeped out by this) and also an antique photo studio, hay rides, a train ride and a restaurant onsite, plus three huge playgrounds. Plus, the kids learned how to throw a lasso. Awesome place, check out the slideshow below…

Anyway- we had a blast in Cheyenne. We still didn’t visit the Children’s Village Garden or the spray park, but we did make some awesome memories and met some really fun people. Betty the Beaver (which is our unofficial name for the motorhome) is showing us a really good time so far.

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Rushing Less at Rushmore

  • Posted on July 18, 2011 at 10:45 am

I thought I was going to make up for random years of forgetting to call my dad on his birthday by showing up on his birthday, so he could see the kids and we could visit. I was also looking forward to seeing my Grandmother and the rest of my family. Most of them have never met all of my kids and in recent years, I’ve only seen them all together at funerals.

Except, the party was in Maryland, 4 days after we left Washington State. It’s like a 43 hour drive, I’m not sure how much the uphill=slow affects the drive time, but after about 2 days of driving past amazing things we wanted to explore and the discovery that our fuel mileage is less than what we imagined it would be… we were stressed. We felt rushed and cranky and discouraged by the amount of gas we were going through.

We decided to stop for a few days and give up on the birthday party goal.  I felt relieved and deflated all at the same time.  Also, severely frustrated because I haven’t been able to work in almost a month. I mentioned in a  previous post (Statuses you missed) that I hadn’t been online in the weeks prior to our departure and even though I got myself a new phone for the trip, our house was in a dead zone and, coincidentally, everywhere else I’ve been is in a dead zone, too. The black areas below are places where I get no service at all:

no cell phone service for simple mobile customers

everywhere I have been for the past month has no cell phone service. Thanks, Simple Mobile

Anyway… so we were frustrated and stressed. And we decided to visit Mt Rushmore, which is #7 on my list of “50 things I’ll do on the road” The instant we made that decision, the trip suddenly felt fun again. We were in Spearfish, SD (totally missed the historic fish hatchery tour darnit) and went straight to Rapid City to hang out with Dead Presidents while the day was hot, then as soon as it cooled off we headed up the (steeeeep) hill to Mt Rushmore.

Us at Mt Rushmore

Can you tell, I'm thinking "They won't show up" I was SURE he had the camera pointed too far downward. He was right. I was wrong AND I look lame. The day was still a win <3

Mt Rushmore was beautiful, the air was clean and the Ponderosa Pines were beautiful. The kids got to participate in their first-ever Junior Ranger’s Program. The Ranger on duty took his job very seriously, the kids raised their right hands and took an oath to protect the natural areas and to tell people about their experiences (video below)


Visiting Mt Rushmore 6-16-11

Maddy at Mt Rushmore

When we pulled into the Mt Rushmore parking lot, the lady said there would be a “light show” at 9:00 so we stayed, thinking we’d be seeing lasers and some neat shadow effects on the faces, but that wasn’t the case at all. it was a video about each of the Presidents and about the construction of the monument. The presentation was cool, watching a giant movie outdoors with thousands of other people, but “light show” wasn’t exactly an accurate description.

 

On our way up, we noticed several RV resorts and decided that once our day was done, we’d head back down the hill to stay the night. The kids had their hearts set on Mystic Hills because the sign advertised $1 pancakes.  (Note to the web designer for Mystic Hills- PLEASE lose the blinking buttons, this isn’t 1992 and it’s really an eyesore)  Anyway- Mystic Hills didn’t have any openings for a rig our size so we headed up the hill to Rushmore Shadows. We were lucky to get in first of all, because there were only 2 spaces left and since it was almost midnight, we had to wait to check in until the following day. We saved on our space rental by touring the facility and hearing the membership pitch.  It’s a nice facility and the benefits for membership are phenomenal, but we opted out anyhow.  Maybe another time, one trip at a time! If you’re in the area, you should definitely check it out. We have dreams of owning our own resort one day so it was nice to hear the history of the facility and to learn more about the company and how the resort industry operates a little.

Rushmmore Shadows hosts fun events and the weekend we were there, they had a BBQ. I stayed back at the RV with sleeping Grace (peaceful moment YES) while Brandon took the kids to get burgers, hot dogs and other things I don’t normally eat. They had a band playing and a raffle, the kids won all sorts of goodies. They enjoyed watching the band play, a local girl named Keenie Word. Here’s her newest video:

Evie enjoying the BBQ at Rushmore Shadows

At one point, Brandon was scooping baked beans up with a potato chip and Evie eyed him suspiciously, asking "Are you following the directions for how to eat that?"

Maddy won this snazzy hat at Rushmore Shadows

Each of the girls came home with hats from the BBQ. thank goodness, because their cheeks were pretty pink from a day spent in the pool

On our final night at Rushmore Shadows, we met Cliff and Barb, a couple who came from Selah, WA. They have a grandchild that goes to school with our oldest. Small world, isn’t it?

Rushmore Shadows Pool

Grace and Evie sharing an ice cream at Rushmore Shadows, poolside

So basically, I guess, the moral of the story is that if you envision having the freedom to decide, on a whim, where to go and when, then don’t arrange a trip that involves rushing from one place to another.  Chill out. Lesson learned :)

 

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Dead Presidents

  • Posted on July 16, 2011 at 5:15 pm

Doesn’t that usually refer to money? Actually, it’s what Evie is calling the statues of US Presidents in Rapid City, South Dakota. We stopped off in Rapid City to get some groceries and visit the bank before heading out to Mt Rushmore to see more Presidents. Rapid City is less than 20 miles from Mt Rushmore, and as we drove through the streets of downtown, we noticed that every corner had a statue of a President. George W Bush’s statue was placed in October of 2010, so I’m guessing they’re hard at work on Obama’s right now. Each time we passed one, we got more excited about the possibility of hopping out to take pictures with the President statues. The project is called City of Presidents in Rapid City.

Finding parking downtown with the motorhome wasn’t easy at first. I spotted the empty lot of the Trinity Lutheran Church and made a few phone calls. Pastor Wilbur Holtz was super sweet on the phone and let us park there for a few hours. We were able to relax and eat a nice lunch before heading out for our walk. While we were parked, we met a very nice lady named Cynthia. She was setting something up at the church. It was so cute to hear the kids introducing themselves. Cynthia had a beautiful motorcycle and we were surprised to learn that she once lived in Yakima and in Selah. Imagine driving 1000 miles from home and the first person we meet ends up having ties to our area. What a small world.

Pictures of President Statues

Some of the positions they were in made it very easy to think of fun poses. My mind naturally kept thinking of dirty poses, so you won’t see many pictures of me here. I had more fun taking the pictures. If I ever go back without the kids, maybe I’ll get silly and snap a few. Nixon… you’re on that list.

Rapid City President Statues

Statue of Jimmy Carter in Rapid City

Statue of President Bush

George W Bush Statue in Rapid City

Statues of Presidents in South Dakota

The kids were more interested in the President's dogs

Richard Nixon Statue in Rapid City

Grace posing with Richard Nixon

Ronald Reagan Statue in Rapid City

Statue of Ronald Reagan in Rapid City's City of Presidents Display

Statue of Bill Clinton in Rapid City

Rapid City Presidents- Bill Clinton snagging Maddy's purse

President statue in South Dakota

Gabriella walking with a President

Statue of Ronald Reagan in Rapid City of Presidents

Brandon and Ronald Reagan

I found several other pictures of the City of Presidents on Flickr, click here to enjoy and while you’re there, you might as well add me as a contact because that’s where all the best pictures end up Gypsy-Mom on Flickr

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My kingdom awaits…

  • Posted on July 15, 2011 at 11:56 am

Finally, the sun is up. I imagined it would feel like a boat ride, or being rocked to sleep but it was, in fact, more like hitching a ride on a lopsided tumbleweed. As if the bouncing and shaking weren’t enough of a distraction, there was a full moon and I hadn’t hung the curtains. It was sort of like sleeping outside that way, albeit cozy and warm in my own blankets, with my kids snuggled in beside me like my very own personal teddy bears.

And so it began, this road trip I’ve been dreaming of for so long. Let me back up just a little and say that it actually started last year when we bought the motorhome. Rather, my husband bought it to appease my gypsy nature. Over the past year, we’ve mapped and remapped, plotted and planned and decided and redecided and in the end, we really didn’t care where our first stop was. In fact, at one point, we just said “let’s just drive down to the coast of Oregon and park for 3 months.” I’m glad we dreamed bigger again after that, it hasn’t been easy

Except, it has. I mean… here we are. Unstoppable.

We’re oficially in Montana as I write this, just outside of Missoula. We were all excited about Missoula because the kids have been performing in plays with the Missoula Children’s Theatre since I was pregnant with Maddy in 2003. They travel around in little red pickup trucks, stopping at schools, theatres, community centers and libraries. The two MCT reps audition kids on a Friday, casting 40 or 50 for each performance and over the course of one week, they teach the kids every song in the musical. They bring sets and costumes and by the end of the week they put on a musical on stage, some are fairy tales, some are adapted from classical children’s literature. All are adorable, with catchy music and a ton of fun memories for the kids who perform.

We’re in the mountains now, but I remember very clearly an Amtrak ride in 1998, from Iowa to Seattle; I’d heard Montana being called “Big Sky country” before, but it wasn’t until that Amtrak ride that I understood why. I’m hoping the large window of the motorhome is as much of a theatre as the train car was. That sky is something I’ve wanted to share with my husband ever since I saw it first. I remember feeling as if maybe I was way too excited about it when I got off the train and kept telling him “Oh man, that sky was just…. Babe you should have seen the sky…. I mean, they call it Big Sky Country for a reason, right… that sky was just amazing.” Like I said, we’re in the mountains now, but I’m sure the subject will come up. I’ll try to let him say it first. I hope the kids notice, too.

So I think I mentioned before that I had a million lists and sticky notes, right? It was a lie. Really, I keep things in my head. The lists and sticky notes were figurative speech. I see them in my mind but I didn’t really write anything down. Except, I kept telling myself not to forget the iron. The one time I did sit down to mke a list, the only things on it were an iron, dish towels and hula hoops. Last time I ironed anything was in 2008, I think. I ironed the little girls’ party dresses when we visited my Dad for his wife’s birthday. (Step mom sounds so impersonal.. Dad’s wife sounds.. distant. Mom discounts my own mother…. Second mom, maybe? We just call her Vicki and to add a little extra love, the kids call my Dad “Papa Vicki”)

Still, I reminded myself a hundred times to bring that iron. In fact, I even have a blog post in draft called “Dont forget the iron.” As we were doing our final packout, a friend of my husband says “Did you bring the iron?” And I laughed like crazy and had to tell him the story of the blog-post-in-draft, because it was just too much of a coincidence. Well, here we are hundreds of miles from home and wouldn’t you know it, I forgot the iron. And I’m not the slightest bit concerned about it. If we’re wrinkly, we now have a legitimate reason. We’re camping, after all.

We’ve been watching America: The Story of Us (I got it for free from the History Channel) and I keep feeling like a bit of a pioneer. I have a tendency to overpack and we have limited space, so I wanted to be sure I didn’t bring too much. The families who migrated to the western US had to leave things on the side of the trail in order to relieve their oxen. In another documentary, it broke my heart to see beautiful antique furniture (no doubt brought over from Europe, heirlooms maybe), cast aside along the edges of the trail. I wonder if the women wept. I imagine pioneer men promising to build a new hutch and pioneer women allowing themselves to be comforted by that pomise, knowing full well that their husbands weren’t artisans of craftsmen and that they’d be busy building lincoln-log cabins and rustic furniture first. Traveling makes me imagine, I guess. The journey that took them six months is taking us just a few days.

It’s been an adventure so far, and this is just the beginning. Whenever Brandon gets too tired to drive, the kids and I will do laundry and explore for a little while. I don’t know where we’ll be, I don’t know what time it will be, but (dare I say it?) BRING IT ON. (The fun, that is)

And, incidentally, donations or something. This is costing a fortune. Click the “donate” button below to get to my paypal and I’ll owe you a favor (backlinks, anyone? Make me an offer I can’t refuse)



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Statuses you missed

  • Posted on July 5, 2011 at 4:33 pm

OK, part of “leaving for this trip” involved having our Internet service at the house turned off because… well… “wireless” has its limits and we planned to be outside those limits.  Unfortunately, when I called the company, I had a different departure date in mind and we ended up spending the final weeks at our house without service.

It was actually a good thing because I would have spent a lot of time obsessively re-planning, re-organizing, recalculating, remapping and researching. In reality, I was so busy getting the house packed up and dealing with the un-freaking-believable amount of obstacles that were being hurled at us from everywhere. Did I say obstacles? I meant to say opportunities. Let’s go with that…

I don’t believe that God “tests” us. It’s just not logical to me.  I do believe that shit hits the fan when you least expect it, though. That’s logical, in my mind at least. Who would EVER expect shit to hit a fan, right? By default, you ALWAYS least expect it. Plus we played, without electronic distractions for the most part. Watching the kids give each other lawnmower rides, run in the sprinklers, play in the mud, catch tadpoles and things like that are just plain fun.

For every catastrophe that came our way this week, an equally awesome stroke of luck rescued us. For every down there was a bigger and better up. Life is good and it keeps getting better :)
If I had been posting status updates on Facebook, it would have looked something like this; (something like this because in reality I couldn’t delete the drunk ones without feeling like an alcoholic

1- $2500 for repairs, just what we expected. As soon as the written estimate is here we’ll proceed.

2- Evie (3) says “I’m hurting in my nose. It’s all because of this stupid pain.”  Luckily once she blew it, she was fine <3.

3- OMFG… $9000 for repairs and tires? WTF? That’s a LOT more than we planned for.

4- We’re at Costco and my husband says “Jeez, do we really need $30 worth of toilet paper on this trip?” No.. honey… because we’re not going to be wiping or anything.

5- OMG we just found the most adorable Greyhound bus conversion. it has bunk beds and TONS of basement storage, I love it. it needs a makeover and I know *just* what I want to do.  It costs less than the repair bill for the motorhome ANDDDDD – it’s a diesel, which is exactly what I wanted, so we can convert it to run on veggie oil.  YAYYY, so much cuter than The Beaver, this bus has vintage charm, personality AND bunk beds :)

6- Thank goodness for friends in the Automotive repair industry.  Water pump on the Suburban is fixed. Parts at wholesale and barter for labor. Life is good.

7- “Mom, are we going to a land where people are naked?”

8- Seriously- The Suburban needs a radiator, too. OK. So we’ll get it a radiator. Anything else?

9- I’m regretting the recent times when I’ve said “Bring it on…”  I didn’t really mean it, OK.  Back off, now.

10- OK, now that The Beaver isn’t going to cost so much to repair, it’s no longer “cheaper” to buy the Greyhound. Bummer, it was really badass. But hey… The Beaver is fine, really… let’s just GO already. Did I mention that I love the rounded ceilings in those old busses? One day we will have a bus conversion. But today, The Beaver rocks. let’s just GO.

11- We just drove The Beaver down to Wapato to visit the new mechanic, the one that’s like 75% cheaper than the original one.  I went a little nuts when I realized that I was washing my hands in the middle of an intersection.  Moments like that are special. We were actually driving down the freeway; a taste of what’s to come :) I can taste it…. I can smell it… freedom is near :)

12- Dear Jamie, Last week I was at your house and you were telling me about how you had to have your water pump replaced on The Suburban and we shared a moment because I’d just had mine done, too. But then you mentioned that your transmission went out as well, so I blame you. We must have contracted some sort of “Green-Suburban-owner’s-Virus” because now the Suburban only drives in third gear. Kinda don’t want to bother the mechanic since he’s working his butt off to get our motorhome rolling by Friday. Just had to let you know. We should warn the other Green Suburban Owners, just in case.

13- “Mom, are the princesses at Disneyland like walking cartoons or are they like people dressed up?  Like… can we stick our hand through them?”

14- OMG we just got the coolest solar panel setup for the motorhome. I can’t wait to blog about this awesome company, Goal Zero. Check out their humanitarian efforts at http://www.tifie.org

15- Ok, don’t tell my husband but I have no clue what a volt is, or a watt or how a cell works. He’s explained it to me ten thousand times. For some reason, terms like “direct current” and “alternating current” just….. don’t stick in my brain. I’m sure he wouldn’t be insulted to read that. His eyes tend to glaze over when I’m talking about search engine optimization and social marketing campaigns or even the differences between ppc and ppi ads and things like that.  But here’s something that Does stick: With that solar panel, we don’t need a generator. So we can park without hookups and still use electricity, but it will be CLEAN energy, now he wants to build a windmill on top of the motorhome so that whenever we drive forward, we’re charging our batteries. I love the way he thinks sometimes, as long as he’s not trying to explain it to me :)

16- “Mom, is it true that tapioca has eyeballs in it?”
17- OK- I MUST admit my guilty-music-pleasure before I explode. Ready? I think I fell in love with Kenny Rogers when I was like 4 years old. I’ve cranked up this song SO MANY TIMES this week, I love it.  ”…Come sail awayyyyyyy with me…”

17.5- before you go thinking I’m all “Mrs 70′s love song dork” (as if I’m not) my other favorite song this week is this one. So there…

18- Is it unreasonable to expect nail polish to be shiny when the bottle doesn’t indicate that it’s not? I got the cutest shade of purple called “Dream On” by Sinful Colors. The glass bottle that it’s in makes it look shiny but when it dried, it was matte. Is this evidence of me being old and outdated, or shouldn’t the bottle SAY that it’s matte? Who would want matte  polish? <pouting> It looks like primer. I’m wearing it anyway because I don’t care THAT much, I just wanted some color.

19- WHEW- it took like 2 hours, but there isn’t a single trace of The Jonas Brothers, Jojo, Selena Gomez or Vanessa Hudgins in my iTunes. Couldn’t bring myself to remove Hannah Montana’s The Climb, though. Because the kids love it, of course <3 And Seussical the Musical- that was mine to begin with ;)

20- Grace (5) has a friend over, Gregory (7). I walked into my room to change and discovered like 5 kids sitting on my bed listening to music. I said “out please, I need to change my clothes and Gregory says “But we’re listening to Metallica.”…. I’ll just change later :)

21- mmmmm chocolate covered blueberries. I have never dipped a blueberry in chocolate before, I think I’m going to melt into my chair, you’ll find me in a puddle… a chocolate puddle with blueberries floating on top. This is heaven… What else have I been missing out on all my life?

22- the cool thing about having a husband who smokes is that I can roast a marshmallow on the couch using his lighter. Dropping a flaming marshmallow on my leg was just… a bonus, right?

23- OK… I spent like 3 hours yesterday plucking out my leg hair with tweezers. I’m just saying… feel my leg now…. seriously, feel it….

24- This one would be a link to Tiffani’s “Creepy ass children’s books” post. or was it crazy? crazy ass…. Yeah- anyway. it’s just one of the reasons I love her. I thought the SAME THING about this book and it “disappeared” from our bookshelves shortly thereafter. I think it was only successful because of that shiny spot.

25- This one was very very very long and rambling and totally inappropriate for Facebook. Thanks, Chocovine> have you tried the chocolate wine from Holland yet?

26- washing the dishes is so much more fun when Evie helps

27- I’m handing out plates with breakfast on them and Grace (5) tells me “If this egg sucks I’m going to be devastated.”  Luckily, it didn’t suck.

28- Paramore’s ‘All I Wanted Was You… this would be a video link, not that I’ve seen the video, but the song …. love that girl :)

29- OK…. it’s ok…. nothing to freak out about. So what if we’re not leaving on time. What’s “on time” anyway? We’re flexible, right? The date we said we were leaving was a random date we made up before we knew all of the facts that are presenting themselves to us as we speak. It’s OK… we’re still going…. it’s not like we have some kind of appointment we’re going to miss. We’re still going… it’s not like we’re going to be late for something, right? We’re good. It’s all good. Relax…

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Scratch that

  • Posted on June 21, 2011 at 3:56 pm

OK- I guess we don’t have to have the house cleared out by tomorrow.

And…. that’s all the excitement I’m going to discuss right now. If you check out the Upcoming Trip Details page, you’ll see that I added a map. At this point, the itinerary listed is pretty solid looking. Let’s see how long that lasts.

We’re still technically “undecided” about our plans after October. I’d like to go back on the road and explore the Southeastern states, so if you live out that way please don’t hesitate to add yourself to the List of People to Visit.

OK… I’m heading back into the jungle of sticky notes, endless lists, reminders, notes-to-myself and things to send to Goodwill.

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