Wet Tennessee

I am sitting in the "upstairs" of our camper (our bed) writing this blog post on a very rainy Tuesday from our campground at the KOA in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Outside it's pouring down rain, it's our third day of rain since we left Chesapeake, Virginia. It's times like this when Kathy and I agree that a larger RV would really be nice. With only 2-1/2 feet by 8 feet of floor space things get tight for 4 people when you have no where else to go.

A wet welcoming to Tennessee

 Yet despite the wet weather, we've enjoyed the past few days. Our first stay was at the Cades Cove campground in the middle of Great Smokey Mountains National Park. We arrived at the campground late on Sunday night with the rain coming down hard outside. The drive up to Cades Cove is a long windy road narrow mountain road. The sort of road that is used in BMW and Audi commercials that looks like so much fun to drive (if it's not dark, rainy, and you are actually in a new sporty BMW or Audi and not in a Ford F350 with a camper in your truck bed). Although the campground was mostly open, the ranger station was closed and the camp store was closing the day after we arrived. That night we debated heading what ever direction necessary to get to dry weather. One of the advantages of having your home completely mobile and having no immediate plans; one of the advantages we hadn't yet used.

Our rig was a tight fit on the road up to Cades Cove

The next morning the weather was nicer, so we decided to explore the 11 mile loop road of Cades Cove. The loop took us the better part of the afternoon and gave us the opportunity to explore over 300 years of Tennessee mountain settlements, along with getting to see numerous Thanksgiving survivor turkeys (hunting isn't permitted in National Parks) and white tale deer that were fearless (even of our truck and camper). We had planned to complete the loop and head to the Southern end of the park in North Carolina, but our tour had taken too long so instead we opted to move to a less privative campground in Pigeon Forge.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park family pic!

John Oliver's cabin in Cades Cove

Fearless wildlife in Cades Cove

The town of Pigeon Forge is home to Dollywood, along with countless other tourist attractions. Luckily Dollywood was closed today, our one day we had to explore the amusement park, otherwise we would have spent a large sum of money to spend a day at this park in the pouring rain (and even with the rain we still would have love(d) every moment). Instead we opted to visit Wonder Works and have lunch next door at the Hard Rock Cafe. We had no idea what to expect at Wonder Works (we actually originally thought it was a hotel), but we were blown away, we all had a lot of fun. It was kind of like a very interactive science museum combined with an arcade (which is covered with your admission price).

Siena takes a nap at Wonder Works

Not sure about this place we are about to visit

Astronaut Nadia at Wonder Works

Siena on the 4 level high ropes course at Wonder Works

As for lunch, it had been years since Kathy or I had been in a Hard Rock Cafe, and as we came to the door there was a sign saying that they would be closing at 2pm (we arrived at 1:10 pm). Lunch was good, but as we were eating a band was setting up and getting ready for the upcoming private party. The band turned out to be The Temptations (yes, those Temptations)! Although there is only one of the original members left, we could see they still had all the moves as they warmed up with this tune.

The Temptations warming up

So yes it's a wet rainy miserable night, but so far we've had a pretty incredible time in Tennessee, and honestly the weather kind of reminds us of home. And to all my doubter Seattle friends, I have to tell you Pigeon Forge and Dollywood are a family fun wonderland on a scale I have never seen anywhere in the western USA. If your are adventurous and open minded, it's totally worth a family vacation!

Not Every Day of the Trip is Epic, but...

Early on in this trip, after we had several days that were amazing (whale watching off the north end of Vancouver Island) then we had a string of more typical days. Kathy told the girls, not every day on this trip would be "epic", but then some days would be. After my last post, I figured I should write a more positive post. Enough with the thorns, here's some roses...

Epic Day #1

Climbing the Precipice Trail. The white spot in the background is the camper.

It was our last full day on Mount Desert Island, the island off the coast of Maine that contains Acadia National Park. Our plan was to see as much of the park as possible while driving the park loop road. The first stop was the National Park visitor center, where we watch a 15 minute movie about the park that talked about all the amazing things to do in the park. Midway through the movie, we were introduced to something called the Precipice Trail. It looked like a jungle gym playground for adults on the side of a cliff. After watching this part of the movie I looked over at Siena and shared a 'yah, we gotta do that' look.

Gripping the railing high up on the trail.

Nadia pretending to be terrified (at least I think she's pretending).

Thirty minutes later we were parked at the trailhead for the Precipice Trail. Multiple signs warned of the dangers (serious injury or death), but hey, this is an east coast National Park, we were from the west coast where they have REAL National Parks. So my daughters and I started up the trail with Kathy staying behind. The trail pretty quickly went from steep stairs carved into the granite mountain side, to very steep lumbering over boulders (similar to Aasgard Pass back home), to near vertical up ladders built into the mountain side. Ladders would be followed by very exposed narrow ledges with steel handhold bars secured into the granite rock cliff. The girls and I kept going up, initially I had the idea we'd go up part of the way and then turn down, but we were all having too much fun. After quite a while of hiking (or climbing) we reached the halfway point which offered a turnaround. We opted to continue. At some point, several hundred feet above the parked camper and Kathy, I called on my cellphone down to her to let her know we were all okay and we could see her. She came out and snapped the following picture of us.

Can you find us on the rock wall?

The views from this hike (climb) were incredible, with the October fall colors making it that much more amazing. Several times on the hike up we saw other hikers on the way down. I kept asking, "there is another way down, right?". The only response I ever got was, "I think so". After a series of ladders, and a steep final climb, we reached the top. My daughters and I all on a total adrenalin high. But now we had to go down. The park map suggested the shortest route would be the North Champlain Trail, which we took, but we missed the turn off to get us within a mile of where the truck and Kathy were located. There was a long walk along the park road of maybe two miles before we got back to the car after a 2-1/2 hour hike.

At the summit of Champlain Mountain.

Epic Day #2

Looking towards Penobscot Narrows Bridge from Fort Knox

We were headed out of our campground at Bass Harbor, with the goal of staying near Freeport Maine, a relatively short drive. With a full day to get to our location, we decided to take the scenic route along highway 1 down the coast of Maine (as suggested to us by Clem at Younity Winery). Our primary reason for taking this side route was drive across the Penobscot Narrows Bridge and visit Fort Knox (not the one with the gold). Fort Knox is a fort that was built primarily for the civil war, but also used to defend Maine during the Spanish American War. This was America's first fort built of granite.

The girls exploring Fort Knox

When we arrived at the fort, they were finishing up setting it up for Halloween. I believe the plan was to allow a tour of the fort after hours with all the spooky decorations. The fort reminded me in many way of my home state World War II forts (Fort Casey, Fort Flagler, Fort Worden, etc), but this was of course much older. Plenty of long dark passage ways, with halloween decorations, and few other visitors made for a ton of fun for the whole family. We did take time to learn that the fort was built during the civil war and was used though to the Spanish American War, but that the fort had never seen any real action. However, it was kind of difficult turning this into much of a history lesson as all four of us ran though the mostly empty fort, jumping out and scaring one another.

Siena explores a spiral staircase in the fort

The girls particularly enjoyed running up and down dark passageways and exploring pitch dark rooms. The highlight for Nadia was when she hid in a dark corner only to jump out and nearly give ME a heart attack. We probably could have spent all day at the fort, but we had miles to go still before we reached Freeport so we had to cut our visit short. In the end we felt our $10 family admission fee was well worth it.

Nadia explores one of the long dark hallways.

Confessions

True confession time. This trip has not been all rainbows and unicorns. Don't get me wrong, the trip has been incredible. At the outset of this trip I really only had two goals: spend as much time with my family as I could, and see the USA and Canada with my family. On those two goals I feel this trip has been a complete success so far. However, I do feel that I owe it to those who have put forth the time to bother reading this blog, to be honest with some of the downsides.

Life inside a box on the back of a pickup truck

We brought too much stuff. That's sort of a "well DUH!" thing. However, we did spend many months trying to cut down our worldly belongings, then weeks trying to figure out just what we would need. Now, almost two months in, there are numerous items that have never or almost never been used and they need to be donated or sent home. You can't open a cabinet or drawer in this camper without stuff shooting out because it's packed in too tight. Yes, Louie, you were right, our camper is WAY too small, and there is an increasing possibility we will upgrade before we get home. Kathy and I often like to imagine what it would be like to have a room where we could close the door and then stand up in the room. I'm not sure what is going to happen when we pick up all of our winter ski gear in New Mexico.

Homeschooling (or roadschooling) is hard. What we found out REAL quick is that our children treat us differently than then treat their teachers. Our children will argue and fight with us in a way they would never argue and fight with their teacher. So some days (many days) school work can be a complete struggle and fight. Kathy does most of the pushing on this, and it's good she does. If it was left to me our children might fall back several grades before this trip is over. Both of our daughters are very smart, and ultimately they will succeed. However when they don't want to do school work they will fight us harder than they ever would fight their teacher, and when they fail with an assignment with us, they are much harder on themselves than they would be if they failed with a teacher. All of this has the potential to causes the schooling process to be a lot more emotional than it would be otherwise. Part of the problem might be that the schedule is weird too. It took us a while to figure out when is the best time for our children to do their schooling (the mornings). Some days we will have long leisurely mornings where they can do homework, other days we need to get going right away. So in order not not fall behind, schooling has to be done every morning where we can do it, which means at least a couple hours of math and spelling regardless of what day of the week it is.

We didn't plan this trip out correctly. I now believe that there is an art to living on the road. There is a time for travel and and time for staying. There are places you need to plan ahead for, and there is a need to keep a certain level of flexibility. There is something that you just can not figure out by lookng at maps and reading articles on the internet. There is something about being transient that is learned with time and experience (hopefully we'll figure it out eventually). Our biggest mistake was leaving at least half of a month too late. As we rolled into the northeast (especially the far northeast and southeast Canada), we realized far too late that much of this part of the world shuts down at the end of September or shortly after. It has become very hard to find places to stay (other than Walmart parking lots...which we haven't done yet). This has forced us to eliminate a large part of Canada that we (or me at least) really wanted to see: New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia.

Being at the mercy of the weather sucks, especially when your home is a tiny box on the back of a truck. I had imagined that we would be living mostly outside and that the camper was only a place to store our stuff and to sleep at night. The problem is that on cold wet nights, out in the wilderness, you want to stay inside, and inside is really small. There is NO privacy at all for anyone. Usually we figure it out, the girls up on our bed playing with their Legos, Kathy and I down below getting caught up with emails. However if more than one person is trying to stand and get something done at the same time, fights can break out.

Health has been a concern. We try and eat healthy and Kathy has done a heroic job at coming up with wonderful one or two skillet healthy meals (we have no microwave or oven), but there are culinary wonders like Canadian poutine, Tim Hortons donuts, or Maine Lobster. Exercise is another concern. I would say that I am definitely more active on a day to day basis that I am when I'm working my normal hours in front of a computer, but with that said, I'm not going to the gym, I'm not running, I'm not lifting weights. I'm active, but I don't exersize. There is just pretty much hiking (and occasionally chopping wood). 

Car trouble is a huge concern. When your car breaks down on the way to and from work it's a big inconvenience, but if it breaks down in the middle of nowhere where you don't have cell service it can really ruin your day. So when a check engine light comes on it's a huge stress. When a tire goes flat and you're at least a hundred miles from any really sizable town you are not happy, especially when you don't have a jack powerful enough to lift your truck + camper. Routine things like an oil change become stressful. Normally you take your car to your mechanic or to the dealership for the oil change, but what if you are more than 3,000 miles from home? Who do you trust? For a vehicle like a Ford F350 with a 3000 pound camper in it's bed you can't just roll into Quicky Lube, you really need to plan ahead (over a week ahead has been our experience). Not everyone can take a Ford F350 with a camper on back and fit it in their shop, and it's not easy to just pull the camper off and leave it somewhere, most campsites actually won't allow you to leave your camper without the truck. 

We miss our friends and family. We really really do. Sometimes you want someone other than a family member to talk to. Sometimes you need to talk to someone other than family about your family. Kathy and I have gotten in the habit of quoting various friends and family ("That would be a NOPE", "Have you tried trying"), it helps, but we still miss you all. I had imagined that we would make many friends along the way, but in almost 2 months I can only think of 4 strangers who I have truly had great conversations with and thought this person is someone I would like as a friend (Peter in Prince Rupert, Sully in Hyder, German guy in Jasper, and Clement in Unity). 

We've been lazy. I'm not sure this is fully a bad thing, but definitely not a good thing all the time. We sleep in. It is rare that this family is up before sunrise. This may sound wonderful at first, but when it takes 30 minutes to get yourself awake (at a minimum) then another 30 minutes to wake up your children, then another 30 to make breakfast, another 30 to break down their beds, another 30 to move all the gear from sleep mode to travel mode, and a couple hours of school work, you've pretty much lost your morning and sometimes part of your afternoon. Which leads me to...

We have surprisingly very little free time. I thought I would be working on developing the next million dollar iPhone app on the trip. We were all going to become ukulele virtuosos. I was going to get up every morning and take amazing sunrise photos and then stay out late every night for amazing star photos. Kathy was going to become a master water painter. There are the morning activities, then we see what we are going to see, or hike what we are going to hike, or drive to where we are going to drive. Then we get ready for bed and then repeat. This is something that we need to fix or at least fine tune before this trip is over. It probably doesn't help that the days are growing shorter. Perhaps after December 22 things will improve.

We collect hitchhikers. Bugs and spiders find there way in the camper, then we drive to someplace new and colder, and they don't want to leave. In South Dakota we picked up giant stink bugs that stayed with us until at least Michigan. In Wisconsin we picked serveral lady bugs and up a fly ("Jeff") who I think is still with us. The other day I found I had been bitten in the posterior by something, the thing is it must have happened in the camper, in bed, when I was wearing shorts. I never found the perp. Most of the little hitchikers are gone now, and we aren't picking up new ones because it's now too cold. 

In the end, I don't regret a minute of the time I have spent on this trip. I do truly treasure spending almost every minute of the day with my family. I feel like I am far closer to my daughters now and know them better than I thought I could have (for example, Nadia is very flatulent sleeper. This is seriously how she wakes herself up most mornings). I have really enjoyed seeing so much of North America. Turns out, it is NOT a small world, it's a very big one, and there is a lot to see without even crossing an ocean, and we've just gotten started. We aren't giving up. Just wanted to let you know it's not all rainbows and unicorns.

Starting week 3

As we are entering our third week away it still just feels like a long vacation. We are beginning to all get into the groove of life on the road. The girls are offering to help out more with the daily chores (making the beds, making dinner, daily math and reading homework) but I think everyone in the family is still haunted with the occasional nightmare or at least weird dream associated with the anxiety of our sudden and dramatic change in lifestyle.

enjoying a hike down from Whistler Peak in Jasper

Life is made easier by a change in the weather, at least for a few days. After almost 2 weeks of mostly rain, Jasper Alberta has presented us warm dry days. Today and yesterday have neared 25 degrees (that’s 80 or you folks south of the border). And although Jasper is an expensive tourist town, I believe it is still cheaper than life in Seattle even when we do go out and enjoy the town. As I type this in the lobby of the Jasper Fairmont Lodge sipping a wonderful local IPA, I am fully aware that this horribly overpriced resort is still reasonable for a boy from the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. Between Jasper and it’s Southern neighbor Banff we have another 10 days of luxury Rocky Mountain bliss then it is off into Montana and beyond that the unknown.

Here's What Were Doing...

9.6.15 -- written by Nadia: 

We just got into Hyder, Alaska and it is rainy! I can just imagine the hot weather. But it has been fun with my family. We have seen a few bears when we were driving to Stewart, BC and we saw a family of bears just walking across the street. And in Telegraph Cove, BC  there was a cub.

Here is a little video update from the trip as well. (Video should be uploaded now - internet service is few and far between and uploading videos is not an easy task on a slow connection). 

We had to cut our video a little short due to some giggling. But what I wanted to say is a Kinder Egg is a hollow chocolate candy egg with milk chocolate on the outside and white chocolate in the middle and a toy inside. And it is only found in Canada. 

I am looking forward to the next part of our trip, in about 2 weeks we will be heading to Bozeman, MT to visit my uncle Dan. We’ll blog and make some more videos soon… 

Our family heading out for a walk in Stewart, BC

week 1 + 2 days recap (Siena)

(this is Siena's post)

Friday day 1 - On Friday we left home and drove into Canada and spent the night in Whistler, BC. 

Saturday day 2 - Saturday was the first full day and we walked down to Whistler Village and it was very, very, very wet but Nadia and I still had a lot of fun. We did a maze and when we started the maze we were trying to stay dry but around the end we didn't really care and we came out soaking wet. Then we went bungee jumping on a trampoline and Nadia was really good at it and at the start when I went in I was scared  but for my last jump I did a double backflip.

Sunday day 3 - On Sunday we drove from Whistler down to a ferry to take us to the winery we were staying at for that night and we got really good bread and there were lots of little birdies

and there was a dog too.

Monday day 4 - On Monday we drove down to Port Hardy and we went to the beach and we were playing in the rain at high tide and I found a stump in the waves and I jumped on to the stump right as a wave came and my feet got soaked.

Tuesday day 5 - We were at Telegraph Cove and we were having lunch when Daddy went to get the umbrellas and he came back with the umbrellas and a picture of a bear so like a completely normal person I took my umbrella and ran to try to find a large group of people with cameras when I found all the people the bear was in a tree so I stayed for a while then I went back to the restaurant to finish my hot chocolate and when I went  back to find the bear I found the bear coming down the tree so we followed the bear for a while then we went to the whale museum and Daddy and I went to find the bathroom (or washrooms as the call them in Canada ) anyways when we went to the bath/washrooms they were in a whale watching store so we signed up to go whale watching.

Wednesday day 6 - On Wednesday we went whale watching and we saw a bunch of orcas and humpback whales we also saw more bald eagles then I could could count (probably 30 something ) and we also saw a rock covered in sea lions and thousands of birds.

Thursday day 7 - Thursday was probably the longest day of our trip 15 hours on a ferry we played for most of the day and we watched some movies and we had all three of our meals on the boat.

Friday day 8 - Friday we woke up took a shower and when we came out there were two deers in our camp site and we met new friends and played most of the day. 

Saturday day 9 - Saturday all we really did was drive but we did see some bears and we had a campfire and I carved a salmon out of wood. 

First Homework Assignment

The first homework assignment for the girls was to write their own blog posts and share what they were thinking about the upcoming trip. These are their thoughts... 


From Nadia (age 8)... 

I am excited to travel for 9 months! I can‘t wait to go to Florida. It is the time of my birthday.
9 months is a long time. I’ll be with my family and I’ll have so much fun we’ll see new places go to new towns and we did a three week trip a while ago to get ready. Everybody is so exited about the year trip. I am mostly exited for San Diego and Florida, because we are going to Key West and Disney World. 


From Siena (age 11)... 

I am going on a trip for nine months in a camper. Yesterday (8-24-15) we finished packing the legos and play mobile to take on the trip. I am very exited to go to Alaska because I have never been there and I think it would be fun to go somewhere I have never been. I will do more posts when we are on the trip.

The Girls at one of our favorite spots in Taos, NM