Day 157 –
I’m still counting the days, because we’ve still living in the bus. Even if it’s parked in the side yard of our house. Marty is already back at work – his beloved brewery took him right back and loaded him up with hours. It’s weird that we aren’t together 24/7. It’s also weird being home – knowing where the best thai food is, the best bottle shop, the library that actually lends us books, etc. Day 178 – Kids are off on their first day of school. It’s supposed to be magic. For the first time EVA – a bus will pick them up from our home. They will eat lunch at school, and then return on that magical orange bus. This is going to be ok, right? I miss them so much already. It’s been ten minutes. Day 192 – We brought the bus to the shop. We’ve had some concerns…I mean, the bus basically had a heart attack in New Mexico. But, imagine that you’re 40 years old, running up hills, in New Mexico; you might have a heart attack too! Anyway, we’re dropping it off for a while. Day 222 – Just picked the bus up. Yes – it was in the shop for a full month! The estimate for all the work it needs was FOURTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS! No – it didn’t get all the work done that it needed! We had the amazing technician address the things that might kill us, in order, until our budget was spent. The rest will have to wait. Day 248 – We know when we can leave. When we came back, we knew we’d be here until December – maybe May. Now we know that we can* leave in December. If we want to. Well, we do…but it’s not that easy. We came back and enrolled the kids in school. So, if we leave again, we have to pull them out, again. We put off some doctor appointments and whatnot, so now we have to catch up. We still haven’t sold our house….so let’s do that. It’s bewildering how quickly we find ourselves entangled in commitments. We ran – long and hard and fast- from this life we had built, but then came right back to it. And we’re in danger of getting stuck again.
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New article available on Wand'rly magazine: Why we chose a bus (opens in a new window)
Day 120- 150 We left the Hopi Nation and traveled to the Four Corners. The Navajo Nation is huge – we traveled through it for hours – amazed by the mesas, hoodoos and other rock structures. We began to notice these small round buildings. Hogans are traditional Navajo homes. They are built with the door facing east to accept the rising sun and good blessings for the day. Many Dine’ people who still practice the traditional religion have hogans, even if they live in modern homes now. As we were leaving the Four Corners National Monument, we spotted a Prevost bus conversion. This is the closest thing we’ve ever see to our home – so we followed it! Into Colorado! It turned into some casino (no thanks) and we kept driving, which is how we found the groovy town of Cortez and Mesa Verde National Monument. We adored the Four Corners area as we got to spend a different day in each state…Colorado yesterday, Utah today, maybe New Mexico tomorrow? It was wonderful! After Four Corners, we moved into Utah proper, a beautiful town called Blanding, which we adored. We had a difficult time finding a parking spot there – probably the most challenging of the entire trip – but ended up in a quiet campground. It was in this campground, in Utah, some 3000+ miles from home, that our princess learned to ride a two-wheeled bike! Natural Bridges was THE MOST SPECTACULAR park we’ve been to. The hike was so hard, which made reaching the base of Sipapu bridge so much sweeter. The park rangers told us about a secret spot with dinosaur tracks…totally unmarked and hidden…so of course, we went to check that out! Our time in Utah is beyond magical. From swimming at a beautiful pool on the 4th of July, to standing at Forrest Gump Point in Monument Valley, to driving on the breathtaking and terrifying Moki Dugway, we are absolutely enchanted with southern Utah. And then, we headed home. Through New Mexico, Texas, and Kansas. Into Oklahoma – for a crazy heat wave – and then Arkansas, where it was still hot. We ended up in a campground outside of Little Rock, where we bought a blow up pool and used our portable air compressor and the water at the camp site to make ourselves a pool party. Over the big bridge and over the mighty Mississippi and we are east, once more. We chose a campground just on the outskirts of Memphis, the TO Fuller Campground harkened back to the Jim Crow era. While digging a pool, the CCC found the remains of a native American village, so there’s now a historic site adjacent to the park. Tennessee is our fifteenth state! We wanted to see our family in Knoxville, but were afraid of the mountainous drive so we headed down to Huntsville, Alabama. We stayed at a former high school, converted into a campus of craft breweries. When in Huntsville, you go to the US Space and Rocket Center! On day 149, we left Alabama and headed for Georgia. And then we kept driving – to South Carolina – to North Carolina – and then home. Day 149- we parked in the bus in the side yard. Of our own house. TRIP TOTALS: 149 days 101 days offgrid 86 nights were free 15 states 18 Jr Ranger badges 6129 miles on the bus (some ~ 15k miles on the minivan !!!!) Categories |
stancil 6Family of 6 traveling the country full time. Archives
November 2019
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