37 days in- a Jump forward

Jumping ahead to TODAY- Nov 6th (promise to fill you in on the last 36 days too)

On the road again- 37 days since we left San Clemente- super behind on my blog- but trying to keep good notes to update when I can.  Biggest reason for the delay is the photos- I need to get them off my camera and Josh is the only one who knows how to do that.  If you know me, or Josh, you know that once I learn how to do something- it becomes my burden ongoing, so I am not learning this.  Be patient though- updates are coming on where we have visited so far: 

Ramona and Julian CA

Novato and SF CA

Redcrest CA (Redwood Forrest)

Portland, Beaverton and Tillamook OR

Seattle, Redmond, Bainbridge Island, Mukilteo, Sequim, Poulsbro WA

Now in Yakima WA almost to Pendleton OR on our way to the Nampa/Meridian and Boise ID area 

Can I just be honest though.  We are driving- again, away from family.. further further into.. the unknown.  I am growing weary of staying strong- for everyone.  Mainly for my kids.  I can’t overly be sad in front of them as they will definitely reflect it themselves.  I am sad though.  I feel lost.  I am learning new things from the Lord daily.  My biggest one is “we are strangers in this world”.  I understand it at a new level.  Not only because everywhere we go is new and unfamiliar but because we are called to “store up treasures in heaven” and not here.  My very core- perhaps because I am a woman, or a mother I don’t know- but my core wants stable- safe-and somewhere to root.  Every place we have gone I feel a pull to stay at, because deep in me doesn’t want to be nomadic.  I want to be “home”.  I feel so lost guys.  I know I am where I am suppose to be but not knowing where I am going or when we will be “home” has it’s toll on my heart.  My view of Gods earth feels distant- like a look from the moon- it’s an untouchable beauty and I am just waiting for God to show us the landing spot.  I’ve visited with my mom, my dad, my brother in SC, my brother in OR, Joshs dad, my cousin Danielle, my Aunt Joanne, we have visited the kids Uncle Ragi, my Uncle Newt, My Aunt Becky- and we have so many more to see on the road.  This wouldn’t be possible if we were living like this for now- but I feel like I am saying goodbye and not really hello- cause I don’t know where I am going.  Everyone has been so great and encouraging and helpful.  I look at my kids and smile and stay strong for all those I visit and that visit us, but I am sad.  Have you seen inside out?  I just saw it for the first time a few nights ago.  Sad is ok, and this is me getting through it- by sharing it with you.  Don’t worry I am not overly sad, sobbing and depressed or discouraged sad just… driving- in- the- car- and- no- one- knows- I- am- typing- this- sitting- silently- in- tears- sad.

Here’s my prayer- (on my radio now- thanks Leela Braganza)

Give me joy when my heart is broken

Give me peace when I’ll all rundown

Give me hope when I’m disappointed

Give me power

Thru every season, and every hour

Oh Lord I’ll see you, whether your near or far

In every moment and every doubt

May I be leaning closer to your heart

The trials of our first day on the road

Leaving San Clemente- OH SO SLOWLY

Sept 30th- Oct 1st
Spent the night in the RV outside our apartment- we had to be out by midnight and we spent the whole evening cleaning everything that we could so we could be sure to get our deposit back.  By 1am Josh and I were finally settled and in bed.  We kept the slide out only a few inches so we could get back to the kids if they needed us- sadly they did.  Despite what I thought was a great idea in using these to create a bed rail for each bunk:

Savannah completely broke her bed rail and fell out of bed in the middle of the night BAM, SHAKE SCREAM- jumping out of bed to see my girl covered in blood.. She had lost a tooth in the fall- a bottom tooth that was already loose but it sure did scare her.  She didn't remember falling but calmed down after a light cleaning and slept with us the rest of the- um- morning.  At about 6am I took this pic of her in our bed, and Cheyenne of course (who ends up in our bed nearly every morning).

When morning did come I noticed that the poor thing had also split her chin open (this had happened before with the whole loosing-of-a-tooth thing too and ended with stitches.).  Poor thing!  She was terrified.  So instead of leaving town right away we found ourselves going to the urgent care center- with the whole rig.  We couldn't park anywhere near the entrance so parked a few blocks over in the Walmart parking lot in San Clemente and Josh walked her over.  She so wanted me to be there if she needed stitches- but alas she went with Josh.  While they were doing there thing I started looking for a campground in the Temecula area.  Being new to RVing (literally hours in) I didn't really realize that a lot of places just book up and that reservations should be made 2 days in advance.  Man I called around and used a couple of cool sites and books (allstays.com and a book called "Free and low-cost campgrounds"

Without much luck and too worried about Savannah I decided to bring the kids into Walmart and just as I was getting them all out of the Silver Bullet Josh and Savannah return- with a bandaid and a treasure.  NO STITCHES!! What a relief, and a smile from my girl worth a thousand bucks (instead it cost us $90 because the urgent care wasn't in network... but it was worth it since they checked out her back and neck too giving me peace of mind that all was fine).

So now we are coming up on say 2pm- and we are STILL in San Clemente- so we head out... oh but we don't get far as something just isn't riding right.  I mean this is the first time we have driven it loaded but we were just so bouncy.  We tried to pump up our airbags but after 3 exits we decided to stop off at the Carls Jr in south side San Clemente where the truckers always are to check the hitch.


It wasn't looking good- back of the truck too low and front of the trailer too low.

As we were debating on how to remedy it this man in a truck towing a boat pulls into the parking lot and jumps out of his truck in a panic asking Josh if he wouldn't mind checking his back.  He had gotten stung by a bee while driving and wanted to have someone check it out- he had never been stung before.  It hurt and he wasn't sure if he was having an alergic reaction.   We helped him and looked at it and I got him some rub on benedryl to relieve the itch and he calmed down.  As he was getting back in his truck he just casually says "turn it over"- he pointed.  "The hitch" he continued "turn it upside down, I do it all the time, it'll give you more lift"- and just like that we had a solution.  Now where was that tool- Josh brought every one he had but nope, we just didn't have the right size.  So I stayed behind with an unhitched trailer, a camping chair and a baby and Josh and the other kids went to buy the tool to take the hitch off and turn it around.  He returned and did his deal and we are STILL in San Clemente.

We hadn't sold our van yet so were planning to pick it up and bring it with us to SD.  We could just sell it from there since we would be there for a few nights.  It seemed like a decent plan but then my mom opted to hold it in San Clemente for us and help facilitate its sale so back into town we go to pick up the van.  A final goodbye to the apartment and then dropped the van off in my moms driveway.  A final goodbye to her neighborhood and to our loyal van that I am just so sad we couldn't find some way to keep... and then we were FINALLY on the road out of town.  It was like to longest goodbye ever.  You know the whole "pull the bandaid off quick" kind of deal.... this was like slow and painful!  But we were on our way to...to.. oh crap thats right, we had NO IDEA!  South- that is all we knew and so we went.

I did finally find a place- Dixon Lake RV park.  GPS'd it and we thought we had the worst behind us.

GPS FAIL- it brought us a total back terrible way that literally brought us to a one way road with an impossible hairpin turn and we have a 50' total vehicle.  We were stuck and had to pass the turn and continue down into some kind of farmland or something.  We found a small little trash can area that we just stopped at to figure out what to do.  Turning around there was the only option but it wasn't going to be easy.  Joshs driving skills and my direction giving skills were put to the most gruesome test before we had even learned how to drive or give directions.  We blocked farm traffic, scrapped the bottom of the RV in a dip.. back and forth slow and steady until we turned that puppy around to face the giant hill we had just come down.  We had to gun it- 1st gear, scraaaaape goes the rear and everyone cheering as we go go go in 1st gear and that was that.  We learned a valuable lesson- to use "truck" routes and "truck" GPS settings going forward!

Seriously- Google maps and the GPS insisted on the blue route and in true "The Office" fashion we follow the directions completely out of the way onto a one way narrow farm street that is impossible for an RV.  We should have taken the 'duh' route- and we did when we came back and forth to town in the days to come.  We had to warn our visitors though so they wouldn't make the same mistake!

Oh but the novice adventure continued when we got to our campground to find that we had a space exactly the size of our RV- no wiggle room- with a cliff of sorts on all sides, and we gotta back the thing it.  We really starting second guessing if we could even do the trip at all at this point.  It was about to get dark and we are on a cliff.  Josh is so great though, doesn't freak or feel pressured by the blocked traffic, takes it slow and back and forth and back and forth we get in there and it is just perfect.  Remember how trailers have no brakes- and now we are unhitching it on the edge of a cliff trusting little orange and yellow triangles under the wheels to keep it from rolling to its death- well you can understand our apprehension to be inside while this took place so me and the kids sat outside in the dark while Josh unhitched and we all just hoped it wouldn't roll away.  Once confident that it wasn't going anywhere we piled in and pushed the slide out immediately.

Our tiny area to park for our first real night in our new home.  This street is on the top of a ridge- great view from our place down to the city below.  If you look closely you can see we had stairs down to a picnic area, which was nice!  More pics of that in the next post about our stay in Dixon Lake.

I remember that I had found a VHS in the RV about how to use the slide out properly so popped that in while we were getting settled inside.  Well - you are suppose to level the RV first, before pushing the slide out- opps.  Leveling the RV is important for the fridge to work, the stuff not to roll all over the place and for the slide out- but we had already put it out and were definitely not level while watching the video.  So we slept somewhat upside down that night.    We learned we needed something like this, but we also knew that the next time we would move the RV wouldn't be until we left that campground: