Trip Recap

I have spent a good deal of time avoiding the clean-up associated with coming home after a journey such as ours.  Of course the first thing we did was all take a bath...  then came finishing the laundry, putting away the food, washing the kitchen items and repacking them for later use.  I have yet to even open the camper or tent to clean those areas ...  however I've spent a lot of time thinking about when I am going to get moving on that.

We are considering our Memorial Day Weekend trip to New York City a part of this vacation.  This makes it the NYC to LA trip we planned ... or, as I dorkily call it "Sea to Shining Sea 2015".

• 3 flat tires
• 1 lost front end
• 1 trailer hitch fail
• 34 days away from home
• 8,533 miles driven
• 1370 photos taken
• 8 campgrounds camped
• Cedar Bluff State Park, Ellis, Kansas
• James Robb Colorado River State Park, Fruita, Colorado
• Thousand Lakes RV Park, Torrey, Utah
• Mather Campground, Grand Canyon Village, Arizona
• Anthony Chabot Regional Park, Oakland, California
• The Redwoods RV Resort, Crescent City, California
• Stagecoach State Park, Oak Creek, Colorado
• Cherry Creek State Park, Aurora, Colorado
• Mormon Island State Recreational Area, Doniphan, Nebraska

• 6 hotels stayed(we achieved Hyatt Platinum Status on this trip)
• Hyatt House Parsippany/Whippany, NJ
• Hyatt Place Indianapolis, IN
• Hyatt Place Topeka, KS
• Hyatt Place Riverside, CA
• Hyatt Place Reno, NV
• Hyatt Place Salt Lake City, UT
• Hyatt Place Champaign, IL

• 10 National parks visited and toured  (many more that we drove through!)
• Independence National Historic Park/Liberty Bell, Philadelphia PA
• Colorado National Monument, CO
• Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
• Capitol Reef National Park, UT
• Grand Canyon National Park, AZ
• Joshua Tree National Park, CA
• Rosie the Riveter/WW2 Homefront, CA
• Redwood National Park, CA
• Dinosaur National Park, CO 
• Dixie National Forest, UT

•  Other notable parks/attractions
• Liberty State Park, NJ
• MOMA Museum, NYC
• Times Square, NYC
• Philadelphia Art Museum Steps, PA
• Petroglyphs of Moab, UT
• Mohave Desert, AZ/CA
• Give a Shoe/Take a Shoe, Mohave Desert, CA
• Glass Beach, CA
• Harry & David Village, OR
• Glen Canyon Dam Bridge, Page, AZ
• Unitarian Universalist Church of Grand Junction, CO
• Downtown Grand Junction
• Santa Monica Pier, CA
• Hollywood Blvd, CA
• Facebook Headquarters, CA
• Google Headquarters, CA
• Former home of Steve Jobs, CA
• Yoda Statue, CA
• Jedidiah Smith State Park, CA
• Homestead of Josie Morris, CO
• Bonneville Salt Flats, UT

...  the list is not complete!!

It was a fantastic journey.  I will be sorting through all of our photos and posting them a few at a time.  It is a daunting task, but so wonderful to relive the trip.

We have done a lot of talking as a family and we've made the decision that next year we will embark on a journey to the Pacific Northwest. We will take the northern routes, and Interstate 90.  Hopefully stopping at Craters of the Moon National Park, The Badlands, Glacier National Park, Mount Rushmore, Crater Lake ...  and more.  I have alarms set on my phone and on my computer for the first minute campsite booking is available for these places and will jump at the opportunity to begin planing 2016 adventures.

After the long journey ... thoughts

I am wrestling with the idea that a family takes a vacation together for 3 weeks and then when we come home ... life goes back to normal.  Actually ...  I should change my wording.  When a family goes on a TRIP (not as relaxing as a vacation!) together.  When we were on the road, we worked together daily ...  Oscar set up the tent - every time.  Milo and Tuesday unfolded the chairs around the fire.  We all worked to make sure that Casper was comfortable.  Brian and I talked and planned and worked together to get to the next destination while ensuring we could see the sights along the way. Then, when we came home it went back to the "every man for himself" way of living.  Each of us on our own path, intersecting briefly throughout the day.  It seems that this is a "modern" way of raising a family, doesn't it?  That we all "do our own thing".  The pioneers were more of an all for one and one for all mindset.  I believe that there is still time left that we have together as a family to try to get back some of that closeness. Is it just a matter of "gathering around the fire" every night?  Or perhaps we need more travel time together?  Once a month should we just take off in our little camper and sleep away from home together?  There's a way ...  and I will find it.

CC Log #7922

Today is the last day of our vacation. It is a bittersweet day. While it is wonderful to be arriving home it is sad that our cross country adventure has come to an end. We have done so much in the past three weeks that it is mind boggling that we had a life at home. Anyways, 

This is Oscar signing off, for the last time

Backroads

We are on our last little leg of this wonderful trip and we are taking some smaller back highways through Colorado.  Gorgeous.

Sleep

I so sleepy now

At Jedediah Smith's park in Crescent City, CA, we drove through an off-the-beaten-path redwoods dirt path trail called "Stout Grove". It was amazing, and far off the more touristy redwoods trails. The trees were huge, silent, and plentiful. The air was sweet and pure. My favorite tree we only discovered on our second drive through. It had a huge cave at its base, which the kids promptly all went into - even Casper. No fears about spiders or bugs or bats or anything else, they just wanted to get into the belly of the behemoth. Once all four were in, they shined flashlights around inside and made declarations of amazement. They begged Angie and me to go in. It took some courage, but we both went in. The craziest thing was that when I shone my flashlight up inside the huge tree, I noticed that the whole thing was completely hollowed out - and I could see all the way to the top!! Incredible!!

We had a loooooooong day of driving yesterday, I fixed a flat in the middle of a desert, we visited the Bonneville Salt Flats, and got bored of being in the car. We found out that people raced cars at over 600MPH on those flats. We dared not drive the van out though.

Today In Salt Lake City we swam all day, in fact we did two rounds: the sunny round and the dark skies round. Both were fun. The hottub was a little too hot, but the pool was just right. Everyone got plenty of Vitamin D. There were also plenty of stokes that arrived to sun themselves without even getting in to swim. Well, one bearded stoke with a Jamaica bathing suit got in for about 3 minutes but that was it. I was glad because I really didn't want to swim in stoke beardy pool water.

The best part of the day to me was our short venture out into town for pizza just about 10PM. As we left the hotel, we found a small overlook that gave us a panoramic view of the entire metropolitan area. Now fireworks are legal in Utah, and I'll say that EVERYONE was exercising their right to shoot them off. If I told you we could see hundreds of firework displays all at once, you wouldn't believe me. But we DID. We saw huge ones, small ones, colorful ones near and far. It was literally impossible to count the number of explosions we saw across the sky - easily in the hundreds every second. It was probably the most amazing 4th of July display I'd ever seen. Instead of seeing one display, we saw ALL of them!!  I wish my dad could've been there. But my family was, so it was cool.

4th of July

As planned, we spent last night at the Hyatt in Salt Lake City.  We are on break 1 from a day at the pool.  Happy 4th of July, everyone!

I don't know

I don't know what to do for this... I really don't.

Redwoods!

We saw some more redwoods, and now were in Nevada, heading to Utah.

CC log 7316

The past few days not much has happened. Except on the first we saw the redwoods which was spectacular.

Other than that we left the campsite and arrived in Reno. The air smelled odd there. Like expired hazelnut-chocolate coffee. That is really it.

Oscar signing off

Refreshed!

As we left California, we were leaving 6 nights in a row of camping.  Two of those nights we slept in the van.  While I am 100% positive CA is gorgeous under normal circumstances, the drought has made it super gritty and kind of all around dirty.  So, as you can imagine, camping left everything with a coat of fine dust on it.  We spent last night at a Hyatt Place in Reno, NV and we're all clean now! Showers... long showers... shampoo, swimming in the pool, the hot tub and clean bedding!  After we were clean and dried,  we watched Back to the Future together while eating authentic Mexican food (now my favorite food!)  We slept in and are now trekking through Nevada on our way to spend 2 nights at thr Hyatt in Salt Lake City.  Our landscape will not change once during this 7 hour drive so we are all using this time to read and write.  I love our family!

Crescent City

Well, we went to Crescent City, the redwoods were huge! And now we are on our way home! Oh yeah, I also lost a tooth.

Shopping stop... Medford, Oregon

1 peach
1 nectarine
1 apricot
1 plumb

2 gift boxes full of sweet goodness
2 moose munch cylinders
2 summer cookies
2 bee hive rice krispie treats
1 weird craft beef jerky
4 quarts of craft beer
1 can of coconut beer

and gobs and gobs and gobs of samples.

....  good bye Harry & David Country Village!

Relaxed

Even though we've learned some tough lessons in mediating arguments between our kids and others'  (we totally screwed Milo out of a fair trial today... completely threw the poor kid under the bus!) We have been able to relax and relax and relax the last few days here in Crescent City, California. 

CC log #63013

Today we arrived at a campground in the redwood forest. They are so huge! We left the campground on San fransico yesterday and most of it was driving however we did stop at a beach called the glass beach because of all the Weathered glass. Not much else to say.

Oscar signing off.

Cute

Share a Coke with a Hug cute.

SF /

San Francisco was pretty fun. We took a nice drive along through Silicon Valley, visiting stops like YouTube, Google, Facebook, and the house where Steves Jobs and Wozniak built the first 50 Apple computers. Our campsite smelled great and fresh, full of Eucalyptus trees, seclusion, and quiet. I did see an old traveling man with a big white beard come out of the restroom, and he said "Heeeeeyyyyy Brotha", which was kinda funny.

In Berkeley we stopped at famed punk venue 924 Gilman, as well as Alternative Tentacles Records HQ. We also stopped by an antique video game arcade, and Lucas Arts HQ. We did some drive bys of the haunted Atherton Mansion, Lombard's curvy steep streets, the Full House house, and the Golden Gate Bridge. And since the Supreme Court ruled gay marriage legal a couple days ago (and it was also Pride Weekend), we drove through the Castro District where we saw many celebrating (drunkenly) in the streets. One dude had shorts on that said "F@#k Me", and the kids got a kick out of that. Also another dude "rolled up" next to our car and offered me a joint, saying "One hit of this and you'll forget all your troubles". I politely declined. That night, as Milo was heading into the camper, Angie said "Good night, I love you!". And he said "Thanks".

Driving up to the Crescent City, we visited the Rosie the Riviter Park, and Glass Beach. Glass Beach featured sea-worn glass left over from a seaside dump that closed in 1967. We also passed a lot of beautiful coastal scenery. I decided that any time you're driving in a car and what you see out the window makes you say "F@#k" out loud, it must be a great road trip. Switchbacks were abundant, some of them 25MPH, some 15, and one was even 10. As the night wore on, the fog grew thick, making it seem like we were driving through a Mario Kart level, except if we fell off the side we would plunge down a massive cliff into raging ocean waters below. 

Better

I am not sick any more I feel a lot better. I was sick for a few days.  I am happy that I am not sick any more. I had a sore throat and a cough also I had a stuffy nose. It was not that bad. I had been feeling well.

Morning

It is 10:30 am.  I am sitting outside as I wait for my glass perculator top to show the right shade of brown.  We pulled into our campsite at 2:30 am and decided to sleep in the van as we could not see our surroundings and didn't want to disturb our neighbors.  We were exhausted.  A twisty, windey road ... with the dark, foggy night and the constant warning from the straight drop down cliffs and the manmade signs reminding us of the tsunami hazard that led us here.  So many travelers walking roadside!  A direct road to sunny southern California for them.  Away from the heroin tainted, rainy, chilly Pacific Northwest.
At the slightest break of morning light we were woken by a rooster's crow.  Hee hee hee...  is it because I am the mother of three boys that I find his chest puffing strut and you-better-take-me-seriously call absolutely adorable??  Oh!  What a love he is!!  You tell me how tough you are, you strong man!  Love.  Love. Love.
So I sit here, the furthest point from home so far, tired from the night... weighing the risk vs benefit and questioning  our choice to embark on such a journey with our four most precious little humans.  I am so proud of us for this trip!  Everything is filthy.  I don't enjoy dirt.  I am not comfortable on dirt.  Dirt covers my feet, the feet of my children, my pillow, my coffee pot.... and I am learning to just let it be.  To let myself be.  I have heard the kids laugh more in the last week than I have the entire previous six months.  Casper.... he's doing it.  And happily so!  Oscar has become a master of tent assembly and camper set up.  He's learned important life lessons on thr importance of leadership and brotherly love.  Brian is getting his thirst for adventure quenched with every roadside stop.  Tuesday is continuing her life lesson of relearning to trust.... and being together as a big, safe and uninterrupted family is helping her to fall back into the bubble she so desperately seeks.  Milo has had a rough transition though... my favorite words from him were said through the walls of the tent  on the first night camping. ..  "Mom?"  "What sweetie?"  "This really isn't working out".  Hee hee hee.  He's working through the challenges very well though.  Every playground, every beach, every hill, every trail... he's the first one there.  He's the one laughing and exclaiming "WOW!"  So, I know he's fine.  He's like me though in that he does not suffer in silence.  And that's ok. 
The coffee has finished brewing and my cup is halfway finished.  Today I will read a book, drink coffee and we will dance with the redwoods.

Goldfish crackers

So many goldfish crackers

Up the Golden State

We began the journey from San Francisco to Crescent City a little late, leaving the lovely, safe campground at 1pm.  A 6 hour drive north should have put us at our destination at 7pm... But you know how we roll.  It is midnight and we're still on the road.  A detour to the Rosie the Riviter National Monument  (and exploration of the WW2 museum) and yet another to see Glass Beach and we're still working out way up the coast.  It has been a wonderful day.

Sick

I am sick today and I feel yucky.

CC log #6237

Today we saw the Grand Canyon and it was stunning. There are very few words to describe its beauty.

Oscar signing off

CC log # 62711

PI haven't uploaded a blog for the past few days. Part of that is me being lazy and the other part is we have been in the desert for the past few days. We arrived in L.A. a couple days ago and we took the walk of fame. We then took a walk out on the board walk in Santa Martha.

That was two days ago. Yesterday we began our long journey north to San fransico. We had to sleep in a gas station parking lot last night and we finally arrived  at our camp ground earlier this morning. I have also continually dosed off all day.

This is oscar signing off 

Lots of places!

Well, I have not posted a blog for a long time. So here are some things we have done, saw the California Dinosaur, swam in a pool, and now were in San Francisco doing laundry. I miss home :(

Softening the blow

We've had a rough 18 hours.  With everything that happened yesterday, more has piled on.  Our back breaks are bad, something is dragging in the camper wheel, our camper lights stopped working (mysteriously, after 4000 miles) and we arrived at the campground at 2 am only to find the gates locked until 6am.  Every single Hyatt hotel within a 90 mile radius was booked... and then when we learned that a Hampton Inn an hour and a half away was going to be $299 a night, we did what any normal family would do and we drove to a gas station and slept in the van.  I cried most of the night.  The place we parked was safe, there was security and they knew we were there... it was well lit and had clean bathrooms... But I just felt so defeated.  Rather seeing it as a funny adventure, I felt like I let my family down.  I missed my dogs last night more than I've ever missed them.  I was sure I wouldn't sleep a wink.  Before I knew it though we were waking up and it was 7:30am!  Woohoo!  Time to get coffee and onward!  After being misdirected by the bitchy gps woman we finally found our space.  It is lovely.  We are camping in a Eucalyptus grove within a park outside of San Francisco.  The sky is beautiful, the smell of the air is cleansing and after a nap I think we are going to be ok.

Camping three days

We are camping three days and three nights!

Damn van

Today we drove up i5 from LA to San Fran.  We are about 8 hours into our trip (of our 6 hour trip) and gave about 2 more to go.  There are a lot of groves and ranches, including the famed Harris Ranch.  We suffered a flat tire on the camper that Brian changed in 110 degree weather.  It's been a really long day and I am hungry and grumpy.

Sixteen lanes and it is still slow!

What's with these LA people?  Don't they take the subway? Maybe a bus or something?  Geesh.

The new way

I called it the new way because it was a new way of planing building but maybe not but it was cool and awesome.

So i planned and planned and plotted and planned some things to do today. We began with a deliciously carby breakfast full of syrup and other fine sugars, which we had to fight 50 middle schoolers for, most of whom had dazed looks on their faces. At the end of our gorging, we realized they were a Christian choir as they serenaded us with some song about having faith in God as we made our way back to the hotel room.

We swam for an hour or so in the courtyard pool, where Tuesday met a friend from Scotland, and I increased the redness of my tan by a few shades. After a quickie stop for some great grub at Trader Joes, I promptly spilled cucumber cream all over my pants and we drove an hour and a half to LA.

We kicked off the party on Hollywood, checking out the walk of fame starz. We observed some folks getting ready for the premiere of Magic Mike XXL and stuck our feet into casts of famed actors including Chewbacca and Robin Williams. We were impressed by many outrageous characters, like a Times Square on crack, and lots of bearded barefoot middle aged men talking to themselves, or shouting at invisible bugs flying in the air. I thought, boy this is really a place you can be yourself, whoever you are, and no one is gonna judge.

We continued the party in the van, as we cruised through Laurel Canyon past Joni Mitchell's house. Not sure why i wanted to go there, maybe because of this Joni quote:
Ask anyone in America where the craziest people live and they'll tell you California. Ask anyone in California where the craziest people live and they'll say Los Angeles. Ask anyone in Los Angeles where the craziest people live and they'll tell you Hollywood. Ask anyone in Hollywood where the craziest people live and they'll say Laurel Canyon. And ask anyone in Laurel Canyon where the craziest people live and they'll say Lookout Mountain. So I bought a house on Lookout Mountain. 

We climbed through the Hollywood Hills, past Fox Studio (where we cheered for Family Guy's HQ),
 then down through Beverly Hills, and down Rodeo Drive where we saw Bijan's $1.7M yellow Rolls Royce convertible. Then, onward on Sunset past Whiskey a Go Go and out to Santa Monica.

We thought we were just going for a short walk off a long pier, but it turned out to be a 10,000 step walk all around the Santa Monica Pier and Promenade. Tuesday, Oscar, and Milo delighted themselves on a roller coaster, while Cass and I hit the Scrambler. 

We polished off the night at Taco Station where a non English speaking abuela made us some yum.

Been having such a relaxing time on vacation. It's hard for me to post because it always feels like I am working on something relaxing, like trying to get something relaxing done, planning my relaxation, organizing my relaxation tools, assembling or deconstructing the relaxation camp, fixing something that went wrong with the relaxmobile etc.

We arrived at Grand Canyon about 10PM, so we couldn't really see any of it when we were coming in. It was great though in retrospect as we saw a mile-long line of people waiting to get into the entrance the next day.

We had a couple great fires, s'mores, naps, and other relaxing times at Grand Canyon. We saw large elk and of course large rock formations. It was huge, so big I'm not really sure how to think about it. It was giant and magnificent, and every steep cliff we observed descended into a bigger steep cliff. Everything around the park smelled so good, the pine, the sage, the smoke. And as big as the canyon was, it was huge and silent. We enjoyed getting out along the parkway to see different views of the park. We found some ruins of ancient people and enjoyed thinking about the ways they must have lived off the mountain. I also found some great beers in the market at Grand Canyon Village and I just went and really drank them.

Just less than an hour after our departure ("the leave"), the trailer bounced off the hitch. I don't know if it was because of bumps, or maybe I forgot to hitch it securely, I'm not sure. Either way, luckily the chains kept the camper attached to the van, and although there was some damage, it could've been WAAAY worse.

Our super long drive to Joshua Tree / Riverside was great, hot, 111 degrees, and through the desert. I can't even believe there are such huge areas completely devoid of people, telephone poles, cars, or anything remotely human - miles and miles of nothingness, just sand and shrubbery, and heat, oh, and also us. We did read a little soliloquy at Joshua Tree about how the desert is perfect for plant life - no plants are crowded. Each one is planted and has space around it to breathe, and to shine. Just about the only areas inhabited by people we saw were old Route 66 towns still honoring their cherished history and former glory days.

Finally the best part of my day was of course visiting the Cabazon dinosaurs from Pee Wee's Big Adventure. It was dark but that's ok, it was also dark in the movie when he visited them so it made it more realistic.

Joshua Tree National Park

We were lucky to stop at the park a little after 6pm ...  the sun was down and the air was warm, yet not completely overcome by the heat.  We walked a couple of trails and even saw a cute jackrabbit.  

We thought there were clouds on the horizon, but as it turns out it was smoke from a wildfire about 100 miles away!