Blogging My Way Across The USA

Back To Reality - Bleh!

Its Sunday morning at 10:00 and I can't get my butt in gear. I really NEED to get over to the studio and pull some weeds. Lisa tells me that its a total mess! I can only imagine - its been a month since I've been there.

Jim is messing around with The Turd. Something about the jacks not working right. And cleaning it out. I'm still sitting here in my jammies, trying to get motivated. I know I will not get all the weed pulling done today - there's just too much. But I have sessions booked for every day next week and we use the yard to shoot in alot, so it has to get done. Thinking about asking Dann to come help me - he'll probably just tell me "no". Then I'll be on my own. A daunting task, to be sure.

Someone give me a cyber kick in the pants - PLEASE!

The Wheels On The Bus Are Home Home Home

The tally is in - 6051 miles. Countless gallons of gas (I don't even wanna know). Two children who, by some miracle, are still alive (good thing they're cute). Ten states driven through. New friends made for me, and old friends reunited. All in all, an absolutely amazing journey - one that I will not soon forget.

Tonight for supper - PIZZA! Haven't had a pizza in a month. You just don't purchase a pizza west of Mississippi. Its not the same.

The thunder is rumbling in the distance, the humidity level is at about 99% - ahhhhhhhhhh.

The kids are outside with their friends. They've gone off to places unknown. They've been missed, and it took the neighbor kids about 3 seconds to come running to our house when they saw The Turd come down the street.

Oh, hey Sandra! We stopped at Camping World in Madison, Wisconsin and picked up a couple of camp chairs and camp mats. We're ready for next time!

Here is our list of 10 things we've learned on this trip:

1) You do NOT want to leave your campsite for the day without dumping the poop from the bus. Especially when its hot. It gets really PEW in there!

2) Stay to the left - The Turd is WIDE!

3) No matter how big The Turd is, it is still invisible to other drivers at times.

4) The Northwest Pacific coast is cold and windy. Go in the winter when you expect that.

5) If you wanna learn how much you like your family, try living in a 350 square foot bus for a month. We passed - they're still alive.

6) Don't bother passing that diesel truck - he'll just pass you back on the next downhill anyways.

7) Take your time - even a month wasn't long enough. There's just too much to see.

8) Thank God for the pit crew. We're glad good friends will help change tires.

9) Toasted marshmallows are best when shared in the company of really wonderful people.

10) There's no place like home...

HUGS!

The Wheels On The Bus Go Through The Badlands

After heading out of Wyoming this morning:

 

which, by the way, is an amazing state, we entered South Dakota. The kids are itching to get home - they miss their friends, and their pool, and their pets, and their tadpole. Every time we pull off the road, they holler. I guess Jim's not allowed to ever have to pee, and food is apparently overrated.

So, we simply snuck off the I-90 at the I-240 exit and headed into the Badlands National Park. It took them about 3 seconds to figure that one out, but by then it was too late. Too bad, so sad! Sucks to be them, cuz we've always wanted to go through the Badlands. So we did. Dann protested by never once getting out of The Turd. And bitching. A lot. Brian, the adventurous one, is always up for some new scenery. He took it all in - climbing rocks and reading about the fossils there. Here are a bunch of photos. The place is kinda like being on the surface of the moon - only cooler!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We're bunked down in Kennebec, South Dakota. Brian has found some boys and a pile of dirt to play in, and me and Jim are being eaten by mosquitoes the size of birds. I'm going in to hide!

HUGS!

The Wheels On The Bus Are Heading Home

Yesterday, we bid a fond farewell to our travelling companions Mark and Sandra and the girls, and pointed the bus east. Tonight, we are in Deer Lodge, Montana, having only made it about 350 miles today. We needed to stop and do some laundry. Jim was down to his last pair of whitey tighteys - LOL!! The kids are anxious to get home. Jim and I, on the other hand, are in no kind of hurry to head back.

Anyhoooooo, haven't posted in a couple of days, so I owe you some scenery photos. First up, the Rogue/Umpqua Scenic Byway in Oregon. A nice little stretch of scenery with some wonderful waterfalls. This one is Clearwater Falls:

 

 

 

Watson Falls:

 

 

We stopped at the Umpqua River and got out of The Turd for a walk. After telling the kids to NOT get wet, they accidentally/on purpose "fell in" the river and had some fun!

 

 

Even the big kid got wet:

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we headed down the Columbia River Gorge on the old Scenic Highway for some more waterfalls.

 

Latourell Falls:

 

The Turd at the base of Bridal Veil Falls, where we enjoyed a picnic lunch before hiking up to the falls:

 

Bridal Veil Falls:

 

 

Multnomah Falls. This is a two-tiered falls separated by the bridge. The top falls is a 600 foot drop, the bottom falls is a 50 foot drop. As you can see, we climbed up to the bridge, and I got photos from up there of just the upper falls as well.

 

 

We rolled on to Mount Rainier:

 

So tonight we are here in Deer Lodge, Montana on a pretty little river

 

watching the storms roll in

 

and the rainbows come out.

 

Signing off now as there is another storm rolling in and its time to go hide in the camper.

HUGS!

The Wheels On The Bus Head To Crater Lake

Today we headed out of Shasta Lake and motored on to Crater Lake. From an elevation at sea level to an elevation of over 7000 feet. Our first view was this lovely canyon with the stream running through it.

 

We went for a one mile hike down a mountain trail. This is Danielle, Shelby and Brian showing you the snow. Yep, snow in July on the mountains!

After the snowball fight that ensued, we motored on up to Crater Lake itself. Stunning doesn't even begin to describe it!

 

Brian at the lake

 

A few images of Crater Lake:

 

 

 

 

Tonight we are in camp in Crescent Lake, Oregon, elevation 4505 feet. Last night it was 32 degrees! Tonight's expected low is 41. After a steak dinner and a brief rain, we had the perfect ending to a perfect day:

 

HUGS!

The People On The Bus Hope You Had a Happy 4th of July!

I'm a couple days behind on posts due to a less-than-adequate internet connection at our last campsite - as in non-existent.

Here we are on the 4th of July, and as is tradition on the 4th, we made ribs! This is Danielle and I making the super secret bbq sauce, which isn't so secret anymore, as Danielle wrote down the recipe.

 

while the people enjoy partying on Shasta Lake:

 

And we all are enjoying the ribs. YUM!

 

Sunday, my niece, who lives about an hour and a half away in Chico, CA came to visit us. I don't see Denise very often so it was great to be able to spend the afternoon together.

 

We took Denise on a tour of a cave nearby. The cave was discovered on the side of a mountain above Shasta Lake about 150 years ago. To get there, first we had to ride a boat across Lake Shasta.

 

 

Then we had to ride the bus up the mountain and around the really curvy road to the cave entrance.

 

A couple of photos inside the cave:

 

 

And a photo of the whole group inside the cave.

The Wheels On The Bus Have Rolled Through TEN States!

Its official. The wheels on the bus have rolled through ten states! That's 1/5 of our Nifty Fifty United States. Pretty neat huh? We've rolled through Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California. Here we are rolling into California - our 10th:

 

Actually, the last 2 days we've rolled back and forth between Oregon and California a couple of times. This foggy beach was in Oregon:

 

Then it was back in to California, where we found some sea lions hanging out on this dock:

 

 

Across the harbor was a lovely lighthouse:

 

And across the parking was a little beach, where I actually got all the kids in the photo at the same time!

 

After leaving the beach we drove inland to see the Redwood forests. These are some BIG trees!

 

Wow!

 

We rode the Sky Trail tram to the top of the mountain:

 

where the view was just spectacular!

 

After another blown tire, a great dinner cooked in the Rogue River rest area while waiting for the tire guy to show up with a new tire, we made it to camp for the night. In the morning, we were off to our next destination - the majestic Mount Shasta:

 

Camp tonight is about 35 miles away from Mount Shasta, situated on Shasta Lake. This is the view from in front of The Turd, parked at our campsite. We will be here for four days:

 

The BEST view of all - the kids doing the dishes after a great meal. We informed them that it was their turn to do the dishes. When Danielle asked what we would be doing while they were doing the dishes, I replied that we would be clapping for them! So we did! They were awesome and did a great job, and we really appreciated the break! Thanks kids!!!

 

HUGS!

The People On The Bus Go Ridin' On The River

Today was our jet boat ride down the Rogue River, and it was spectacular! We went 40 miles upriver and 40 back - sometimes through nice calm waters, and sometimes shooting rapids in the jet boat. Our crazy boat driver was Kevin, and he got us SOAKED! It was a blast, combined with some absolutely spectacular scenery and wildlife! Here's Kevine and our boat:

 

Off we go up the river to see what kind of wildlife we could find. We found wood ducks:

 

As we passed under the bridge, we saw Swallow's nesting under the bridge:

 

A Seagull with something tasty in his mouth:

 

A Great Blue Heron hanging out on shore...

  

until our boat spooked him and he flew away:

 

A couple of black-tail deer:

 

Canada geese:

 

One of the coolest things we saw - an Eagle:

 

Wild Turkey:

 

Scenes from the river. This place was the stuff they make calendars out of, it was that gorgeous:

 

A river otter playing in the water:

 

This is a spring fed creek that runs into the river:

 

And on a completely unrelated note, this is Dann, posted just for my friend Shelley to prove that he's actually on this trip with us. This is the best photo we can get of him:

 

Cuz he always does this:

 

And every once in a while, when he thinks we're done chasing him with the camera, he does this:

 

HUGS!