RV Life-Road Trip

We recently took a road trip to Utah.  Like I said here, we recently obtained a used motorhome, which was quite a blessing for us.  It's also been a VERY long time since we've taken a vacation, so this was super exciting.  Part of me was worried that my hubby wouldn't like RVing once he tried it, but to my delight he loves it just as I do. 

Lil J was super excited about being in the motorhome.

We live in Southern California, so we went to the 15 freeway & headed East (North, according to the freeway).  We crossed through Nevada, Arizona, & then crossed the border into Utah.  I was surprised that reaching the border of Utah really wasn't that long of a drive, although that would depend on timing & traffic conditions at the time of the drive.  It's about a 8 hour drive I guess.

We had specific areas of Utah that we wanted to see.  Our first stop just across the border we looked at Santa Clara & Ivins & then camped for the night in Snow Canyon State Park.  I had gotten an app on my phone that would show us where RV camps were.  We quickly learned that the exact locations of the camps were not all that accurate though.  We were thrilled that this camp had full hookups & was only $20 for the night.  It was very pretty here & we did a little hike the next morning before getting back on the road. 

The ants here were very large & we didn't think they could get any larger.......until we got to the Grand Canyon that is.......  My son had been begging me for a toy motorhome ever since we bought our's.  I found this one & hid it in his bunk so he could find it while we were on the road.  It quickly became one of his all time favorite toys.

This sign with the lizard was at the trail head of the trail we hiked the next morning.  We didn't get very far on this trail because my hubby wasn't used to the altitude.

We stopped at a market in La Verkin & took advantage of these great photo opps in the parking lot there.  We continued onward Toquerville & Hurricane & then to Zion National Park.  I must say that this area was our favorite part of all of Utah that we saw on this trip. 

We got super lucky here at Zion.  One of the campgrounds was full, the other had some open spots still we were told.  When we arrived we got the very last spot that was available.  Here we paid $16 for the night, with no hook ups.  The other camp does have some hook ups & they also take reservations, but the one we stayed in had neither.

I was at Zion National Park when I was a kid & the one thing I remember was the weeping rock.  So the next morning we got up & took the shuttle bus all the way up the mountain.  On our way back down we stopped for the weeping rock. 

We actually ended up on the wrong trail at first.  It was super narrow (which made us nervous with our son) & steep.  We went quite a ways up & then decided to go back down & try the other trailhead that was also there.  And it was the other one that went to the weeping rock & it was safe & wide & not so steep.  My hubby was still trying to adjust to the altitude changes on this day, but he was doing much better with it.

Zion National Park is so very beautiful.....if you've never been I highly recommend going

I don't think I'd ever get tired of looking at this

There were LOTS of deer on the trails we hiked on.  And they weren't very afraid or timid either, which surprised me.  They looked really thin, but maybe that's the norm for them this time of year, I'm not sure.......

The weather was raining off & on, but still so beautiful

So many breathtaking views

I might add that the shuttle bus is a free service, how wonderful is that?

In our campground--it seems like construction work follows us wherever we go!!  At home we have never ending construction going on it seems & always wake up to the "beep beep beep" of construction vehicles backing up in reverse & we did here too.....of course Lil J loves construction vehicles. so we had to go check it out & take a video of the action!

My hubby & I like to collect magnets on our travels.  So he stopped in this shop to get one.  He posed for a pic with the Indian but the Indian started farting much to my hubby's surprise!!  Our son was passed out asleep at this time, so I waited in the motorhome while hubby was in this shop.

Bottom Left: This river ran next to our camp ground; Bottom Right: the roads inside the National Park are this beautiful rust color, matching all the rocks

After we left Zion we headed North to Sanpete, Manti, Spring City, Mt Pleasant, & Fairview.  We camped in Fairview for the night. 

I can certainly appreciate the speed limits in Utah.....hehehe......although they aren't too doable in a motorhome.

Much to my son's excitement we spotted Tow Mater on the way to Fairview!!  It was getting dark so it was hard to get a good picture of it

When we called this RV camp they said there was only one other person staying at the time, so we could pick any spot we wanted when we arrived.  But by the time we arrived we were the only ones there for the night & next morning.  We had quite an adventure trying to find this place!  We were following the directions on the app on my phone & we couldn't find the place where the app said it was.  We came to this little old rickety wooden bridge.  My hubby stops & we both looked at each other......we were both thinking that there was no way that bridge was going to hold the weight of the motorhome.  So he called the camp on the phone.  He asks the lady about the bridge & she says yes, to cross the bridge.  Again we both look at each other in alarm.  So he inquires again, stating that it's a wooden bridge & she says no, it should be a cement bridge.  Whew!!  What a close call!!  The camp was actually a little ways away from where the app on my phone said it was, but we did eventually get there.  It was also $20 with full hook ups. 

When I was a kid my mother had posed for a photo hanging on the back of our motorhome.  I was telling my hubby about it & he said suggested we pose also.  But I didn't have the guts to hang my feet off like she did!!  And then our son got excited about the ladder & wanted to climb up too.

Onward we travelled to Spanish Fork, Mapleton, Springville, & Midway.  This area was very nice, but it appears to be a big snow & skiing area in the colder weather.

We were interested in this Heber Valley Railroad....until we learned that the ride on it was 3 hours long.  There was no way we had time for that.  But we did see it stopped here at this park while we were driving so we stopped for photos. 

Our son was very sad to leave the train behind without being able to board.

But we got him cheered up again

We stopped at Strawberry Resevoir to park & eat lunch.  He built a "rock castle"

He also had a blast playing in this puddle with his boat.

Then we did a really long drive south to Monticello & Blanding

This was a lengthy drive through lots of mountains......on a very narrow highway......

......with plenty of  fog.........

......and rain.......

......and more beautiful views......

We spent the night in Blanding, this place was about $30 with full hook ups.

The next morning we took off, heading to highway 12.  Top Left: these "open range" signs are everywhere.  The first few we saw didn't have a picture of a cow & we didn't know what it meant.  We learned it means the cows roam freely & are likely to be on the highway & they don't move away quickly when they see a vehicle coming, so you'd better watch out!

there were views of the Colorado River

This whole drive was breathtaking.......Highway 12 is a must see drive, at least once in your life time

did I mention "breath taking"?

Here we were just about to reach Highway12 & we found this road block.  The police officer helped us find an alternate route on our map, he said a whole section of this highway was completely washed away the night before in the rain.  Top Right: there were lots of old cars all over Utah, this one is a Plymouth Belvedere, which I rarely see.  But growing up my father owned a 2 door coupe '54 Plymouth Belvedere so I had to get a pic of this one!

It was still a little rainy & cloudy

There was a flash flood warning in effect for most of the areas we were in for this whole trip while in Utah, we had to wait here for this road to reopen.  This was at the very beginning of Highway 12 for us.  We were told it was a record breaking year for how much rain they were getting.  I personally love the rain, but my hubby not so much.

There were LOTS of cows roaming freely, all over the highways

Lots of beautiful canyons & caves

some rain & plenty of clouds

Once we got onto highway 12 it was breath taking (even moreso than the other breathtaking views we had seen) & I do believe it was the highest elevations we experienced in our whole trip.

I stopped at this little post office on highway 12 to mail my mother's birthday card.

We spent the night at this RV park, very near Bryce Canyon National Park, although I never actually saw signs indicating where you enter Bryce Canyon National Park.  This place was around $20 for the night with full hook ups.  We had called the day before & made reservations for this one.

We stopped at this little shop that was next to our camp before taking off for the Grand Canyon

So we headed South through Utah..... (This was some sort of Museum....the structure itself was amazingly beautiful, a naturally occurring cave, but we didn't actually pay admission & enter the museum, we were in a hurry to get to the Grand Canyon)

.....and entered into Arizona

We had made a reservation here at the North Rim Camp of Grand Canyon before we got there.  I do believe this is the same campground we stayed in when I vistited the Grand Canyon as a little girl

In our camp site our son spotted this little baby lizard.  Upon looking at literature I discovered that it is a short horned lizard, but I do believe it was only a baby, it was very tiny & very cute.

Our son claimed that this rock on the right was a truck & the rock on the left was the 5th wheel trailer!  I do have to admit that I can see the resemblance.  He said the stick was Curious George, but he had a broken leg, LOL.  And we stopped at the general store in our campground & our son was begging for this snack.  It was healthy & gluten & dairy free so we got it for him.  To our surprise he ate almost everything in it!

Our son really wanted to ride on this choo choo, but upon inquiring in the general store we found it was only for some sort of dining experience package deal.

We hiked the Transept Trail to Bright Angel Point

And then came back on the Bridle Trail....we spotted a deer along the way....and some interesting trees

We had been dreaming of having a camp fire, we finally got to do so here at Grand Canyon, almost at the end of our trip. 

The next morning, we drove to Point Imperial before leaving Grand Canyon behind

I was told you can see all the way to the South Rim from this point

Lil J begged to show "Buddy" the Grand Canyon.....this was his only request to take Buddy anywhere on this whole trip, so I allowed it (I normally don't allow Buddy out of the house, since it needs to stay clean so he can snuggle & sleep with it)

And so we left Grand Canyon & headed back to Utah to get to the 15 freeway to head homeward

The easiest/shortest route I could find on the map was to take Highway 9 across to the 15....and then I realized it was the same highway that goes through Zion National Park.  But this time we were on the other side of the Park.  Since we had just paid for entrance to the Park a few days prior (& we had the receipt to prove it) we didn't have to pay the entrance fee again, but we did have to pay to go through the mile long tunnel.  That was quite an experience.  Our son was really excited, although he did get scared before we reached the end of it.  We were able to make him realize it wasn't scary easily enough though.  I was actually excited to pass through here again since this was our favorite part of Utah & because we still needed to buy a Zion magnet......hubby had stopped for one the first time we were here but he just got one that said "Utah", nothing about Zion specifically.  We had to make a few stops to find a magnet that specified "Zion", but we did finally find one.

We were ahead of schedule on our trip, so instead of making the long drive straight home we decided to spend the night in Las Vegas, NV.  I've never been a fan of Vegas, but I did want to see ATM headquarters, which is where they film the TV show Tanked that we like to watch.  This camp wasn't really a "camp", I guess that's why they cal it a "resort", but it was nice.  It had an amazing pool & other amenities.  And there were actually people living in here long term, which I hadn't seen before & was surprised to realize that people do such a thing.  We also finally found the time to put our USA sticker on our motorhome while we were here.  And being in the desert, we were finally out of the rain.

That big blue/gray fish was my son's fave in the whole place & he literally BEGGED to be able to take him home.....I tried explaining that mommy's tank wasn't big enough & was freshwater rather than saltwater, but he still wanted it.

This tank was 1100 gallons!  The fish in it were massive! This is where that blue/gray fish my son fell in love with lives.

My birthday present from Freddie Five O at ATM--an autographed poster

And onward to the California border!!  And a few more hours until home

One final shot of my little stinker laying on me while I was resting on the long drive home!

All in all it was a really great trip & we learned a lot about the motorhome & we cannot wait to go on a trip again!!!

Homeschool Preschool Unit 5--Young Joseph

This week had some ups & downs.  This was a review week for letters A-D.  And it also focused on Joseph & the number 5.

{We are using Heart of Dakota's Little Hands to Heaven, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, & various sources for Spanish}

 

We started off on Monday with a new fingerplay, which both incorporated review of the past 4 fingerplays as well as the story of Joseph.  We read in the Bible about Joseph's special coat.  We painted a coffee filter to look like Joseph's coat.  We reviewed letters A-D.  We acted out & discussed what we read in the Bible.  This day was actually Labor Day.  My hubby still had to work & we received no invites to join a get-together with anyone we know, so it was basically a normal day for us.  So I chose to still do school but I also chose to discuss the fact that it was Labor Day & what that means.  Since I am a nurse I chose a Labor Day craft about nurses where we made nursing caps.  And I showed my son my very own nurse caps--I have 2, one for my LVN graduation & one for my RN graduation. (For LVN school I actually had to wear that cap every day in the hospital!  For the RN program we only wore it for graduation)  We did reading lesson #75.  I had thought he would nail this lesson on this day, but I guess he got a little rusty over the weekend & struggled with a couple of the words.  He's also struggling slightly with the new format/font the book recently presented.  Then we did Spanish & our songs--a song about Joseph, the books of the Bible, & God made the universe. 

 

On a sidenote: there are LOTS of crafts out there about Joseph's coat.  I found 2 that I was hoping to get to, plus we also did the coffee filter one that was in our curriculum.  I was going to do one of them on Monday, but we already did the coffee filter one this day & we also had an extra craft added on, for Labor Day.  I ended up deciding to skip one of those coat crafts.

On Tuesday we continued with our fingerplay, we read more about Joseph in the Bible.  Being a review week, we reviewed our A, B, C, & D devotionals.....I only used the ABC Bible Verses book for this, not BOTH devotional books.  It was also masking tape day.....it said to choose one letter to review, but I chose to do all 4 letters, just made them a little smaller to make them all fit in the area I have to work in.  This time my son had an elephant walk on them, rather than having cars drive over them.  We did the "Count on Me" page.....drawing stripes--as in the stripes of Joseph's beautiful coat.  He did very well with this one. And we did reading lesson #75 (he's still struggling with "five" & "nine" because of the new format/font), Spanish, & our 3songs. 

 

Each week my son has to memorize a Bible verse at church.  Last year, when he was 3, they had them memorize a new verse once a month.  But this year they have them memorize a new verse every week.  Because we're focusing on memorizing the one at church I haven't focused on having him actually memorize the one in his devotional for school.....but I've noticed he keeps talking about the verses we do in our devotional time.  So I'm starting to think that maybe he is capable of memorizing two verses each week.  I think when we get out of review week I will give it a try.  I think I will have to distinguish for him whether it's the "church Bible verse" or the "school Bible verse".  Has anyone else dealt with a situation like this before?  What did you do & how did it work out?

On Wednesday we continued with our fingerplay.  We read about Joseph being sold by his brothers.  We did an activity with money (coins).  My son is very interested in money.  I have told him some about it, but I spent more time on it today & explained it thoroughly, even though I know he doesn't yet comprehend it fully.  We sorted it into piles & counted it & then put it under a sheet of paper & drew crayon over it.  We did "hide & seek review".  We glued 5 wallets (again back to money, because Joseph's brothers sold him for money) to the number 5 page.  My son nailed every word in reading lesson #75 today, so Thursday we will move on to lesson #76.  We did Spanish also.  I had planned to do the Joseph's coat craft this day, but we had a scheduled power outage in our neighborhood on this day & the heat was affecting my son.  He wasn't as interested in school, wasn't enjoying himself like he usually does.  So I decided to postpone the craft.  I couldn't play the music CD either, I looked at the words for the Joseph song, but couldn't remember the tune, so I just sang the books of the Bible & God made the universe.  My son really enjoyed this & pulled out his drum & drummed & sang & clapped & danced. 

In our Spanish on Wednesday my son insisted that this sheep was going to get Jacob's belly button!!


On Thursday we had a tough day.  My son just wasn't focused on school & did not want to focus it seemed.  I'm sure there will be plenty of days like this in the future.  I offered to close the books & take the day off, but he didn't want that either.  My consequence for his behavior was that we skipped our music at the end of school for today.  I have to admit that I have a super crazy busy week going on, aside from school.  And I am trying hard to squeeze in school with everything else that is going on.  I am hoping that we can wrap up the week tomorrow easily & swiftly.  We did do our fingerplay & we read more about Joseph in the Bible.  We did two separate discussions on what we read in the Bible.  And I drew an A, B, C, & D & diluted glue.  My son painted the diluted glue onto the letters & then we covered them with cinnamon.  Even though it was a rough day I still did one of the Joseph crafts today.  I know tomorrow is going to be the busiest day yet for this whole week & there's no way I'll have time to do it & I already have 2 crafts lined up for next week, so I really wanted to get it done this week.  So I did it this day.  My son did really like it when we were done with it.  I'm planning to laminate it so he can play with it.  (The cut & paste camel we did the previous week I ended up laminating & he LOVES playing with it!)  Like I said before, I skipped the music for this day, so that was it for this day. 

 

On Friday we wrapped up the week with another really tough day.  This is by far the busiest day of this very busy week for me.  We started out with our fingerplay, we read more about Joseph.  We did a dramatic play activity of what we read in the Bible.  I was supposed to review the letters A-D, but we've already done that a couple of times this week & he totally knows his letters & I was short on time, so I chose to skip this for this day.  There was another acting out the Bible activity that I skipped simply because it looked like it wouldn't be quick.  We started to do reading lesson #76 & when we got to reading the sentences at the end of the lesson he asked me to put it away.  He had an attitude about it.  I can tell he's still upset because I cut our lesson short the previous day due to bad behavior.  I put it away & then he asked to do music.  I told him there was no music because we didn't finish reading.  Then he asked to watch TV & I told him there was no TV because he didn't finish school.  He wasn't too happy, but I do think it's an important lesson to be learned & I'm glad he's learning it early on. 

 

So that was our school week.  It was crazy busy & we had some behavioral issues.  Not exactly a success in my opinion, but that's life.  We still have one more week of learning about Joseph ahead of us.  And then onward to Moses. 

Homeschool Preschool Unit 4--Isaac & His Sons

We had another great week!  We started a new fingerplay that focuses on the letter D.  We are learning about Isaac & Rebekah & Jacob & Esau this week.  And the number 4 of course.  We are using Heart of Dakota's Little Hands to Heaven, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, & various forms of Spanish.

On Monday we did our new fingerplay, did our Bible reading, then did some acting out & discussing of what we had read.  I had my son trace his finger over "D" & "d" & he did really well.  So far the only letter he has been able to write independently & legibly has been "A" & "a".  We put 4 women on the #4 page.  I was trying to decide what sort of women to choose to put & decided on women with their Bibles.  I had planned to do reading lesson #73 today, BUT my son asked to do reading on Saturday & we did it that day (for the first time mind you) & he nailed every word, both old & new the first time through the lesson so today we did lesson #74.  There were changes in this lesson that made it a little more challenging for him, so it will be interesting to see how long before he nails this lesson & adjusts to the new format.  We did Spanish of course.  And our extra craft was a cut & paste camel.  The glue has to dry before I can let my son play with it, but he's pretty excited about it.  And there was no song to go along with today's lesson, but we still listened to the Books of the Bible & God Made the Universe.  Incidentally, as of last Friday I have the Books of the Bible song down except for the minor prophets.  I had previously learned the books of the Bible in order (just not in a song form) & I was able to memorize all of it EXCEPT the minor prophets.  But I'm betting I'll have it down soon enough.  It's always easier to memorize when you sing it.

 

On Tuesday we continued with our fingerplay & read about Jacob lying to Isaac.  On a paper I wrote out my son's name with the letters dashed.  My son then drew over it, connecting the dashes into a solid line.  He did really well at this.  (And this gave me an idea to use this again with each letter to help learn how to write each letter of the alphabet)  He was supposed to color all over it & try to hide his name, but he didn't want to, he was too proud of his work he had done.  There was a lesson behind it, that Jacob tried to hide who he was from his father Isaac, so we just discussed that instead.  Today was "masking tape D" day.  This is always an exciting day for my son.  He quickly decides which cars he wants to drive over the masking tape & runs to get them & he sooo enjoys driving the cars over the letter.  And we did some acting out & discussing of what we read in the Bible today.  Then we did reading lesson # 74 again & Spanish & our songs--a song about Essau & Jacob, then the books of the Bible & God Made the Universe. 

 

On Wednesday we continued with our fingerplay, we read about Jacob meeting & marrying Rachel & about Jacob's dream.  We did some acting out of what we read, we did "hide & seek D" (which my son loves & is good at).  He drew ladders & then we counted them & added it up using legos.  He's very good at this activity as well.  He nailed reading lesson #74, so tomorrow we'll be moving on to lesson #75.  We did Spanish & then an extra craft about Jacob's dream & then finished up with our songs.  Despite sounding so short here as I type, this was a longer day for us.  Which was good timing, as Monday & Tuesday of this week were very busy days for me & it would've been challenging to fit in a longer day of school.  I was very relaxed today simply because I don't have a million things needing to be done like I have so often lately.  Cutting out all the stuff for the craft did take up some of that time also.  I really should try to get that sort of stuff done ahead of time I guess........

 

My son was upset that the craft had stars but no moon!  I happen to have a moon punch, so I punched a moon on the paper for him (it's on the upper left, got cut out of this photo).  Then he wanted MORE stars.  I happen to have a star punch, so we used that several times as well.  He was very pleased with the end result.

 

On Thursday I actually timed our school day for the first time!  It took us exactly one hour.  Now I must add that I chose to leave one activity out today that was in our lesson plan but I also added on an extra craft.  Knowing this makes me less nervous for next year however.  Since it says that next year's curriculum can be done in 90 minutes each day (you can, of course split it into multiple smaller blocks of time if needed).  I had felt that going from only 20 minutes to 90 minutes was a huge jump & might be a bit of a challenge for my son, but if we're already doing an hour & my son is doing fine attention-span-wise, then I feel good about next year.  I do realize that on top of the 20 minute curriculum I have added reading lessons & Spanish lessons & 2 additional songs & sometimes an additional craft.  And I really focus on relaxing & taking our time & enjoying the process, not rushing at all.  If nothing else I want my son to know that "school" & learning are FUN.  Today's society has such a negative connotation in regards to school.  I feel so strongly that it doesn't need to be that way at all.  

Anyways, getting back on track: today we continued with our fingerplay, we read about Jacob wrestling with an angel.  There was an activity where we were supposed to act out what we read using a balloon that I chose to skip.  I don't have a balloon on hand & I considered the fact that I could use a ball, but I just felt that it was gonna be tough to illustrate what I was supposed to, so for me I chose to skip it entirely rather than just confuse my son.  I drew a big "D" & put glue over it & my son put dry pasta on it.  And we did act out the Bible story we read using stuffed animals.  I liked this acting out activity & felt that it did illustrate what it was supposed to well, so I did do this one.  Then we did reading lesson #75 & Spanish.  We did a craft, making an angel out of a toilet paper roll.  I cut out all the template pieces yesterday, thank goodness, or that would've made our school day much longer than it already was.  And then we did our 3 songs. 

On a sidenote: I recently purchased a laminator.  I am working on a project where I'm making something for my son, to hang in his room.  Initially I had asked my hubby if he had one & he said no, but that we could probably get one from Costco.  I know nothing about them & looked at Costco.com & they had one for $100.  So I assumed they were expensive items.  Not wanting to spend that much right now I tried to borrow one from someone.  (I know I could go to Staples or something like that, to get my stuff laminated but there was quite a bit that needed to be laminated & I knew that would be pretty pricey)  But then a blog on my blogfeed had a post about items needed for homeschooling, with recommended brands, etc.  There was a laminator listed for $25 with refill packs for $14.  So I went ahead & purchased that one.  I am very happy with it so far.  I was able to laminate all that I needed for my project & then I did a few other things.  Since Tuesday, when I wrote out my son's named in dashed letters & he traced over it so well, I've been meaning to have my son trace over other dashed letters.  Yesterday I realized that if I laminated them he could use the same one over & over with a dry erase pen!  So I did that yesterday & he did the first 4 letters today, getting caught up.  I thought he did a really great job.  I put 2 letters, both upper & lower case, on each side of the sheet.  I ended up with an empty side at the end of the alphabet, so I put numbers there, 0-9, just to not have wasted space. 

 

On Friday we finished off the week with our fingerplay, we read in the Bible about Esau forgiving Jacob.  We did our devotional today, I'm still doing both books.  I was supposed to have my son paint the letter "D" with a choice of: chocolate syrup, baby food, or fingerpaint.  But I already know my kid well enough to know that that is not going to go over well at all.  He LOVES to paint with a paint brush though, so I set him up with tempera paint & his paint brushes & let him paint a "D".  He wanted to paint it grey he said, so I mixed black & white together to make grey for him.  He was amazed to see me put in black & white & it became grey!  We did some acting out of what we read in the Bible today.  We did reading lesson #75, then Spanish, & then our music. 

Onward we go to next week, where we learn about Joseph. 

 

RV Life-Never Too Late

We are the new proud owners of this RV.

As a child I spent a lot of time in a motorhome.  My father loved travelling--so do I, it's in my blood I guess.  Those are my happiest & dearest memories, yet they are also somewhat vague.  I'm the youngest in my family & we did our RVing during my younger years......and then my parents separated & divorced. 

My father continued RVing........my mother did not.  My last trip was somewhere around 1983 or 1984 I believe.......we camped at White Tank campground at Joshua Tree National Park.  I guess I was around 10 or 11 years old. 

I have always felt extremely blessed & grateful for my travelling experiences in my childhood.  I quickly realized that most other people don't get to see the things that I had seen.  It was not something to be taken for granted.  It instilled in me a great respect for nature & all that God has created.  And over the years I have dreamed of being able to do it again.

Now that I am a mother I have longed to be able to do it even more.  For my own child.  To give him wonderful memories & opportunities to see the world just as I had.

My husband has never RV'd in his past.  But he has always had a desire to own a trailer & do so.  He really likes the fact that you can unload your trailer somewhere & still drive your vehicle around.   Trailers are also much more affordable BUT I really pushed him to consider a motorhome instead.  With a young child it is much easier to travel in a motorhome than in a car or truck that is pulling a trailer.  You have the bathroom right there, food & drinks right there, they can move around, etc, etc.  I also think a  motorhome is a better choice for safety reasons.  Suppose a bear comes & starts attacking your RV.  Or a burglar or other malicious person.  In a trailer you have to hope that you can sneak out & make it to your vehicle.....even worse if the vehicle isn't hitched to the trailer.......but in a motorhome you can simply drive away. 

Surprisingly buying this RV has stirred up a lot of unexpected emotions for me.  In my younger days I always tried to live my life in a way that would leave me with no regrets.  But as I get older I find that I have many regrets.  I suppose it's not possible to never have ANY regrets in life.  But some are harder to swallow than others.  I wish so much that my father was still here, that I could share this joyous moment with him, that we could go RVing together.  And my hubby & I have SO MUCH to learn about operating the RV.

Oddly, the couple we bought this RV from reminded me SO MUCH of my father & stepmother.  I think that's what got the emotion ball rolling for me.  And then I started thinking back & remembering childhood memories that, of course, include my father.  After my parents divorced I didn't see my father anymore.  I had wanted to, but there was just too much drama involved.  I remember I had many friends with parents that were divorced.  Some of them wished their parents would get back together.  I never dreamed of my parents getting back together, but I did envy my friends who were able to spend time with both parents with no drama.  I do believe that every child should be able to (& in fact NEEDS to) grow up loving & respecting BOTH parents & believing that their parents are the greatest people in the world.  Sadly my case is not isolated, I see many like this unfortunately. 

In my adult years it felt awkward after not seeing my father for so long.  And I had no idea if he had any desire to see me.  On the few occasions that I did speak to him it felt like he was more interested in seeing my brother than me, which didn't feel very good I must admit. And then I went back to school & had no time for a social life.  My whole goal in life was to finish school as fast as possible (while still working full time), it was hard & it robbed me of a lot of years of my life.  I had never expected to marry before I finished school, but I did.  My husband had wanted to meet my father & I do think they would've gotten along great.  They have a lot in common.  But I was still trying to finish school & I had married into a blended family that was quite a challenge.  So I definitely had no free time at that point.  I had every intention of calling my dad once I finished school.  And sadly just 7 months before I finished he passed away unexpectedly.  Even worse, I wasn't notified until a couple of weeks AFTER his passing.  I didn't even get to say my goodbyes.  That is SO hard for me to swallow.  Like I said before, I have many regrets involving this situation. {For the record: I blame no one but myself. There are many reasons & factors that influenced the choices I made but ultimately "I" made those choices & I reaped what I sowed}

I also feel like I'm getting such a late start at RVing.  But as I was thinking I realized that my father was the same age as I am now when he bought his first RV.  As I titled this post, it's never too late to begin anything in life.  As my stepmother shared with me after my father had passed, don't put things off or wait.....both of her parents had wanted to travel & were putting it off until they retired & neither of them lived to see their retirement.  Those words have definitely stuck with me. 

I know a lot of people complain about the gas mileage in RVs.  But I don't understand how people can pay for hotels & eating out.  The cost is outrageous in my opinion (not to mention I never feel comfortable in hotels).  We just recently spent a weekend in Santa Barbara for our 8th wedding anniversary.  And the amount we spent just to get there, stay there, & eat there in ONE WEEKEND is what we are estimating we will spend in ONE WEEK for gas in the RV for an upcoming trip we have planned & the trip involves quite a bit of driving, not just driving to a location & staying put.  (And for the record we didn't stay in a fancy hotel & we didn't eat at expensive restaurants in Santa Barbara)  In an RV you have your own food, which is a big savings compared to eating out.  And sometimes you pay for a camping site (you don't always, depending on where you are going) but it's nothing compared to the cost of a hotel room.

My hubby's job doesn't allow for a lot of time off from work, so we're mostly trying to plan weekend trips after our initial week long trip.  There is a lot you can do in a weekend.  There are many campgrounds along the whole coast.  We can easily head to one & spend the whole weekend on the beach!  And based on what I've seen so far the prices are VERY reasonable in comparison to hotels.

That's all for now......lots of rambling & processing of thoughts, emotions, etc.