Tuesday, May 4, 2021

A Bridge, 7 Hours On The Road, and a Trip To The ER Vet: A Saga





  On our way out, we stopped and saw the Natural Bridge. I definitely use the word “awesome” for things that aren’t truly awesome, but Natural Bridge really was awesome!!!! Such a beautiful area and so cool to walk through! 














Next, we hopped in the truck to head towards Knoxville, TN. What was supposed to be a 5 hour drive turned into 7 due to bad weather, traffic, and emergency potty stops for Ava. She started to make me nervous for her health again during that trip, so I began researching vets in the area we were stopping for the night. I found one and called to make sure they could get us in. They were so nice and while there wasn’t much they could do, I did get piece of mind that she no longer has pancreatitis. We got her a supplement to help her liver, more anti-nausea meds, and some food.


Photo of the stinker waiting outside. 

Back again... 

♥️🐾




Back at camp, we ate leftovers and went to bed.

At least for a little bit.......

(To be continued) 

Day 1: Can You Move Your Flowerpot, Please?


      Sunday, May 2nd 


 We made it on the road in the correct direction on Sunday and headed to Natural Bridge!! 

  We stayed at a JellystonePark again because they’re just too much fun and there’s so many things there to tire out a 3 year old before hitting the road. 

  Tim got out to check us in to our site and we were escorted by golf cart by a lovely man named Danny. He told me that there was a guy that hadn’t been driving a trailer very long, take a turn (the one we were about to make) too short and took out the side of his trailer and part of JellystonePark’s roof. 😳 So we’re like “Okay, we’re gonna NOT do that.” 

Tim swings it way the other way and we almost took out a large pot of flowers..... 


  Once we moved the flowerpot, we got to our site and set up to make dinner! 




After dinner, I took Mason to the jumping pillows to get out some energy before bed and honestly, we both had a blast running and jumping! 





After Mason was in bed, it was time to relax by the campfire! 








Sunday, May 2, 2021

Day 0: Which way is West?

  



This post is labeled day zero because not only have we not made progress towards Cali, we have actually managed to travel more east! I’ll explain: 

We stayed the night on Friday at the Newport News Campground and really enjoyed the spot! We were greeted with pizza by our dear friends and had a great night chatting by the fire while the kids ran around in the leaves. The next morning, we realized we hadn’t had enough time to really do any of the things for the camper that we would have liked (organizing, grocery shopping, etc.) because we were so busy cleaning the house, doing the final walkthrough, and about a million other things. To really round out this day, the auto transport company we originally hired to get my car to California, totally fell through and left us scrambling to find a new company the same day we were set to start our journey west. Eventually, we found a great company but that meant leaving my car behind. Thankfully, we have the best neighbors in the world and they’re going to help us out with getting it to the auto transport company! (Shout out to the Price Fam!) 

So later that morning while we were at Walmart grocery shopping, we decided that we wanted to stay another night to really get the camper prepared. Tim calls the campground and we find out that they are completely booked up! It was a quarter past 1pm at this point (mind you, check out was at 12 but check in for the next people starts at 2) so we start panicking. We thought for sure we’d have a fine taped to the camper waiting for us. We finish checking out at Walmart after waiting in line for about a half hour and sprint to the truck with our groceries, get to the camp site and go full Formula 1 pit crew mode. I’m running around throwing the groceries into the camper, Tim is lifting the stabilizer jacks, putting the sway bar on the truck, Mason is yelling “I pooped!” from the window- just absolute mayhem. We pulled out of our spot at 2:05. Crushed it. Well, almost. 

  Tim asks me to look for another campground nearby that we can stay at for the night and I hop on Google maps. Now, I feel like it’s important to know that I have ZERO directional abilities. If I ask where I’m supposed to go, I don’t need phrases like “head south and then turn right to go west.” I’m looking for an address or name that I can put into my GPS. Or “turn right at the Chick-fil-A. Things that I know. I’m not Lewis and freaking Clark, okay? Moving forward: I see that there’s a JellystonePark Campground nearby!! If you don’t know what that is, it’s basically a campground resort and they’re all amazing! They have tons of activities for kids, jumping pillows, water slides, etc. I got so pumped about it that I had NO idea where it actually was located. I thought it was 20 minutes away in Williamsburg. Nope. Here’s the route we took: 



Here’s what we could have done if I knew what I was doing and we paid a mere $4 toll: 




Needless to say, I lost my job as navigator. 😅


When we eventually got to JellystonePark, we quickly set up camp and Tim took Mason to the pool while I started dinner. 

Two of our closest friends visited us at this campground too and we had a blast drinking by the campfire and posed the age old question: What sound does a turtle make? 

Here are some pics of our time at JellystonePark! 











  

Saturday, September 16, 2017

Tok, AK & Canada! 🇨🇦

  We made it to Tok, Alaska as our first stop of the trip and ate at Fast Eddy's, a restaurant that was on the same property as our motel. We were very excited to get to eat here again as it was also our first stop as we came into Alaska 3 years ago. It was just as delicious as we remembered! Also, I will throw in here that the morning we woke up to drive to Whitehorse is the day I woke up with a sore throat. More about that later. 

Later that day, we crossed into the Yukon and the adventure began!




Our first stop for the night in Canada was in Whitehorse, YT. Something that surprised me was how many Bison there were....just roaming around, doing their Bison thing! Like, when most people look at the side of the road and they see a deer or for us in Alaska, see a moose (even though I never got used to that) it was a completely normal thing! But for us, I would yell, "WHAT ARE THOOOOSE?!" and we'd careen off the road to stop and take pictures. They are so massive and they do not care at all that you're there. We saw at least 60 Bison! 





 I had really started to feel crappy during the drive so Tim drove the entire 7 1/2 hours. That night, we pull into Whitehorse and stayed at the Yukon Inn. The hotel wasn't anything special, but it had exactly everything we needed: A bathroom and a bed. As a pregnant woman traveling, these two things were all I really cared about day to day. 

In the morning, I knew I had come down with a pretty nasty cold. Nothing crazy, but it was enough to keep me miserable and incapable of keeping my eyes open long enough to be of any use to Tim for navigating. By the time we got to Watson Lake, I was in full sickness mode. All I cared about was laying down and taking a nap. Tim went out and found me some pregnancy safe cold medicine and that made all the difference! 

The next two days were just about getting to Jasper National Park, so there were a few days that we spent many hours in the car. The pups were such troopers and napped most of time. 









Finally, we got to Jasper! Well, almost. We stayed in Hinton which is about an hour outside of Jasper. We decided to stay for two days so we could take a day and go on some hikes in the area. 

Getting settled at the hotel



Mountains and lake in Jasper



I can never get enough pictures of Moose! 











After two days in Jasper, we drove to down towards Banff, to visit Lake Louise. It was GORGEOUS! By this time, I'm mostly over my cold and I had some of my sense of smell back and the first thing I smelled as we got out of the car at Lake Louise was that of "Christmas". The crisp air combined with the smell of the fir trees was amazing and I'll never forget that moment. 



Ava, loving the attention she was getting from all the tourists 💜🐾



Our time in Canada was so much fun and we were a little sad to leave. I also may have loved that everything was written in English and French ❤️ And every time we met someone in the service industry, they would say, "Hello, Bonjour!" when greeting us. 😍😂

 We went to Tim Horton's - the first time for both of us - and it was amazing! Tim got a coffee, I got a fruit smoothie, and we shared a box of TimBits (donut holes). Sorry Krispy Kreme, Tim Horton's wins! 🍩☕️ 


  

We also had to take advantage of the fact that, because we weren't in the U.S. anymore, there were probably Kinder Surprise Eggs to be found...We were right! For those who aren't aware of what a Kinder Egg is, see picture below, but it's a German candy basically like a Wonderball (which I haven't seen in years either), but instead of candy inside, there's a yellow capsule that contains a toy or game! They're illegal in the U.S. because apparently we're too dumb to be able to handle the responsibility of not accidentally ingesting the capsule... 




Friday, September 8, 2017

Mile: 0 See Ya Later, Alaska


  Though I'm still deep in denial that our time in Alaska is over, I will admit that it still stung to get on the Glenn Highway to drive out of Anchorage. After 3 years (the longest we've lived anywhere since 2012 btw) in the most beautiful place I've ever had to the chance to visit, much less live, we suddenly find ourselves living out of our truck with the two pups for the next few weeks. 

Looking forward, this is going to be a great trip and will hopefully be enough to distract me from what's actually happening 😅

Alaska has been so amazing to us and we can't wait to return. But in the meantime, we're taking away a pretty cute souvenir... 




Saturday, October 11, 2014

Matanuska Glacier

Today Tim and I decided to drive the 2 hours to the Matanuska Glacier. It was absolutely breathtaking! We had so much fun climbing it! We really wanted to see the other side of the glacier, so we started climbing and eventually the snow gave way to pure ice and we were sliding all over the place. A few times we ended up sliding a good 10 feet down the glacier before we slowed down enough to get traction again. Our cheeks hurt from laughing so hard and our other set of cheeks hurt from sliding on ice! I absolutely love living in Alaska!

View from the parking lot. Remember the blue sheets of ice towards the middle of the picture for future reference....
Remember those blue sheets of ice from a second ago? I'M IN IT! 
Tim looking like a Nature Valley model
Another view from inside the glacier
My little explorer! 
More of the glacier

Monday, September 1, 2014

Mile #3579

We made it to Canada!

The countryside is amazing with huge mountains and tall trees!

Tonight, we're headed for a place called Castlegar and tomorrow we're going to press to Kamloops!