Labels?

I really *AM* blog illiterate.  I just, as in, just now on someone else's blog, noticed that she had her posts 

L A B E L E D.  

What a novel idea for a travel blog!

So, I am going to attempt to label this post.  Hope it shows up.  It's getting late and I've spent enough time messing around with colors and fonts and trying to figure out HTML code (yeah, right!)

Btw, the blog I'm referring to is Suitcases and Sippy Cups. 

Food, Food and More Food

We're down to the final few days before we start heading East and I've been cooking.  A lot.  I don't even *like* to cook, but I know this will make everything a bit easier our first week on the road.

I've made two chickens, eight pounds of hamburger, two pounds of taco meat, one meal's worth mashed potatoes, beef barley soup and maple trail mix.  I still have more chicken, pasties, pumpkin bread and crockpot oatmeal to go....

I did want to share the recipe for the trail mix.  I've never made homemade trail mix before (I told you, I don't like to cook!) BUT this is good and I will definitely be making it again.

The recipe is from allrecipes.com

Tasty Maple Trail Mix

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
•  
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup pecan halves
• 2 cups whole almonds
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
•  
• 1 cup chocolate covered peanuts (such as M&M's®)

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.
2. Stir the maple syrup, vanilla extract, and cinnamon together in a small saucepan over medium heat until it begins to simmer. Meanwhile, combine the rolled oats, pecans, almonds, raisins, cranberries, and sunflower seeds in a large mixing bowl. Pour the hot maple syrup over top, and stir until evenly mixed. Spread onto prepared baking sheet.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, scrape onto a cold baking sheet, and cool to room temperature. Break into clumps and stir in the chocolate covered peanuts once cool.

The Crown is Open

BUT, we won't get to go up to the crown.  The Statue of Liberty's crown, that is.

Picture from http://how-to-visit.com/

Visits that allow you to go up to the crown are sold out for the entire month of May.  I'm very bummed.  I was able to get tickets that will allow us to go to the observation deck in the pedestal.

Hey, at least we get to go, right?  I spent 16 of the first 18 years of my life on the East Coast and never went to the Statue of Liberty.

Good thing I hadn't had my heart set on a cruise around the island and under the Brooklyn Bridge--those are sold out through October!

Taking a Little Bit of Redneck with Us

Yup, that's dryer hose.  Hear the banjos?

Keith tells me that this a fix for a water ingestion problem.  

The Gulf of Mexico

Here is where we are staying on the Gulf...in that very spot, actually.  The picture is a bit fuzzy, but it doesn't get much better than this.  Hope it doesn't rain.

Huh, Well--Shoot.

Figures.  Here's the latest headline...

Gas up 33 cents - 2nd biggest two week jump ever.  EEK! 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the RV gets a whopping 8 or 9 miles to the gallon.  Ouch.

A Great Way to Enjoy the Outdoors

Ever hear of Letterboxing?


From Wiki

Letterboxing is an outdoor hobby that combines elements of orienteering, art, and puzzle solving. Letterboxers hide small, weatherproof boxes in publicly-accessible places (like parks)^[1] and distribute clues to finding the box in printed catalogs, on one of several web sites, or by word of mouth. Individual letterboxes usually contain a notebook and a rubber stamp.^[2] Finders make an imprint of the letterbox's stamp, either on their personal notebook or on a postcard, and leave an impression of their personal stamp on the letterbox's "visitors' book" or "logbook" — as proof of having found the box and letting subsequent letterboxers see who have visited.

The best site to start letterboxing is, hands down, Atlas Quest. I have a neighbor who LOVES to find the stamps--most are handmade and some are incredibly intricate.  I, however, love letterboxing because it brings you places you would n.e.v.e.r go on your own.  Letterboxing takes you down little used trails and even to deserted beaches such as this one at Fort Stevens State Park.....

Deserted in July.  Awesome.

The stamps can be fun too.

I'm hoping we can do some Letterboxing while on our trip.  I think it would be a wonderful keepsake for all of us to have a book filled with stamps from all over the country.  


We'll find paths we never would have gone to, we'll explore new areas and, hopefully, have a lot of fun looking, even if we don't find the stamp!

Theme Song

Every vacation needs a theme song, right?

MARCH?????

My front porch (notice the snowballs on the railing?) I think my children are planing an ambush.

It's MARCH 1st and we have two inches of SNOW in the Willamette Valley here in Oregon.

We leave in THREE WEEKS!   I'm getting a little nervous about the trip south--we are suppose to be at the Grand Canyon on March 27.

Somebody apparently did NOT get the memo that it's MARCH and time for SPRING!

The View from the Driver's Seat

Well, here's the view as we left the storage spot this morning for a quick trip up the highway--with ME in the driver's spot. 


My first driving lesson went well.  It wasn't as scary or as difficult as I thought it would be.  I didn't hit anything--always a plus!  I don't see myself backing up anytime soon and turns are a little hairy, but with practice I can definitely see myself sharing a bit of the driving with Keith on our trip.


He's been busy making sure all the maintenance is done--he's replaced fluids, checked hoses, had an alignment done, fixed the hot water issue (Yay!)  and is looking at adding an aftermarket rear stabilizer---thingy.  


I'll let him deal with that--I've got to figure out what food we are going to initially bring, making sure we have enough, but not too much of anything.


I tell ya--this trip had *better* be fun.  :) 

What? You've Never Driven the RV?

I need to have my first lesson driving the RV--soon.  Yes, we've had the RV two years and I've yet to actually drive the thing.

Ever see the movie RV?  If you haven't, I highly recommend it.  The main character, Bob (played by the very funny Robin Williams) , a bigwig with a soda company, has to cancel his family's Hawaii vacation in order to make a sales pitch meeting in Colorado.

Rather than tell his family he has to cancel the vacation due to work, he rents a RV and proceeds to convince his wife that family bonding trumps Hawaii.

It's a quotable sort of movie.

In this clip, the family is just finding out that Hawaii is cancelled and they are packed and are just heading out.  Bob has a wee bit of difficulty navigating the RV for the first time.

Let's hope *MY* 1st time driving the RV goes a little bit smoother than Bob's.  I'll keep you posted.

No Hot Water???

Here's the thing about owning a RV--when something goes wrong it could be vehicle OR house related.  Thank goodness Keith is handy.  He noticed a problem with the water heater right before he came back from working out of state--after some troubleshooting, he determined that the ignition board was bad.  After a bit of searching, he was able to find one to order online.  Of course, everything RV related is more expensive than you would expect.  Oh well, you have to have hot water and better for it to go out now instead of in the middle of West Texas.

We spent the afternoon cleaning the RV--Keith did the outside while I worked inside. Here are a few pictures of the inside I took while cleaning this afternoon.  

Looking out the front

The kitchen.  Yup, that's it.  :)

The little fridge

The hallway sink

The shower

The bedroom

Looking towards the back

Oh boy....

Time really does fly!!  Here we are, just a little over a month away from our departure date.   I’m fairly confident that we’ll be ready.  The ‘to do’ list has been whittled down to one page.  Keith is now home so the list will benefit from the two of us working on it. 

The Little Things and a Confession

Confession: I’m not terribly detail oriented or organized.

I must give off some sort of organized vibe since I’ve been told more than once

“You’re so organized and detail oriented!” 

I’d show you my Tupperware cupboard as proof, but that would just be embarrassing.  For you AND me.  No pictures of closets will be forthcoming either. 

So, now that all the BIG planning is done, it’s on to the little stuff.  Blech.

*Vaccinations for the cats—done

*Vaccinations for the children (well, one child that’s traveling to Peru this summer) calls made, just waiting to hear from the pharmacist.

*Oil change and car inspection – appt made.

*Taxes are almost ready to take to the tax gal. Just waiting on that one last thing.

*Online bill pay set up.

*Dr. visits done and prescriptions filled.

*Mid weight jacket for son found and bought. Bonus-he likes it.  It’s a bear trying to find his size right now. 

*Tether app for cell phone downloaded.

*Starbucks card filled (I should’ve put this one at the top of the list—very important)

I still have to make a campground list and figure out if we are going to do any school and purchase some thank you gifts and, and, and....I think I'll be done for today.  :)

Ahhh, that's better....

I've been messing around with templates and colors and fonts *trying* to figure out why the blog just didn't look quite right to me.

I've added a picture of Mt Hood, which you can see in the distance not far from my house on a clear day.  Now the blog feels right.

I took this picture after riding the ski lift up the mountain at Ski Bowl last summer.   We were on our way up for our 3rd or 4th time down the 1/2 mile alpine slide.

Sweet Alpine Slide

Another Reservation Made

This time for Yellowstone, the last major stop of our trip.  I scored a spot in a campground just FIVE miles from the entrance.

Resources

Way back when this trip was years in the future, I started purchasing RV books.  Books such as RV for Dummies, Road Trip USA, a National Parks Guide and anything else that caught my eye as I hung out in the travel section of Barnes and Noble.

I joined a couple of Yahoo groups.  Families on the Road is a great group to join if you are interested in RVing for extended periods.  While many of the families who post are full time RVers, I learned a TON just by lurking.  I’ve been a member of this group for well over a year and it’s been my initial go to when questions arise.  The archives are a wealth of knowledge.

Initially I wanted a Class C motorhome, but the more we researched, the more I gravitated to the Class A.  Keith lobbied for a bit for a 5^th wheel (I think he just wanted a bigger truck), but I quickly disabused him of the notion of 8 weeks with the kids in the cab of a truck.

Having Keith work out of state was actually a blessing in disguise.  It forced us to purchase a RV for Keith to live in, thus giving us time to figure out how to work and maintain the RV before leaving for our trip.  Keith was able to fix some minor issues and work out the kinks.  

I purchased a RV Road Atlas.  Invaluable.  This atlas shows where campgrounds and RV service centers are located.  I also bought a Next Exit book.  This book tells you what services are located off of every exit of every interstate.  Another great resource.  I have two RV campground directories.  One is Frommers and the other is from Good Sam.  Ah, Good Sam.  Good Sam offers roadside RV assistance, but they also offer a membership for RVers that gives you access to their website which includes forums and handy checklists.  I wrote to AAA and asked for maps—boy did I get maps! 

I then purchased an annual National Parks permit and bought some National Parks Passport books.  Apparently, each National Park has a stamp that you can get and collect.  It’ll be fun.  I hope. 

Once I had all of my books, I started a notebook with tabs for various lists—stuff to bring, people to see, campgrounds, to do lists, etc.  I printed up a blank calendar to fill out with our planned itinerary.  I printed out helpful emails from people and reservation confirmations.  I have a list of all the bills that need to be paid while we’re gone.  All of this goes into a magazine holder so that there is one central place for everything.

So far, that’s everything I’ve used.  Oh, and Google.  Where would we be without Google????

Name Changes and Calendars

Keith didn't really like the title of the blog, so I've changed the name of the blog from Bounder Beast to Bounder Bus.  Just for him.  

He managed a short visit home for the weekend and I can’t wait to sit down and plan out some of our trip together!  The plan for the weekend is to sit down with some checklists.  From there, we’ll head out to Camping World for some of the supplies we’ll need.   B.o.r.i.n.g., but necessary. 

Next, I plan on pulling all the maps back out and going over the itinerary I’ve worked up.  I printed up a couple of blank calendars and have penciled the stops in.  I figure we’ll travel between 6 and 7 hours a day on our travel days.

I’ll share what I’ve done so far….

3/23            Leave Home and arrive in Caldwell, ID

3/24            Arrive Provo, UT

3/25            Arrive Zion National Park, UT

3/26            Spend the day exploring the Park

3/27            Leave Zion and arrive at The Grand Canyon

3/30            Leave the Grand Canyon/arrive aroundWilcox, AZ

3/31            Arrive Carlsbad, NM

4/1              Explore the Carlsbad Caverns

4/2              Leave head to Fort Stockton, TX (here’s some wiggle room)

4/5              Arrive Corpus Cristi, TX and hang out at the Gulf

4/8              Leave CC, TX (more wiggle room as we make our way to FL)

4/13            Arrive at Fort Wilderness at Disney in Orlando, FL

4/17            Leave Orlando

4/18            Arrive Atlanta, GA

4/19            Georgia Aquarium

4/20            Leave GA and head North.

4/21            South Carolina stop- maybe?

4/22            Arrive Williamsburg, VA

4/23            Explore Colonial Williamsburg (another bit of wiggle room)

4/25            Arrive MD to visit my best friend, Jennifer

4/26            Spend a couple of days with Jen  while exploring DC

4/29            Leave MD and arrive in PA to spend some time with family
5/1              Spend the week exploring PA and NYC-Statue of Liberty!

5/6              Leave PA and head west

From here we may head to Springfield, IL to see Lincoln’s childhood home or just head NW to WI to visit Yerkes Observatory and hopefully visit with my stepsister and her family.

We’ll then make our way to Mt. Rushmore, SD and head on to Yellowstone and possibly the Grand Tetons.

We need to be back at home before Monday, May 30.

Please feel free to comment with any and all suggestions you might have!

WOW!

A very kind and generous internet friend is helping us obtain Disney tickets for our stay in April, saving us, literally, hundreds of dollars.

Today was a great planning day--I made our reservations for Fort Wilderness and even secured our reservation for Teppan Edo, the Japanese restaurant in Epcot.  Disney is going to be really busy, unfortunately, due to the Easter holiday, but I still think we'll have a wonderful time.  I've already subscribed to Tour Guide Mike and will follow his recommendations so that we can enjoy our stay all the more.

Can't wait!

Maps and Reservations--Progress!

I sat down this afternoon at the dining room table with the computer, a calculator, a stack of maps, two monstrous RV campground guides and my notebook.

It was time to figure out what dates we will be at Fort Wilderness and start looking for campgrounds to stay at along the way.

It looks like we’ll be camping at the Grand Canyon late March and will be at Disney World in mid April. 

Reservations for the campground at the Grand Canyon have been made and inquires sent out for Fort Wilderness. 

I wish we didn’t have to stick to any sort of schedule—it would be so nice to just get in the RV and go—stopping wherever we want and taking however long we want to.