Setting Out with a Heavy Heart

We are just getting ready to leave Idaho and head to Utah.  Keith is breaking down the RV and I'm checking email and such with the campground's free wi-fi.

I learned last night that an internet friend that lives not too far from me lost her only son in a tragic car accident last night.   I feel very conflicted that here I sit, with three healthy children, just starting a two month cross country adventure, while she and her family are waking up for the first time without her son.

If you are so led,  please pray and think about Deana and Mike as they work through losing Andrew, their only child.   Thanks.

Slowing Down

You know how sometimes even a simple summertime trip to the beach in the summer seems rushed?  This is only our first day and I’ve already caught myself almost saying “Sorry, we don’t have time for that view point”.  Umm, you know what?  We do have time to stop. Now, I didn’t pull out the big camera and play wanna-be photographer, but I did get a couple of nice pictures.  This is the Pendleton viewpoint in Eastern Oregon. 

We had a looong driving day today—425 miles and are spending our first night just over the Idaho border.  The kids are cranky and it’s a bit chilly, but the campground has free wi-fi.

And We're OFF!

We leave in the morning!  I'm hoping to leave the rain behind........

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!