travel log

After six months on the road we are back right where we started in Bellevue, WA.  A lot has changed since we sold our house and left back in September.

We quickly setup camp in a downtown apartment that is close to everything.  It took us a little while to adjust being in a small space with neighbors close by but now it seems normal.  Slowly it started to feel more like home as we got to know the area and our neighbors.  Skye has a couple of friends that she plays with after school in the courtyard.  Luca has fun playing fortnite online with his school buddies.  Ginger loves to chase the ball in the downtown park.  Lara and I enjoy the gym in our building and having great Thai food just down the street.  It is definitely a different kind of lifestyle and we are looking for a house to buy in a new neighborhood.

My new job at Docker has been a great change.  I am back writing code and building websites which is a ton of fun.  When I first started I had this immense pressure that was lifted off of me.  Managing a team came with a lot of extra stress that I grew used to over the years.  There were always things like un-happy team mates or pressure from the business to make things happen that were not possible.  During those first couple of weeks literally felt like I had just taken off a 100 pound backpack that I had no idea I was carrying.

Luca and Skye started up school right away which was a big change from Road School.  Being back with their friends felt like homecoming for them.  Skye started Triangle Swim Team and Luca was back playing soccer for Bellevue United.  Their schedules went from free back to structured.  It’s funny how much more comfortable they are with structured routine.

Coming back was also a little bitter sweet.  I miss the new places and exploring that we got to do everyday on the road.  Being on the open road gives me time to think and just observe.  That part of the trip was like a breath of fresh air.  The excitement of getting to a new place and finding out where everything is was one of the best parts of the trip.  Skye would take off to find the game room and vending machines.  Luca would check out all of the power connections available while hooking us up and then test all of the available internet connections.   Together as a family we also got to spend a lot more time together.

The road trip definitely gave Luca and Skye more of an appreciation for what we have back home.  They got to meet all different kinds of people and see what life is like for them.  There were times when we were meeting people late at night inside the Walmart before going to bed in the parking lot.  Experiencing those kind of things both easy and hard were great for them.  Breaking down and staying on the street while staying safe was totally new for them.  Overall they learned to live on the road with a lot less than they were used to.

We pulled out of San Diego early and headed north to visit Lara’s Mom in Santa Barbara.  It was a yucky rainy day to be driving through LA on 101.  Our F350 had such a short range while pulling the fifth wheel.  We would be lucky to get 250 miles on a tank which was a huge pain.  I did not feel comfortable pulling off in LA to get gas and waited until Goleta to fill up.  We pulled in only to find the gas station closed.  As I was pulling through I got distracted and let the trailer brush up against a post that was protecting the fuel pump.  The post put a dent in the bunk room slideout and broke the slide’s bushing wheel.  It was a stupid mistake that would end up costing two thousand dollars to fix.

Lara’s mom Lorraine was so happy to see everyone.  They had a nice lunch and walked on the beach.  We headed from Santa Barabara north to the KOA in Santa Cruz.  It was dark and late by the time we made it in and got parked.  The kids were tired and grumpy which was not fun.  After everyone got a good night sleep and the sun came out the next day everyone was back to normal.

Lara’s sister Angie and her family came out to Capitola to visit.  We played on the beach and had lunch in town.  The kids had so much fun catching up with Angie and Dave for the afternoon.

The next leg was from Santa Cruz to the Sonoma KOA.  Pulling the 5th wheel over the Santa Cruz mountains was close quarters and hairy.  The road was packed with Silicon Valley commuters that rally over it everyday.  We were clearly in their way.

The Sonoma KOA is nothing to write home about.  We took off early the following morning to go visit and interview at Docker.  Everything went well and we headed out the next morning to Yakima, Washington.

After hitting the post in Goleta we called all of the Jayco dealers we could find to see about getting in for service.  The 5th wheel need a few warranty things fixed and the damage from the pole.  Thankfully the dealer in Yakima had space and could do the work.  We spent the night at the state park and then dropped the 5th wheel off the next day.

The six month journey had come to end which was bitter sweet for all of us.  The kids were so excited to see their friends again. Lara was looking forward to getting back to crossfit.  I was definitely not excited to return to an office.

We had a really nice stay in San Diego on Mission Bay.  Our spot overlooked the bay and had a great dog park just around the corner.  Lara and I had a couple of nice mornings walking in the sun overlooking the bay.

Luca and Skye had a great time staying with my aunt Leslie and uncle Paul.  I think they were just excited to not be with us and to get out of the truck and trailer.  After a few days in San Diego it was time to head north to the Bay Area and visit Docker.

When we arrived back to Cape Lookout from Washington DC there were a couple of storms headed east.  The more direct route would have been to take I-80 or I-90 back but the thought of driving a fifth wheel through the mountains on icy roads was not appealing.  Heading south to San Diego and up the west coast looked like the best option.  That route would also let us catch up with all of our family on the west coast.

We packed up and headed out of town but made a quick stop for some new tires on the truck.  The tires that came on the truck were AT/Mud which were loud and rough under load.  We unfortunately ripped up the sidewall on one rallying in the sand dunes to watch the sunset.

With new tires on the truck we were off to Ashville, North Carolina for the night.  We stayed at Campfire Lodgings which was high up in the mountains.  The view overlooking the valley was beautiful!

Ashville is cute town with lots of young people and great places to eat.  We had a nice morning at the coffee shop catching up on school work and yummy snacks.  We fueled up the truck and got ready to head out the next morning for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The drive from Asheville is pretty short and we pulled in to the KOA in Pigeon Forge so I could start working.  It was cool outside and the ground was soft and muddy from a storm that just passed through.   We headed up to the park headquarters and got the kids junior ranger packets.  It was fun to learn about the park and what it took to build the infrastructure.  So much history in these places.

From Pigeon Forge we headed west to Nashville, TN.  It was hard for me to coordinate all of the miles we had to drive while having to work regular hours during the week.  Since I my co-workers were on pacific standard time it made the most sense to hit the road early and then stop for the workday at 11am eastern time.  That worked out pretty well and we did a couple hundred miles each morning using that technique.  The weekend would be when we could put down a couple of 700 mile days to get across Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

Nashville was a bustling when we arrived.  Lara and the kids visited a couple of museums while I worked a the RV park.  We met up with some road trip friends and had a nice night before heading out to Memphis.

The next morning we hit the road early headed to Memphis to stay at Graceland.   Graceland has an RV park which was perfect spot to pull in to.  We got to tour Graceland, catch up on laundry and get some work done.  It was a beautiful sunny day with lots of little springtime buds on the trees.

Graceland turned out to be a lot of fun.  Luca and Skye love the song Burning Love from the movie Gameplan which was blasting on the outside speakers when we walked in.  The museum had so much history about Elvis which was fun to learn about.  The short video clips they had really showed how out of it he was.  Super sad to see that part of his life.

Our next leg was 475 miles to Oklahoma City for an overnight stop.  From Oklahoma city we drove pretty much straight through to Yuma Arizona.  It was a long haul and when we finally got to Yuma I could barely park the trailer.  The desert night was beautiful with a big moon and purple skies.

The next leg to San Diego was easy until we got in to the city.  San Diego’s freeways are so busy and pulling our big rig through the morning rush hour was not that fun.  Once we got hooked up it felt great to have a few days to rest before heading north.

We took a quick road trip without the trailer up to Washington DC.  One of the goals for the road trip was to let our kids learn some of our countries history in person.  The drive from Cape Lookout took most of the day and we arrived in to DC late that evening.  We past the lit up National Monument, Federal Building and the White House before we pulled in to our hotel.  Walking Ginger around downtown was a great tour of all the consulates and embassies.

Lara and the kids explored the city by bus and had a great time.  They loved the spy museum and all of the amazing exhibits at the Smithsonian.  It brought back memories from the movie Night at the Museum for them.

I had to work while we there but got out running each morning with Ginger.  It was a good way to push my running mileage by trying to see more of all the sights.  Running on the National Mall was an amazing experience.

Staying in the downtown was a lot of fun. After work the city came alive with bustling restaurants, yoga and spin classes. There were lots of healthy young people out each night.  Luca and I watched an adult coed soccer matches at Stead Park while we played.  I could definitely live in a community like that.

We stayed in North Carolina for a few days while we took a road to trip up to Washington DC.  North Carolina was good spot to leave the trailer for a couple of days while we traveled by truck up to DC.

The campground was on an inland waterway which had beautiful sunrises.  We explored the beach on Emerald Isle one night at sunset.  It was windy and cold out but Skye and Ginger had a great time running around.

The campground had a bunch of beachy decorated sites.  People were making the most out of what they had.  There was no gym at the park which meant that we spent our mornings across the street at the Dunkin Donuts.

This part of the trip was hard on the kids.  There was not much going on around the campground for Luca and Skye.  Without friends to play with they were both bored and grumpy.  It made us thankful for all the times that met new friends on the road.

The weather also made us feel like we had traveled too far North too soon.  We quickly planned a southern route back to the west via Texas and San Diego.    After our trip up to the capitol we would head back west to friends and family.

We had a nice drive up the coast from St. Augustine through Savannah to Tybee Island, Georgia.  The highlight of the trip north was driving through the old tree lined, cobblestone roads in downtown Savannah.   There were so many historic buildings and great character to the town.

Our campground in Tybee Island was just a few blocks off of the beach.  Each day we would watch the tankers go by in to Savannah’s port.  The beach does not allow dogs off leash which Ginger was happy about.  There was a great dog park just around the corner though that she could run in.

The historic Tybee Island lighthouse was a quick walk away and could be seen from most of the flat town.  Below the lighthouse there was a bunker with a happening outdoor restaurant packed with people from the beach.  Downtown Tybee was just a couple of streets lined with bars and tourist shops that we stayed away from.

During the week, Lara and the kids made several trips to Savannah while I stayed with Ginger and worked.  They had a great time going to kids museums and eating yummy food.  Savannah has so much character and beauty all around it.

On Sunday morning we headed to one of the inlets to go paddle boarding as a family.  The tide was ripping which made for a great workout and some stress of getting sucked out to sea.  We watched one kayaker bravely cross the rip to the other side and another letting the rip take him out.  It would have been nice to have some more local knowledge to know what was safe and what was not.  As we paddled a coast guard helicopter was circling around on the coast looking for something.  Ginger was so happy to chase the stick and swim after a few days out of the water.

This whole part of the southern coast has so much early history.  We learned that the Tybee Lighthouse which was completed in 1742 was burned by Confederate troops in 1861 as they retreated to Fort Pulaski to prevent the Union troops from finding them.  Some of our family had some bad dreams and there are plenty of ghost tours in the area.  It was cool to soak in all of those things that happened right where we were staying.

Next stop Cape Lookout, North Carolina.

St. Augustine was one of our favorite cities in Florida. We stayed at the KOA in town which was a perfect running/biking distance to the beach.  Each morning Ginger and I would jog down before work and enjoy the Atlantic waves as the sun came up.

There is so much history in St. Augustine.  At the lighthouse we studied maps that showed all of the shipwrecks off of the coast dating back to the 1700s.  The fort in town is also one of the oldest in the country.  Along the coast, there are so many inlets and bays it is a perfect place to take shelter for boats.

Luca was not a fan of the lighthouse hike and would not come out on the top deck to see the view.  What a cool piece of history to visit.

Falcon Heavy Launch, Cape Canaveral

During our visit to St. Augustine the inaugural SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch was set to happen.  We quickly rearranged our schedule (mostly work) to drive back down to Cape Canaveral for the launch.  We made it down to the launch site with plenty of time to spare.  The no-see-ums and sun were fierce while we waited pretty much the whole day for the launch to happen.

Once the countdown kicked off the energy woke everyone up.  It was really excited to count down with the crowd and feel the ground shake as one of the biggest rockets took flight for the first time.    As the rocket headed to space we then got to watch two of the boosters land just a few miles away.  I am so happy that we got to see the launch and that Luca and Skye will remember that part of the trip.

Our time around St. Augustine was so enjoyable.  The KOA campground cost a fortune but had a lake just behind our spot.  Ginger had a nice little dog park to chase the ball in and we were close to everything.

Next stop Tybee Island, Georgia.

We stayed in Orlando for a couple of weeks after returning from Montana.  The RV park that we stayed in was nothing to write home about but was close to the Magic Kingdom.  My main gripes was that there was nothing walkable form the park and the wifi, which we paid for was so slow.  Ginger liked the dog park there and met lots of puppy friends.  Every night the sky would light up from the fireworks over Disney each night.

During the stay in Orlando we were lucky enough to visit with family and friends on a couple of occasions.  Lara’s Dad and Cynthia drove up from their condo in Tampa to take us out to lunch at Tutto Italia in Epcot Center.  We had a wonderful afternoon overlooking the water and eating yummy Italian food.

A few days later we took a trip south west to Fort Meyers to visit Liz at the US sailing conference.  The kids and Liz had fun day at the beach riding huge water slides, riding a mechanical shark and racing model boats.
Ginger and I spent the day in Liz’s hotel room working and on conference calls.  It was really nice to see Liz and have a day at the beach.

Our next visit was from one of Luca’s old friends from School.  Read and Cam came to visit Disney from their new home in Toronto.  We met up at the Disney Beach Club hotel on a rainy Sunday afternoon.  Luca, Skye, Cam and Read all had a great time playing basketball and checking out the hotel.  It is amazing just how big the scale of the Disney resort actually is.  The monorail pulls right out front to get around.  Check out this lobby!

We spent the rest of the week working, playing soccer at the park and getting caught back up on school work.  The kids went door to door selling cookies all throughout the RV park.  When Luca gets the itch he is a sales machine.

On Friday after work we hooked up and headed North to St. Augustine.

Back to the coast!

For the past few years we have been spending Christmas with our family in Montana.  Even though we were already traveling this year we wanted to make the trip west to be with Family.  The day of our flight was sunny and in the 80’s as we ran errands and dropped Ginger off at the kennel.  A quick check showed that Big Sky was -15 degrees f.

The airport was packed and we made our way to our flight with all of the other holiday travelers.  We were scheduled to change planes in Denver and arrive in Bozeman around midnight.

Denver as always had a bumpy approach that shook up Luca.  Once we hit the ground we could see that it was a full on blizzard.  There were trucks with flashing lights buzzing around everywhere you looked.  The snowplows were pushing huge mounds of snow off of the taxi lanes and runways.  There must have been 50 de-icing trucks blasting off all of the outgoing planes.

We made it to our gate and to run to our Bozeman flight without any pit stops.  We pushed back from the gate and parked in the de-icing line.  It took us two and half hours to get de-iced and off the ground.  By the time we arrived in Bozeman it was 3:30 am local time.  We had a quick sleep at our hotel and then headed up the canyon to Big Sky.

It was so nice to see our family and celebrate a beautiful white Christmas.  We had awesome snow and spent as much time on the slopes as we could.

Our trip back to Florida was much easier than the way out.  We had nice long stop in Denver with smoothies and breakfast.  Luca was so excited about the insanely fast Denver Airport free wifi.  He filled up as many iPads as he could with new movies for the trip.

Once we landed back in Miami we lost our extra layers of clothes and picked up a happy Ginger at the kennel.  After a quick stop at Trader Joes we pulled the camper out of storage and headed to our next campground in Homestead.  It was time to settle down for the week and get caught up on work and school lessons.

Next stop Orlando!