Change of Plans?

  Antelope Island is a beautiful, serene place. It is winter here so no water/services, which means nobody here except the wildlife, especially the bison. They like to check out all the camping sites for leftovers (I like to think). We woke up to them 10 feet from our window.  Our heater kicked in, which scared them, and they moved on. It’s lows of -4, and there is snow in the hills. We stayed 3 nights here on the island and it was another recharge station for me. We all made Christmas gifts for the family with items we’ve collected on our journey so far. I won’t be able to post anything as most of the family reads the blog, but I will add the pictures to a later blog.  The weather was sunshine and warmth during the day, and cool in the evenings. We had to start wearing our long johns to bed to keep us warm. We can’t run the heater too much in places without power as it drains the battery. So more layers it is!

As I’ve mentioned, school is better when we are stationary, so we accomplished quite a bit here. Adam taught Wyatt how to do an oil change, and I taught the kids some art.  When it comes to the actually Math and English subjects, we know why teachers drink (he he!). After 3 days of chilling we headed to actual Salt Lake City for the night. We did some grocery shopping, hit the thrift stores for movies/dvds for the motorhome, and met Adam’s highschool buddy, Matt, and his wife, Grace, for lunch at the Shake Shack (milkshakes for the win!).  After our errands, the boys wanted to go to a rock climbing gym to burn off some energy.  The front desk staff told us about a local business that sells used kid’s gear. We went there after to see about purchasing some rock climbing shoes as the boys are really liking the climbing and we are always renting. Upon arrival, I realized I had forgotten my backpack at the climbing gym across town. I panicked as our passports and credit cards were all in that backpack. The universe was kind, and when I phoned them, it was still there. We had to drive back 30 minutes, against rush hour traffic, to get the pack, and then back south again to get to our camping spot. By this time it was dark, and it really is hard to see dirt roads and turnoffs when you are unfamiliar with the territory/route. We ended up on a paved bike path. No joke! Adam then had to back up on the trail and we navigated backwards and got on the correct road. We stayed at Flight Park. It is called this as in the morning there was anywhere from 20-40 people para-gliding/hang-gliding off the edge of the plateau where we had parked. It was a colorful morning show we got to enjoy.

After chatting with Adam’s friends from Salt Lake, we decided it was worth it to brave the minus temperatures and head to Colorado for our last two weeks before meeting my brother’s family and our moms in Disneyland. 1st stop from Salt Lake to Colorado is Arches National Park. It is the last park we are visiting on our way out of Utah, and it was one of our favorite. Maybe not for the geological features, but for the fact that we got a wonderful campsite right in the park. The kids were off all day bouldering/rock climbing with their new shoes, and even though we did not do many hikes, we loved just hanging out in the scenery. Also, the star gazing here was EPIC! It is one of the few parks in Utah that are part of the International Dark Sky Parks, but up until now, we have had clouds and things haven’t been super clear. Last night was just magical. I could actually see the Milky Way with my naked eye. If it was not so cold, I would have stayed out much longer. Tonight we are going to have a fire and we are hoping for a repeat of the stars. Cross your fingers.

No such luck for the stars the follwing night. We did get in a hike to some more of the park to see the beautiful arches. The universe was nice enough to have us meet Erica. She is a lovely person who was hiking on her own. She ended up joining us for the second half of our hike. She chatted up our kids and told them about how she was homeschooled and it was the best!  Listening to Erica and the boys talk about the challenges and benefits warmed my heart. We needed her today, as we were once again struggling to accomplish the schooling part of this journey. Sorry if this keeps coming up as a common thread, but it truly is the hardest part. That, and the trip is not what we as adults want but what a family can sustain. Ideally, in Arches National Park I would have liked to do all the hikes and see all these epic arches, but that is not the case with kids. They did one hike and were “over” the arches. So, the third morning I went hiking alone while the kids climbed rocks over and over again during their school breaks. Adam and I have been talking about, next time, when we do this without kids…….. It will be an entirely different type of travel. 

Arches was really good. The kids wanted to stay longer, but we needed to keep going. We motored on, with a quick stop in Glenwood springs for some mid day hotspring action. Adult’s idea, but luckily we know the kids like swimming too. There were many pools, that were all different temps. I spent most of my time cooking in the 108 Fahrenheit pool while the kids enjoyed the kid’s pool.  Not nearly as epic as Liard hotsprings, as this place is 100% manufactured, but it was nice to warm the bones and have a long hot shower. Ahh! The little things. We are finding that many places have already closed for the winter season, so amenities likes showers, water, dump stations are not operational. And becuase of the colder nights, we need power to run our heater. So, I am having to book more RV sites with electricity and less boon docking spots. RV sites range from $40-65 USD per night, not ideal for the budget but c’est la vie.

Our latest RV park is an interesting sort of place… Hot springs in the middle of nowhere… Literally. Hooper, Colorado, a little town 1/2 hour from the Great Sand Dunes NP. The hot spring was stumbled upon in the 30’s when they were drilling for oil and a mile below the ground they found a 300 degree hotspring. It became the community pool and has been ever since. It is drained every Thursday and 7000 gallons of water goes to a flume to be spread out between the farmers around the area.  We arrived late Wednesday, only to find that the pool is closed every Thursday for maintanence. So, Friday the kids were allowed to check out the pool as a motivation to finish their schooling.

Great Sand Dunes National Park is one of the newest US National Parks. I found it interesting how the dunes were formed over thousands of years. The fact that the wind is the sole reason for this park grabbed my attention. The wind whips thru the valley bottom, picks up the sand and hits the mountain range behind the dunes and deposits the sand in the valley below. Over time, it has just gotten bigger and bigger until turned into this MASSIVE dune. We did the touristy thing and rented boards and sleds to use for going down these massive dunes. It did not disappoint. However, I could not keep up with the kid’s energy and once I had climbed up to the peak, I was not going down, just so I could climb back up. I watched as the kids went down numerous times, and then they just turned around and hiked back up again. 2.5 hours later and the sun was setting. Time to go.

National Park Overload!

So, we were walking on a trail in the Grand Canyon and Gibson said, “How much longer.” I told him, till we get to the Ooh Aah Point. He rounds the next corner, and says, “Oooooh, Aaaaah…. Okay are we done now?!” A depressing thought, but I think that we are seeing so much beauty that we are getting desensitized. We walked all the way to Ooh Ahh Point and we were not Ooooh’d or Ahhhh’d.  Mesa Verde National Park was much of the same landscape (we visited that park right after the sand dunes). It was cool to see the cliff dwellings and read about the indigenous people, but it did not capture our hearts. One day at each park was beginning to be enough for all of us.  The motivating force for us right now is seeing our family in less than a week. That tells you what is really important. I knew this all along, but the people you share things with make it extra special. I am really happy to be doing this with my family, but sometimes we all need a different variety of people to share moments with.  Disneyland is going to be a real treat for us. 

I received an email today from our renters, saying that they might be leaving us way sooner than what we had hoped. They are waiting to hear back about a rental they applied for as they know we are returning this coming summer and they want to be prepared. This made Adam and I rethink our future on the road. No definite plans have happened, but what if we had to cut this trip short by a few months?  Would we be upset to have to go home early? Or, is it possible to find renters for only 4-5 months? Do we need to come back and deal with it?  This prompted good conversations with the kids. As much as we miss our family and friends, how often do you get this uninterrupted time together. Even though we have daily disagreements, we work through them and have so much more understanding for each other.  We have these open conversations; kids calling us on our behaviour, catching us with our own words, or about why we parent like we do, or what our expectations are, and we are getting to know our kids so much better.  Who gets this much time with their kids? Not many, and I am grateful. I heard another parent say that they have to be intentional with their time including their kids, and I now know what that means. Anytime we return back to the daily grind of work/life routine, Adam and I will need to make sure we carve out time for this one on one time with our kids.

Another plus side to returning early is that we have realized in the 5 months on the road, that nothing compares to home. We frequently talk about the projects we want to tackle when we get home: working on the Baja Minis with the kids, building gardens and a greenhouse, maybe a tiny moveable home, chickens, honey bees, and back to the jobs we did not mind in the least. All that along with the greatest pull of all-  our family and friends.  We truely miss home, but know that this adventure is one of a kind! I will keep you posted on the renter’s decision. 

Off to warmer climate.... Finally.