May '01 to May '02 Babble
So you want to go on the road? Well we do, so we sold our homes and sold most of our belongings, except the special stuff and went. During the process we were involved with a Japanese film crew who were profiling families like ours who RV. They followed us around over a period of two months as we sold our things, wrapped up our nine year career with Dell Computers, and filmed as we pulled our kids out of school. We got used to having dinner, running errands, and talking with friends and neighbors in front of the cameras. They did lots of interviews with us about our philosophy on life and the road. On the day we were leaving town, they were there filming as we drove off. The documentary was a success, it was aired on Japans' NHK broadcasting channel, and ten million viewers learned about our family as well as the others that were in the film. Thanks to the film crew who did a wonderful job showing other people all about us! The Nodlands website road-school.com has more about the documentary and some great fanmail.
We left Issaquah, Washington on May 18th 2001, and headed for my best friend's wedding in San Antonio, Texas to be her Maid of Honor. On the way we visited Crater Lake National Park. It was absolutely breathtaking!
Need to make some time, so we headed through Nevada. After going through Nevada we took the RV over Hoover Dam. At the time we had no idea within a few months that would no longer be possible due to 9/11. Well as we are going over Hoover Dam in 100 degree heat with our foot on the brakes the whole time due to high traffic and steep grades, we overheat the brakes! As we are heading up the other side of the Dam, we lose our brakes all together. What's that all about? We pull over on a tiny side of the road with all of us dying from the overwhelming heat and let the brakes cool down. It's somewhere around this time that we happen to also lose all of our brake lights, blinkers, and hazards. All we have left is our parking lights! Turns out lights are totally unrelated to the earlier problems with the brakes. So what do we do you ask? We pull over to some TRAILER PARK in the desert and I cry, Greg tries things, nothing works. Mind you we are now a few days from Melissa's wedding, I have not informed her that I may not come, because how do you get from Kingman, Arizona to San Antonio, Texas (1165 miles) without brake lights, blinkers, and hazards? Well you just do, you fill up the tank so that you don't have to stop, because stopping requires all those key things. We drove all night, all day, all night and we make it with a couple of days to spare! So I sleep, and then jump into the Maid of Honor job.
Done with the wedding, Melissa and Victor are now in Las Vegas on their honeymoon, and we are on our way to visit all the family who lives in Texas!
After all the family visits, the trip officially re-begins as we head out to uncharted territory (for us) called the Northeast. First stop Louisiana. We stayed for a couple of days and really didn't do much. Not really into Louisiana. What's wrong with the motor home now? Oh the alternator, not that bad Greg knows all that stuff so lets go get another one. I say one but it turns into four different ones before we get the right one on. In 100 degree heat with 100% humidity.
Ok so now lets go!!!
Well that was fun, so we go to Asheville North Carolina for the Volkswagen Thing Show.
Asheville, ahh we made it. After a very intense drive to North Carolina listening to all the sounds a motor home makes and wondering "what was that noise" , we were finally here. We decide that after the VW show that we would like to stay here and let all the heat across the nation cool down, after all we were in the Great Smoky Mountain area. We visited the nations largest house, the Biltmore Estate. That was cool, great home schooling material.
After most of the heat has passed we decide to head to Ontario, Canada by way of Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan. In Michigan we visit the Henry Ford Museum and learned tons, one of the best spots along the way. Very cool Mr. Ford!
Now comes time to enter Canada a favorite place for us always, until Canadian Customs dismantle our 37 foot motor home and it's contents inside and out at the border for about an hour. That's ok, next time Greg will know how to answer their questions so that doesn't happen again. Right Greg?
After being allowed to enter Ontario we head to Niagara Falls through some beautiful scenery. And there it is Niagara Falls!!! What a cool place! We loved the little town, the people were awesome, the campground was great, and the town rules!
For Austin's ninth birthday we decided to go to Six Flags Darien Lake for the weekend, just over the border in New York state about an hour away. This was on Friday September 7th. No one knew what was going to happen about 450 miles away from us in a few days. So on Sunday September 9th, we head back to Niagara Falls. After resting up from Six Flags, Greg is in bed watching TV the morning of September 11th and starts waking me up telling me a plane has flown into the World Trade Center. What? He saw the second plane hit and we just sat there watching for the next three days straight.
With all this going on and being thousands of miles from friends and family, they all started calling us trying to get us back to TX. The borders are closed for the first day, and that was really weird not being able to go to the USA for the first time. The next day the borders were open so we decided to make a test run over the border in the VW so that we would know what to expect if we did want to leave Canada if things got stranger. We also had some mail to drop off in the States. After BREEZING through the American customs way too easy and into New York we had a newfound appreciation of the soil we were back on called the United States. We quickly ran our errands and headed back to Canada because the Canadian customs were not taking any chances with anyone coming into their country. That meant 2-3 hours to get back into Canada. Did I mention that during that time we were suspended on Rainbow Bridge about 1000 feet above the roaring waters of Niagara Falls? Ok cause that was really freaking us out being that all the bridges going to and from Canada were under threat at the time.
So we decide that we are not going to give up and just head back to TX for this. However we decided not to head to New York City now, which we had all been looking forward to, the campground we were going to stay in was directly across from Lower Manhattan.
After finishing a month long stay in Ontario, we BREEZE across the border again and they don't even check anything. We couldn't believe they weren't checking as thorough as the Canadian customs had been. What's that all about?
Now that we are back in the USA we see all the flags and displays of affection for people and the USA. That was so cool to see for hundreds of miles. We drove through Vermont and New Hampshire in fall on our way to Portland Maine.
After a week in Maine, because of the approaching winter the campgrounds were all closing so we were literally forced to leave and head to Salem Massachusetts.
Well Salem is one of the most awesome places we have been to. The feeling there is so different not to mention the history. We learned all about the Witch trials and visited the Witch Museum. This was one of the coolest places to be in October, everything was Halloween. Greg's Dad calls us in Salem, we were trying to get him to come visit us on the road. He tells us he is ready but he wants to meet in New York City. Dad is a Police Chaplain for the Austin Police Department in Texas. We decide that we should go.
We get to New Jersey, I won't even begin to tell how we navigated through there, because it was hell! Let's just say thanks to the unidentified man in the delivery truck who pulled up to us, gave us his map, told us to follow him, and went out of his way for at least thirty minutes or more to lead us to where we needed to go. Did I mention the crappy roads we were driving on? So thanks a million to the generous man, thank you!
At the RV park directly across from Lower Manhattan we are just staring at the recovery efforts going on right in front of our eyes. The smoke, the searchlights, the sadness. This is now mid October and it's as real as watching it on TV a month ago. We can see the Statue of Liberty on one side and the skyline on the other side. We picked up Dad at the airport, and went to sleep.
We all head into Manhattan the next morning and we are a little scared, because things are still uncertain. But we jumped on the subway and came out in Manhattan and walked and walked and walked. None of us were aware of how much walking you have to do. We did the typical stuff but we also visited Ground Zero.
That was unreal. The Pile of debris was huge, and still smoking. The fires that were burning under there were still on fire a month and a half later. We were able to get right up to the fence that keeps everyone out and just watch dump trucks come in and out dropping off their loads at the nearby barge that was taking all the debris to an island. It was very sad to be there, but you felt like you needed to be there. There was hundreds of people crowding the fence that was lined with flowers and candles. The smell was of jet fuel and concrete and was so bad that we had to wrap the kids heads with shirts that we bought from a local firehouse. We stayed only for fifteen to thirty minutes before just wanting to leave. After that we were just confused about everything that had happened, because once you saw it in person it makes it so different than on TV.
Dad went to the Pile everyday joining other Priests and Chaplains from all over to help the rescuers by listening, touching, hugging, and praying with them. He told us things that were not being leaked to the media, stories of the men and women there, and when they were finding people. We visited many firehouses and Police Stations with him and we would hear from the firefighters themselves and the Fire Chiefs about the men they lost. We would laugh with these guys and we would cry with them also. We walked into a firehouse that lost fourteen men and we spent a couple of hours with them as they told us about their experience and about their people. They were unwrapping tons of donations, letters, stuffed animals, food, drinks, everything from schoolchildren and supporters all over the world. It was a moment that we will never forget.
We also visited St Patrick's Cathedral, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Central park, Madison Square Gardens, Museum of Natural History, and NBC studios. Let me tell you about that. As we are in the studios inquiring about Saturday Night Live tickets I glance down at the podium holding some memos to the employees of the building. As the guys are talking I start reading what this memo says, basically this is one of the places that was receiving anthrax letters in the building. The memo continued to say that there were still spores of anthrax in the filters of the ventilation system on the floor right above us. Needless to say I hauled boo-tay out of there with all the kids and waited for Greg and Dad to stop chatting so they could join us outside. I was really scared and that sucked.
As we would walk through the subways and streets all you would see everywhere were all the missing persons signs from the World Trade Center. It was so real everywhere you went. All those signs just stick in your head.
Other things about New York were that people were so friendly and helpful, was it because of September 11th? Who cares, everyone was finally acting like we should all the time. There are so many things I could tell you about New York and our experience there, but that could take forever.
After ten days in New York we dropped Dad off at the airport and headed for Pennsylvania. We got to Gettysburg and that was where we spent our Halloween, and it was cool. There were many stories about all the ghosts that are around from the soldiers during the Civil War. Sounds like time for a Halloween ghost hunt through the woods! So late at night on Halloween, we packed up our video, voice recorder, and kids and we set off into the heavily wooded area. Did we hear anything? Let's just say after heading deep into the woods and hearing things after a while we decided to head back out.
After spending some time in Gettysburg and seeing the Civil War battlefields we headed for Graceland. When we got there, we didn't know the first thing about Elvis, so we headed for the tour of Graceland. It turns out that Elvis was a pretty motivated guy who did a lot of stuff. We had also met a family in the campground who were huge Elvis fans and they had some kids so we all took the tour together. Graceland was very cool! Then it was time to head to Texas for the holidays.
We get to Texas and spent the holidays with both of our families. We stayed for a month down on the coast with my parents, and then spent time in San Antonio with Greg's family, and then to Austin to see Greg's dad. During this time we decide to give the VW a makeover and it comes out looking great!
After spending some time with the family, we decide to hit the road on our way back to Washington. We stop in New Mexico which has always been fun to go through. We get to Sante Fe and say let's stay for a week. When we got there the weather had been about fifty degrees, not too bad. So after we pay for the week the weather drops to highs in the thirties and everything stays frozen for the rest of the week. Greg tries to keep the water flowing in the pipes, but they are frozen most of the time. If you go outside for five minutes your ears will literally fall off your head. I'm not kidding. So as soon as that week is up we haul boo-tay out of New Mexico and into the warmer climate of Arizona.
One of my friends from Washington grew up in Prescott, Arizona and told me since I was going to be in Arizona I should look up her parents and go visit them. I said that was dumb Kerrie, I don't want to show up at your parents house and say "hi I'm Kerrie's friend!" So when we get to Prescott (yes Kerrie talked me into it) I call Debbie and Miguel and say "hi I'm Kerrie's friend!" It turns out that they are some of the coolest people we have met. They are not your typical parents, and we hit it off. We ended up staying there two months and had a lot of fun with these guys. They are both professional chefs and made us some of the best dinners we've had. Miguel also has been making his own fresh salsa for years and they have a restaurant grade kitchen, so one week as a home school lesson we hand made 175 bottles of fresh salsa. The process included chopping the vegetables by hand, cooking them in huge cooker, bottling, and labeling all 175 jars of salsa. It was such a job that it took two days to complete. The kids loved it, they did most of the work and also learned about sanitation. We all had fun, and got to walk away with lots of salsa!
After spending two months there, we decide that it is time to go to California and get out of the winter. So we head for Malibu.
When we get there we were so excited! We had the coolest RV spot, it overlooked the ocean and PCH (Hwy 1). The people in the RV park were so cool and we made lots of friends there. We would drive into L.A. for the day and all around Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Hollywood, and Sunset. We bought one of those maps of the movie stars homes and went in search of them. Turns out if you don't buy the tape that goes along with it you don't get to see as much, but we were able to see quite a few anyway. Then we also went to Universal Studios and spent the day riding some of the coolest rides. The weather was still pretty cool, so we didn't really swim in the ocean, but we would go down and watch the surfers. We also had four whale sightings from the RV park, that was really neat! Malibu was a very fun place!
It was hard to leave there because we had already felt pretty local and had made some great friends there, but it was time to start heading back to Washington because we were coming up on a year on the road and we wanted to see all of our friends back home.
So as we start heading that way Greg decided that he was going to look up his step sister he had not seen in twenty years. We call her up and let her know we are interested in seeing them, and she welcomes us up to Sacramento. So we start heading that way and as we get closer we are all starting to freak out. You see Greg's dad and her mom got a divorce and it was a really weird time then, so here we are twenty years later and how's that going to work? Well we get there and it turns out her mom is there too and we weren't expecting that at all, we were thinking quick cup of coffee say hi and leave, but we get invited to a barbeque with the everyone. So we go and now we are really feeling weird, but it turns out it was great. Jeanne was like a mom and Camie like a sister to Greg and they still had feelings for each other. We spend the day together, have some barbeque , and went on a little tour of their town Davis, California. After dinner we hugged and said goodbye and went home. We leave Sacramento and head for Mt. Shasta.
We are anxious to get to Washington, so we do not really spend any time anywhere except the roadside attraction, The Oregon Vortex. There was some weird things going on out there. We decide to make an all night drive to Washington and so we do. Before you know we are back in Washington at three o'clock in the morning cruising our little town in our motor home. We are all so excited to see familiar things since we have been wondering around for a year. The house that we sold has now been changed into a law office, the people that bought it from us are lawyers and very nice people. We go back to the RV park that we had started this journey from a year ago and pass out.
In the morning we wake up and immediately go see friends. We surprised them, because they had no idea we were here yet. It was nice to see them and share our stories, and the kids loved seeing their teachers and friends as well. Issaquah is a pretty cool little town with some great people.
To be continued...