Stunning

"Dad!" Miss Bookworm excitedly said as she came back down the trail towards me. "You have got to come over here and take a picture. It is the perfect spot." We were on a hike up from Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Well, here is the picture I took. The Rocky Mountains are simply stunning.

By the way, these posts about our trip are not in order. Sorry about that. I just post whatever I feel like either from that day or some day before.

Feeding the Family

While we may be bleeding at the gas pump, CrazyMom has been saving us a ton of money by feeding the family out of the RV. I am not exactly sure how the process works, but I know it involves a very small RV fridge that you only open if you are prepared to spend an hour repacking it. It also involves a sizable pantry located under our bed. While the inner workings are a mystery to me, the results are plain to see. From a sloppy joe dinner overlooking the Badlands to a creekside taco feast along a brook in the Black Hills, we have been eating well – and cheaply.

Near Blowout

“Why is that truck honking at us?” a kid asked from the back seat.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “Probably because I am driving too slow.”

It was our only full day in the Badlands and we had just gotten on the road to see the sights when this Custer Gas truck started honking at us. I pulled over to let him pass, but instead he pulled up beside me.

“Something is wrong with your right rear tire,” the trucker yelled through his open window.

I hopped out and went to look at it. The tire looked perfectly fine to me and I was about to get back in the van when the guy showed up at my side.

“It’s something on the inside,” he said.

Getting down on our knees, we looked under the van and saw the problem. I was moments away from a blowout. I would have never noticed the bulge and nobody else could have seen it when I was pulling the travel trailer.

Feeling very fortunate indeed, we cautiously headed off to the nearest tire store, which we found out about from our favorite trucker.

Of Trust and Rattlesnakes

So a few days back we were hiking in the Bandlands when we saw a sign warning us of rattlesnakes. F.G. got really nervous.

“Trust me,” I said, “the rattlesnakes won’t get you.”

After some coaxing and reassuring, I finally got F.G. to take a picture with the sign acting like she was scared.

As you have probably already guessed, later that day we were hiking and saw a rattlesnake. Good thing the snake did not bite F.G. or she would probably never trust me again.

Unheeded Advice

“Get to the campsite early,” Mr. V was telling us. Mr. and Mrs. V had spent a year on the road camping and Crazy Mom and I were asking them what nuggets of wisdom they could pass along to us as we embarked on our own trip. The get-there-early advice was certainly sound.

Just three days later we experienced first hand the perils of ignoring this advice. With only 5 hours to travel that day, we felt like we had plenty of time. This led us to make a number of bad decisions.

Bad decision #1: Cook pancakes and sausage for breakfast after sleeping in for an extra hour.

Bad decision #2: Rather than take off for our new site (in the Badlands), go visit the Ingalls Homestead.

Bad decision #3: Get sucked into lingering at the Ingalls homestead because the kids are having so much fun.

Bad decision #4: Being nice to the guy from Australia who talked to us for a half-hour right as we were trying to pull out of the campsite.

After all of these bad decisions, we could have still made it to the campsite before nightfall if all had gone well. Unfortunately, I had to buy a new jack for the front of the RV and it did not fit into the old hole, leading to an additional delay at a car shop.

Then, as we crossed into the Badlands there was a nasty front passing through. The wind was blowing so hard we pulled over in a rest area and parked next to a semi to it could break the wind for us.

All of this resulted in arriving at the campsite well after dark. Visiting the dumping station and setting up camp in the dark with a tired and crabby crew meant we violated the quiet hours of the camp, I am sure. The one good thing is that the storm caused a spectacular sunset as we passed through the Badlands to get to our campsite.

Sunset in the Badlands

Minor Trailer Troubles – So Far

Setting off on a road trip with an RV is implicitly agreeing to have some troubles along the way. One just hopes that the troubles are minor and are not trip killers. On our shake down trip a few months ago the RV brakes failed, but I have had no trouble with them since getting them fixed. I have also been battling a leak in a joint going into the gas tank, which I filled with some gas-tank putty to no avail. Now I keep dosing the joint with some gas resistant sealant with some success.

Then tonight as we were setting up camp the jack on the front of the RV tightened up. I cranked a little harder and heard the some gears pop. After finding that a single spoke on one of the metal gears had broken off, I decided to remove the jack. Flipping it upside down, I poured motor oil into it to try to keep the rest of the system moving freely to take stress off of the damaged gear. I will find out tomorrow if I can crank up the RV to get it back on the van. I did not have the heart to try it tonight.

After cleaning up from the job, I thought that I ought to write a post about RV troubles. When I entered the RV to sit down to start in on the post, Crazy Mom had another repair waiting for me. A support bar had come off when she and Ed were trying to set it. It was an easy fix, but I have to admit that it makes be nervous about what all will break tomorrow.

UPDATE: I got the RV back on the van, but the jack failed in the process. I had to get a new jack . . . and stop by a car shop to grind a larger hole in the frame so it would fit.

Friends are Friends Forever

I heard the “Friends are Friends Forever” song so often when I was in high school that a wave of nausea would sweep over me every time it was played. It has been decades since I have thought of the song, but it came to mind a few days ago when my family got to visit some old friends on our trip. Even though 11 years had passed since we had seen them last, we were able to slip right back into meaningful friendship. I suppose this is what Anne of Green Gables calls “kindred spirits.” In some ways our paths have departed over the years with us having seven children and they having one. But in many more significant ways our paths are the same – each striving to live for the Lord.

Mr. V giving some instructions before we launch into Lake Michigan.

Crazy Mom off to gather together her ducklings.

Going downtown for ice cream.

The gang at breakfast.

A dream deferred; a dream realized

Cruising down the highway, I looked to my left and saw the perfect country home passing by. The wrap-around porch, the lane lined with trees, and the well-manicured garden caused me to wince. I glanced over at Crazy Mom and we exchanged a knowing glance – this was a dream deferred.

That was a year ago, only a few weeks after we had made the formal commitment to move to Kenya to teach at a school for the children of missionaries. While we were thrilled to be going, we were also experiencing feelings of loss as we were laying aside things once dreamed of.

Then, last November we received a call that our departure date for Africa had been pushed back a year to the summer of 2012. While we were initially disappointed, it did allow for us to lay plans for another dream that we had always talked about but never done – a big camping trip out west.

We are now living that dream. A few days ago our family played along the shore of Lake Superior as we camped in the Upper Peninsula. The days to come should be exciting as they carry us farther and farther west.

The race is on.

Buddy skipping rocks.
 

Enjoying the sunset

Basement Living

by Miss Bookworm

Living in a basement - even a nicely furnished basement - with a family of nine was a squeeze. A tight squeeze. When we decided to rent a basement to live in for a few weeks while attending a conference (about Third Culture Kids) in New York, we knew that it might be tight. But I think we all would agree that the biggest problem was the bathroom. The single bathroom. The one and only bathroom. Every morning when it came time to brush teeth, the result was usually about four people stuffed inside the bathroom brushing their teeth with several more outside of the bathroom door clamoring for the ones inside to hurry up and finish because we had to leave in five minutes.

Aside from the “one bathroom” problem, another struggle was the beds. There were only four, and while we had brought air mattresses in anticipation of this problem, two of them ended up having holes. In Dad’s spare time, he either worked on fixing the air mattresses (to no avail) or he did work on his laptop (to slightly better results). Each night everyone would go to sleep on nicely pressurized beds (freshly pumped up), and each morning at least two would be flattened to the extent that their occupants were essentially lying on the ground.

Now, you can decide which is more uncomfortable - the situation with the beds or the fact that we ate all of our meals at two different tables. One table was pretty normal, but it only seated four. The other was a coffee table and the seating required two people to sit on the couch and three to sit on some tripod lawn chairs that we had (thankfully!) brought along.

Oh well, the point of our stay in NY was not to be living in extreme comfort. On the contrary, we were all too busy widening our perspectives to spend much time in the basement anyway. It was a fun two weeks, and we all learned a bunch.