Update!

The eclipse on 8-21-2017 in South Carolina, USA.
Photo copyright Jared Pechan.

Hi to all who are following along. We are updating quick updates on Facebook and Instagram, due to wifi issues. You can find our Facebook account here and our Instagram here.

The quick details: Presently, we are in Georgia on the Florida border. We are waiting for a couple of documents to be overnighted to us before we drive to Miami, where we will board the plane to our new home.
We fly out to move aboard on Tuesday and can't wait! Until then, we are still enjoying the road trip and seeing all we can see. We had a huge scare with Sunshine's paperwork, which needs a blog post dedicated to just that. Hopefully, we can spare someone else the stress by reading what we went through.

So, apologies for lack of details, but I wanted to update everyone. All is well and we are moving forward! =)
~Stef

Road Tripping Across the USA: Part 2, Friends and Dragons

Yes, we have a family photo of this, but this will need to do until I get it loaded off the camera! =)

After settling in at the Mammoth campground, we explored lots of features such as more hot springs and the terrace areas. These are such amazing sights! Of course, not everyday is all fun and adventure. We also have to deal with the usual household chores. The next day, Jared set up the solar panel to charge the batteries which worked very well! We were essentially "dry camping" without any hookups, so with our batteries charged, we only had to worry about refilling our water tank and emptying the grey and black water tanks every few days. Next up is to deal with the pile of dirty laundry that had been accumulating.

Powered by the sun!

There are few facilities in the park where you can do your laundry and we were not near any of them. So, after finding a cell signal, we searched for the closest place. Turns out, there is a town just outside of the park about 5 miles, where many services could be found. So, off to Gardiner, MT we went.
We set off in search of some groceries, quick lunch, laundromat, and wifi.

Lucky for us, we found a laundromat that offered free wifi, so Jared could get some work done while I handled the laundry. As fate would have it, we met this amazing family who are traveling just like we are! They have four boys with similar ages to ours who connected immediately over the video games as the laundry was getting washed and dried. Kristen and I started chatting and then soon discovered we had a lot more in common! They have also decided to 'ditch suburbia' for awhile and go traveling full time with their family. Her husband, Paul, works digitally, just as Jared does, so we really hit it off. How cool to find someone who totally gets what you are all about?! The only difference is we are moving aboard a sailboat to travel while they are staying in their tricked-out camper that Kristen designed! This thing is seriously cool and if you have ever wanted to go camping in style, check out their rig at their instagram: #upintherooftop

Mandatory silly pose! =)

 Turns out they are in the SAME campground as us, so we made plans to stop by for some fireside chitchat and s'mores later on that evening. After exploring a nearby hotspot called "Boiling River" (a thermal spring feeds into the cold water, making it nice and warm, we headed back to camp for the evening. We decided it was time to make a nice big meal, so we set about making our famous spaghetti bolognese and home baked bread! It was so good and nice to have something other than a quick-fix camping meal. After that, we cleaned up and headed over to see our friends. The kids had a blast playing and then later, making s'mores. We were briefly interrupted by the elk herd that walks through the campground on their nightly return to their bedding down area. So cool. We had so much fun and made plans to go exploring the Canyon and Lake areas a couple of days later. Oh, yeah, and they also introduced us to roasted Starbursts. Seriously, try it! You just might favor that over the traditional s'mores!

We headed out to the Canyon portion of the park and ended up going south to Yellowstone Lake with hopes of paddleboarding. Well, that was not to be, as they don't allow it in the rivers or smaller lakes. Only in the marina or outer Yellowstone Lake, which would have been fine if not for the chop and wind. Not safe for the kiddos, so we decided to just have a picnic on the shore and then explore the sights on our way back to camp. It was then we encountered dragons. Yep, dragons.

Heading back towards Canyon we stopped along the road to Dragon's Cauldron. Along the trail are many thermal features, including the Dragon's Black Cauldron which used to spout quite high. In fact, the sign mentioned it was regarded as a black demon in the forest. By far my favorite, possible u there with Morning Glory, is Dragon's Breath. Wow, this cave roars and sputters like I imagine a dragon would and comes complete with the steam erupting in a constant burst from the cave. Make this a must-stop on your list when visiting Yellowstone!

After a full day of exploring, we all ended up back at our campsite for s'mores, roasted Starbursts, and cocoa with great conversation. By 11pm, the kids were sleepy-eyed, so we decided to call it a night. We promised to stop by their campsite the following morning, as we were headed out to Wyoming, to see our friend, Brian. Up next: Montana and Wyoming adventures!

Road Tripping Across the USA: Part 1

 

Fishing in one of the many creeks in Yellowstone National Park. This one is called Firehole River, due to all o the thermal features along its banks.

We loaded up the camper, left Linden and headed to Pacific Grove for a final visit (and final vet appointment for Sunny) before leaving California. The kids all had sleepovers and we all had a fantastic time visiting all of our loved ones on the coast. After hugs all around and lots of "see-you-laters", we drove back towards Linden for a family bon-voyage BBQ. That made for a long day, as we left later that afternoon to camp at Bear Lake off HWY 88. We camped near the reservoir overflow area and fell asleep to the roaring sound of the water. The next morning, we packed up and made our way to Tahoe. After discovering our brake controller was short circuiting,and then having our sway bar break (it was only a few days old!) we detoured over to Reno, NV for a visit with our beloved Aunt Rosalie and tend to repairs. A new sway bar set us on our way but we still had the short circuiting issue. Jared tried a multitude of fixes, but we decided that we would need to find an actual trailer repair place to get this issue resolved. We camped at Cave Lake on the CA and OR border, which was a lovely remote campsite with some 4x4 action involved.
The next morning, after some fishing in the creek, we set our sites on Payette, ID to visit Jared's sister and family. We found a trailer repair place near Boise, about an hour away, so after spending the night and getting some much needed laundry done, we headed over there. The shop had closed by the time we arrived, so we decided to call first thing in the morning to secure an appointment. We really needed to get this brake issue fixed!

Not a campground was to be found that had vacancy, so we ended up staying at a hotel that evening. We all enjoyed unlimited hot showers after a dip in the indoor pool. We had one of the last rooms available, which was a suite, which the kids loved because it had a Jacuzzi tub in the room!
Sunny was so tired, she flopped down by the air conditioning unit and didn't move all night!
We lucked out the following morning, as the repair shop said they would squeeze us in. After dropping off the trailer, we drove over to a Starbucks for breakfast and wifi. Jared had a few projects to get done and the kids did a little math. After a few hours, we got lunch at the Flying Pie Pizza place (soooo good!) and decided to bring the food over to the large grassy park nearby so the kids and dog could run around. Just as we were finishing lunch, we got a call that the trailer was fixed. The issue turned out to be the brake wire on the axle was badly frayed. We also learned that one wheel bearing needed to be replaced and the others repacked. $500 later we were on our way and it has worked beautifully ever since!
We arrived in Pocatello, ID later than planned. Again, there was only campground available with any vacancy, which was the KOA. If you are in the area, keep driving and find someplace else. The staff may have just had a bad day, but they were really grumpy towards people. We had no choice as we were all so tired, so we just set up camp and fell asleep.
The next morning, we drove straight through into West Yellowstone to Madison Junction campground.
**If you have a 4th grader, get the Every Kid in a Park pass. It will get you into all of the parks for free!

After setting up camp, we had a quick dinner and fell into bed exhausted. So happy to have the next 4 days in one spot! We set about to explore Yellowstone the following day, starting with Old Faithful. Jared and I honeymooned at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge (we were married in January), and we just had to take the kids there on our trip down memory lane. The kids were not really impressed.
We walked around lots of trails with hot springs, mud pots, geysers, and wildflowers. Such an amazing and diverse landscape all in one area!

A couple of Yellowstone tips:
1. Make your reservations way in advance! We lucked out, but there were lots of others without places to stay. If you decide to go for the "first come, first serve" campgrounds, go at 7am (yes, that early) to get in line and secure a spot! That's what we did when we moved from Madison campground to Mammoth.

2. It is not a dog friendly park, at all! Many trails had signs posted not allowing dogs, even if they were on a leash. This included areas next to a river where no thermal features were present. Fortunately, the weather was really cool and the trails we ended up taking were short. Sunny could rest in the car with ice water and food while we were gone. We missed out on lots of other trails, but did not feel comfortable leaving Sunny for long periods of time. Plus, it just wasn't fair to her.
We took her to remote spots where she happily swam in rivers, streams, and lakes. We wanted her to have fun and not be cooped up in the car or camper the entire time. She is such a good dog and never complained!

Sunny getting some swimming time!

3. Pack your own meals! Most of the food is cafeteria style (we didn't explore the fancier restaurants, since Sunny wasn't allowed) and really expensive. There are many water bottle filling stations, though, so that was nice.

We moved from Madison Junction Campground up north to Mammoth. We had explored lots of the area and were ready for something new. We left early to get there in time, as Mammoth is first come, first served. We scored a campsite and after one night, moved to one with more shade and closer to our new friends (but more on that in the next post).

Next up: Part 2 (Yellowstone and moving eastward)