crooked and steep

  Leaving take two!   We each took a turn reading the directions again, and voila!   We simply had the brakes adjusted incorrectly and, once fixed, set out again the very same night!   (As soon as we could convince the kitty to get in the truck, that is.)                             Max about to execute a serious face palm as he realizes we have the wrong settings in the electric controller.  Derp! Slightly lest robust cheering, but cheering none the same! I promise we are keeping the kitty safe as we putter along but he was having none of the carrier and we decided to let him get comfortable with the whole idea of life on the road on his terms. Morning 1: Will you look at those happy campers! Found a very quiet rest area in Western NC to catch a few hours rest and begin the amazing journey ahead! This is not the actual photo from when we went through the scales again, but it is certainly the ...

  There is a surprising amount of work that must be done to leave one's house to embark on an epic journey!  It isn't all that exciting, but it is part of the travels and so will be shared :) First we had to go to a flat, paved lot to adjust the weight distribution hitch and get the tongue weight.  I have just about had it with reading up on GVWR, GCRW, GAWR Rear, GAWR Front, tongue weights, payload amounts etc. But weighing the tongue was actually fun and I wish I'd taken a picture of how we weighed 800 lbs on our bathroom scale by using a lever and fulcrum and some math. Clearly, it doesn't take much to amuse me.    We have a thing about completely ignoring my monthly alarm to change the water filters, but Max thought it would be a good idea to do it now.  Unfortunately, he had to crawl through icy mud puddles to get to the crawl space.  Fortunately, LZ likes to keep lots of duckboards around for his trenches. IDK how to get these images side by side...

If you are thinking, "oh my goodness, when do we move from posts about prep and actually start this epic journey?" then we are on the same exact page, my friend!  After weeks  months of work, we are truly on the cusp of the great adventure.  But since there are still at least 2 dozen unchecked items on the to-do list this morning, let's just settle in with our coffee and enjoy all the progress thus far. This thrift store find makes me so happy! Max has been saving maps since before we met and I had fun covering the doors with some from European hiking trails, a topo of Mt Everest, and intertwining roads in the US.   It can fit dozens of canning jars of various sizes and holds them in with short lengths of wire stretched between eye hooks.  Old socks make perfect cushioning for the inevitable washboard roads we will rattle down.   I am no seamstress but find sewing to be a favorite creative outlet.  No two sets of curtains match. Pay no attent...

 After being warned time and again through blogs, fb posts, youtube videos, friends admonishments to definitely, absolutely not take on painting the walls of a travel trailer nor the cabinets on any RV, that the process was too long, the success too tenuous, the results not worth it, I decided to completely embrace the process and paint all the everythings.  And to wallpaper a few things for good measure.  Which really took at least 1.5 eternities to complete + was suffused with much exasperated and dramatic sighing.  (And possibly a few pounds of chocolate.  Whatever.)  Toby liked showing me his favorite fabrics to be used for all the curtains and cushions. I cannot figure out how to anchor stuff to these thin, curved walls. Yay for the help! I love this color blue!  Also enjoy the cat and chickens visiting as I worked. Found some peel and stick metal tile.  Here I am simply admiring how spectacular I envision it being.  However, it was unbe...

  Because we need to get to Baja, and because we are not ready to fly, we came up with the safest possible option for traveling approximately 10,000 miles round trip as a family as we could.  However, packing for an international, multiweek roadtrip -with a cat - during a pandemic - feels challenging.  Throw in all the anxiety from the holidays, major home remodel, spiking Covid cases, November elections, runoff elections, and the coup at the Capitol and it is no wonder we find ourselves just turning in circles not getting anything accomplished, possibly drooling on ourselves. Realistically, we have gotten a lot done; there's just always so much more to do! I am a devout safety-first person and we are all taking the pandemic incredibly seriously. So finding a way to take this adventure without putting ourselves or other people at increased risk has been a challenge.  We opted to get a 25’ travel trailer so we have a kitchen (actually one inside and one out), bathro...