Western Colorado

It took us a couple days to get to our new site, taking our time maneuvering the mounatin roads. The power steering had gone out in the bus again, making it harder to steer, but after Joey got used to it, he actually prefers it now. Go figure. We dry camped right off the highway, waking up to breathtaking views of the valley. That's the only good thing about driving in the dark, waking up to nice surprises, normally I pout if we have to drive at night.

We couldn't get into the RV park the Company had reserved spots at, and had to keep driving farther west. At first appearances it wasn't a very nice place, it's very rustic with a completely natural setting. The owners seem a little *off* too, but after settling in and going for a bike ride, we've fallen in lurve. We're on a waiting list for the other RV park, but I think we'll stay here instead.

We have our own private lake, and a view of the mountains that Joey will be working on everyday. They're laying six miles of pipe up a thirty five hundred foot elevation. That's some steep, rough driving, but not only is the gas paid, so is the drive time. We're talking about egtting me another car since I totalled the Disco a few months ago, but I'm still iffy on that one. I don't want the extra expense, and another thing to tow all over the place, but it will be nice having the freedom to come and go during the day. We'll see.

If you look closely you can see the windshiled of the bus, and how rural the campground is.

My Rock

For the past decade to support our life on the road, Joey's been doing construction, a little millwright work, turbine work, and a lot of pipe fitting and welding. It wasn't until last winter that he bought his first welder, and then this Spring he was on his first rig welding job. He traded that welder for a big Lincoln pipe liner welder, because that's what the big boys use, not necessarily to go on a pipeline, but to have the ability to. Then last week when his friend called about this pipeline job in the Rocky Mountains, it seemed a little surreal. He wasn't fully prepared, and after getting out here to the testing site he realized how unprepared he was. He pushed the test back over the weekend so he could get all the necessary toys.

While taking his welding tests the welder started acting up during the last test. He was sure he got some screwed up welds, but the X-Ray tests all came back excellent! He passed! Even though I knew he would, it's always such a stressful time for him. Tests are never fun, and especially for him. And especially considering he's a self learned welder. No formal training, no certificates......just a desire. Not a desire to weld or work, but a desire to find a way to support our lifestyle with as little work as possible. He's making it happen, bigger and better, and I couldn't be more proud of him.

Google anyone?

Every once in a while I like to Google my name, just to see what's going on in the great WWW. Months back I discovered my pictures being used in foreign travel agency sites, and I never really knew quite how I felt about it. I was flattered, but then felt violated. They did give me credit for the photos, but then I realized there were probably people using my pictures without referencing back to me, or worse yet downloading them on their hard drive. Yuck. I've since been more selective with pictures of the kids and put a creative commons license on my photos, whatever that means.

Yesterday while Googling *FuhKaui* I found this interesting tidbit.

At UnschoolingMama I discovered an old post that she'd written after last years Unschooling Conference where we participated in a Familes On The Road funshop. She writes:

The last two hour block on Friday had a whole bunch of things that I wanted to check out. I started out with a funshop called Families on the Road and I ended up dropping all of the other stuff and just staying for the full two hours there. There were four families there who travel either extensively or fulltime. And here is where I'll pause and make an announcement. Being at this conference has made me think a lot about doing things and not just talking about them all the time. We've been talking about this for ages, but only recently have we sat down and said to ourselves, you know at some point we actually have to just say, this is what we're going to do, and then set out to do it. Some people in real life already know that this is the plan, but I've never done more than just hint at it on this blog. So here it is. We plan on selling the house and using the money from that sale to buy an RV. We will live in the RV, traveling the country, for however long we decide to do so once we find out how much we like it. We will be on the lookout for a place to call home when we're all done, but we plan on doing a lot of traveling before that point. There. Blogging makes it really, truly official. Listening to these families was so very inspiring. At the end of the talk, I worked up my courage and came out of my own little shell enough that I asked the dad of the FuhKaui family if we could go and see their bus, which I knew about because I read their blog. We talked for a little bit and decided that we could take a look at it the next day. To be continued!

Saturday~ The Families on the Road were having their second funshop so we decided to go in at the end of it and see if we could go and see the FuhKaui family's bus then. They were cool with it, so we went out and took a look. Their bus is a converted school bus, painted green and... silver, I think. It is so totally cool. I loved it. Talking to the mom and dad of that family, Vicki and Joe, got me so fired up about doing this ourselves. Saren chatted up their kids for a little while. Pegge, the mom from another of the families, offered to show us their rig. They had a class C, which was smaller, but cozy. Talking to both of these families was so great. It just got me to thinking that we can really do this thing. If we really want it, we can find a way to make it work. I'm so glad I got to meet their families and take a look at their vehicles and ask them questions. This was one of the most inspiring parts of the conference trip for me.

Which led me to her new blog Traveling Spishco. Their new travel blog! They've done it, they've gotten the RV and as soon as the house sells they're hitting the road! The funny thing is that their thinking is just like ours was when we first started, ten years ago. Travel for a while while looking for a new place to settle down and raise the family. My wish for them is that it lasts far more than a year......

Expect the Unexpected

We left park hopping because it was time to get back to work. Joey called ol' faithful Judy and she simply asked, "Where do you want to go?" It sure makes it nice to hear that. Since we were near Omaha we took the closest, about eighty miles to the Southwest. We pulled into a great campground, more like an old mini resort, and were hoping to be able to stay there but with Labor Day coming up we had to be out by Friday, so we only got two nights. Here the kids played non stop with the toads. If the toads weren't in the bushes, they were in the pool. If they weren't in the pool, they were my kids too frightened to move, pets.

This is also where they caught the garder snake, who would lay motionless while they were holding him but as soon as they released him back to the tree he got all hissy on 'em.

On the Friday we were to leave I pulled the bus out of our campsite all by myself while Joey was working. I had hoped they'd let me stay parked until he got home at four but they weren't very cooperative. So I parked in front of their pool under the only shade tree on the property and we used their pool. The kids also played their first rounds of mini golf. They absolutely loved that.

When Joey got back we went to Geneva, NE under a friend's suggestion. Now this RV park will only let us stay the weekend and we have to leave on Tuesday! All this wouldn't be so bad if Joey' weren't dying to unload the truck. We could go back to the resort one but they're draining the pool tuesday so they're no longer worth it.

THEN we get a call for a pipeline job back in Colorado and the money is too good to pass up. He still needs about a grand worth of tools, not to mention enough gas to get two hogs all the way there, when we're not prepared for it, but we can't pass it up, we'll do whatever it takes.

So, we left Nebraska on tuesday and am now sitting in the SW corner of Wyoming where Joey has to take three different weld tests. As long as he passes, we're heading back into Glenwood Canyon. I'm very excited, there was still so much left I wanted to see and do. For today, I'm just happy to have Internet.

Slimy Summer

Notice anything special abouot this frog? Look deep into his eyes.

I keep hearing John from Cincinnati: "I got my eye on you."


His tongue gave me the creeps.


They have no fear.

Safety Boy

Who's that safety cone out there?? ~ asked by Jonas after seeing himself.