Day 22 Friday 7/12

The plan was to take up early today…that plan failed. Only me and sister woke up earlier, her before me. But then she went back to sleep after failing to try and wake everyone else up. I woke up not long after she was out again. But once I was up I…was up. Spent my morning relaxing while waiting for the family to wake up.

And I have to say…it took them a good long while. Yet when we they did they were hoping to it and getting ready for the day. By that I mean back water into the Van and anything else we normally did in the morning.

Once in the Van it was into the nearby National Park again, Zion. Once at the visitor center we hoped out of the Van and into the shuttle they had and got a ride all the way to the top of the canyon here. Where we went on a walk. I refuse to say Hike because it wasn’t even a quarter of a mile, we went a bit in to a spot where we could interact with a river, stayed there for half an hour then came back to the shuttles.

We hitched another ride on a different shuttle to another spot where we went on something that can be considered a hike…a very small hike, not even half a mile round trip, but it was a heck of incline. Then it was again at the shuttle, and got off again at another stop that was at a lodge and where we got our dinner. And then when dinner was done, yet another shuttle ride to a museum did things then yet ANOTHER shuttle ride back to the visitor center where it was back to the Van.

And then when at the Van we drove back to the RV, picked up the dogs then went for a nice long drive. And during this drive we eventually got rained on, and I took a small nap.

I hate to say this, but that nap was the only think I really liked about that whole thing. I mean we brought a good amount of water with us, I was ready to go on a nice long hike, or several hikes for that matter. I’m not talking half mile round trip, I’m talking mile maybe two round trip, oh sure I would have complained about that too. But Come on! I was expecting that, not these insanely long and uncomfortable shuttle rides. After a bit I was actually WANTING a long hike, And instead I got a long drive ride where I got cramp in the back seat because of the mutts….oh what a fun day….now if only I can find a way to do sarcasm right…

Well now that my rant for this post is done, hopefully, I can go on. Eventually our drive was finished because dad didn’t want to deal with the after effects of the rain, so we went back to the RV. And when there we dealt with a few thinks, figured on where to go for dinner and then it was off to dinner. It as a good dinner I have to admit, but that’s a different matter.

Anyways we eventually finished and then back at the RV we again got ourselves a nice relaxing evening…oh who am I kidding? This is the may family there is no such thing as Nice and relaxing, maybe one but usually not the other. So fine, we “chilled out” as one can say and spent what is our normal evening.

Tomorrow is a travel day, a short one is the plan. We should get to Las Vegas and then find a park for the rest of day. We don’t want to travel all the way home thanks to how long that would be, but Las Vegas is a good point to stop for it is closer to home and a much more manageable time. And personally I think it would at least a tad easier to travel during the Nevada desert during that time too. But we will find out. And We really need the knocking on wood, for we are almost home!

Typed July 12, 2013

Day 19 Tuesday 7/09

The only abnormal part about the morning this time around was my computer deciding it wanted to do a diagnostic of itself and thus be useless for about an hour and a half. But once that was out of the way it was a perfectly normal morning.

Well almost normal, parents decided to run to the local store for some items while me and sister stayed back and relaxed/got ready. And then when they got back and had put way the items it was into the Van and off to explore a national park…though hikes.

The first hike we did was a little under a mile, and next to a stream. It was a good hike, and left room for me and dad to do a bit of stream hoping and risk taking, love it.

We did some driving and then a second hike, this one around 1.5 miles give or take .2. It was in a forest area this time and had some ups and downs, not bad really, the quiet that you could get was nice.

Once those were out of the way it was back to the RV for some lunch and taking care of pets. We probably stayed at the RV a bit longer than we needed to but eventually we got off our butts and was back in the Van to go off to one more hike.

This last hike was a killer. It was a 1.5 mile give or take as well, the difference was that it was up and down a cliff, not a sheer cliff no but you get the point. It was first down some switch backs and into a canyon and then a bit of walking into another canyon and to even more, a LOT MORE, switch backs this time going up. It damn near killed have the family, and the rest…well we were jumping between “we’ll hurt tomorrow” and “Oh I feel good.”

We had time to figure it out and rest as we drove around in the Van some more, did a few stops and eventually went and got dinner. And then even MORE driving in the Van, eventually though we came back to the RV.

And when we did we sadly found out our mutts problem had come back. He had dropped his liquid crap in the RV, and it does not smell good. So we got a few things taken care of and then settled in for the rest of the evening/night.

Tomorrow is more driving in the Van, this time for a different park. Oh goody…….HELP!

Typed July 9, 2013

Day 13 Wednesday 7/03

I’m starting to think there is no longer such a term as sleeping in with me, Why? Because I woke up at Eight again. That is starting to get bothersome, but what can I do. Well all I can do is what is done every morning, wake up and get the RV ready to travel as well as relax a bit. And that is what we did, and I say we because the rest of the family eventually woke up as well.

We left camp late sadly, by about a half hour. But like always once on the road we were…well traveling yet again. I know I’m being repetitive but I’m running out of things to say.

Eventually we dropped an hour, and by that I mean we went from Central time back over to Mountain time. So I guess I can say the timing of everything is a little messed up. But Hey I would rather gain an hour than loose it.

 At 12:01 local time we got to stop for some gas, and lunch. And since it was a Flying Js I decided to get some pizza, I’ve been seeing them every time we’ve gone into a Flying Js and I couldn’t resist any more. As always we were back on the road in no time, continuing are long trek across…I don’t know what to call this terrain anymore so I’ll just say: across the road. Don’t like that? Well then you can come up with a better idea because I’m getting confused out here.

Eventually we did a stop, this stop was not like our normal. This stop was so that we could go shopping for food at whole foods. Time? Two. After I do believe to be about an hour, we left with a what we wanted plus a bit more. And one they were put away we were back on the road.

Though we were already decently close to our destination for the next few days. It took a bit of work this time around to get the RV into position and all of that but once done we all settled in for a nice relaxing afternoon/evening.

Well actually that didn’t completely happen. We decided to go out for some dinner, which was damn good. And then once done with dinner we drove to a store and got some bottled water, which we had basically run out of, I will never know how that completely happened.

But once done with that it truly was back to the RV for relaxing/fighting with the RV and all the other stuff we do here.

Tomorrow the RV is staying in place, but instead we will be driving around in the Van doing different things for the day. So all in all I am expecting a semi-busy day. But we’ll all find out tomorrow. But if you want the knocking can continue (and if not for safe travel then for me not trying to kill one of our pets, these guys are getting annoying. I mean as I type this I have a cat balancing on my leg, and it is not comfortable!).

Typed July 3, 2013

Day 7 Thursday 6/27

It seems I can only sleep in rarely, case and point, I woke up before seven again. I didn’t mind all that much, why? I was the only one up and I wanted to go for a jog, and I did. It was toasty sure, but it was nice enough that I was able to jog .5 miles straight….I think. Well it was close enough, and with one of the dogs along I didn’t mind it all that much. But the day I can jog a MILE straight, well that will get me happy.

Now after jogging I of course was back at the RV, so I got in and got myself comfortable for the morning, the family SLOWLY got up and we did a few different morning things, we didn’t feel like doing much and we weren’t going much of anywhere. Eventually though all were awoken.

And even though awake we got to relax, at least a little before we left. We had the convention after all, but by the time we got there it was lunch time, so we had our lunch at some Italian place. And something slightly interesting, our waiter was a Square dancer as well, and yet she had no idea the convention was going on. We had a good time talking with here and me and dad had some fun writing slightly random things on the paper that covered the table.

After lunch we walked over to the convention center, in the blasted heat, still not fun. And once there, well we went separate ways, I went to the Youth Hall and the rest went off and did different things. I did have some fun dancing the tips I did. Eventually I was dragged away though.

The dragging was to go find some dinner, which was at some odd place. What I got…well let’s just say it set my mouth on fire but it was good. And after dinner it was back to the RV to change into proper attire and right back at the convention center where we all separated yet again.

I spent the rest of the night in the Youth Hall, dancing several tips and eventually playing some Phase Ten, I had just pulled ahead when I was picked up by the family. As we were leaving I had to rush back to the hall to pick up a prize I had won, it wasn’t much just some speakers.

Well anyways after leaving it was again back to the RV were we dealt with the pets and settled in for night. A short day mostly but it was a good one, hope it the next ones stay like that.

Typed June 27, 2013

Vacation 2012 - Day 5, June 26

Day 5

     Woke up to the falling of water from the tree above us, the time being closer to eight than anything. The plan is to make it to Spokane today, that shouldn’t be a problem.

     Before we left we had to do a couple of items. We had to feed the cats, we’ve decided to switch up what they eat from just dry food to a mixture of dry and canned with the hopes that it will help with one of our cat’s digestive problems.

     We also had to put some flea killing stuff on all of our pets. They’ve had them since we left the house and we’ve been forgetting to give them the stuff. With luck the medication should stop our dogs from biting and scratching themselves so much.

     We set off at nine, again.

     We stopped around 10:30 for a bit of shopping. We got some more pet stuff, plus a bit more human food. We also got some clothes, which included swimming trunks for me and dad as we had forgotten ours at home.

     After shopping we went a little ways and stopped at a Subway for lunch. We were hoping since we were in Oregon that they would have gluten free bread, like they said all Subways in Oregon did. But just our luck, they did not. So mom was unable to get anything from Subway, but the rest of the family got something for lunch.

     We got back into the RV around 11:30, and started to eat our Lunch. We set off around ten minutes later.

     We stopped for a bathroom break a while later, but were soon on the road again.

     We pulled into Idaho, the state we are staying in.

     At around four we stopped to fill up, had a little confrontation with another driver when we had problems getting out. But that was quick and only verbal.

     We pulled right across the street to our stop. The place we will be spending the next several days at. It is in a town called Post Falls, it is near the border of Idaho and Washington. Before we could plug in we had to quickly take the van off the trailer and then we had to back into the spot we had been assigned.

     We had several problems hooking up. For one, our power cable was too short, and even with our extension it was still too short, but not by much. It was just short enough for one of the adapters we had, so we hooked into a plug in that was meant for a bit higher amperage.

     The second problem, and the main one, was our sewer hose. Even with all three of our hoses we still had a bit over twenty feet to go. Dad had to go up to the front and buy another long hose. And once he got the hose he had to fight to get some connectors onto it, but then broke the connector.

     So dad had to go back up to the front and buy a different form of a connector. This one basically connected the two hoses without any practical way to unhook them again. It took a little bit but eventually dad was able to get the piece in and then finish hooking up the sewer. And with that we became fully hooked up.

     We had a few other things to move about but the rest of the set up was uneventful.

     About two hours after we pulled in, we all jumped into the van and went off for a drive. First scouted a couple of places, finding a waterfall like area, spent a few minutes checking it out. Once done with that we went looking for food, sadly we failed. We could not find any local food place open at the time, which was nearing nine.

     We had to drive for a while before we finally decided to just go to a Denny’s, and had a good dinner there.

     After that we went straight back to the RV and went about our different business.

Day five typed up June 26, 2012, all past vacation entries this year edited same day.