THE trip.

This trip began as a dream of mine that I thought would never become a reality.  I doubted myself every time I thought about taking it.  I always have these grandiose adventures that I dream of doing roaming around in my head, but have never really felt that I have the courage or resources to actually make them a reality. But we did it and we're alive and happy to tell about all of our adventures. Hooray!

Our road trip of mostly camping from Chicago, to Utah, to San Francisco, up the coast to Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver and back through Yellowstone and including FOURTEEN states was an epic three weeks that I'll never forget with the kids.  While parts of in were difficult at times, I will be forever thankful we made this amazing journey that proved to be empowering and let us see so much beauty in this country.  Before it, I'd never even set up my own tent, let alone use a camping stove, I am sad to say and admit.  I'd always chased after the kids during out adventures, helped Eric here and there, but through this trip learned so much including how to set up our tent, use our camping stove, build a fire, and made some great memories all the while.  I have my husband's and kids' support to thank for it.  Tatumn was a most excellent co-pilot, organizer, and helper.  She was a rock, for sure!  Again, thank you great family for all your love and support!

I think it was some news clip or article, I can't be sure, that I saw sometime in June.  Maybe one of those, "If you're going to take a road trip around the country, this route will be the optimal one for capitalizing on your time and points of interests." sort of things that I'd seen before.  It again reminded me that I've always wanted to travel out west by car at least and when I say I wanted to, I had really, really wanted to take this trip for as long as I can remember.  Problem was and has been our budget and, Eric wouldn't be able to come with us and the kids might not be as keen to take a trip of this length.  But for the first time, I realized that Tate might not be around to take this trip after this summer and that she would definitely be old enough to help and also, that the other kids could definitely contribute too, and travel well already.  It really, really bummed me out that Eric couldn't get this sort of time off of work, but I decided we should just do it because we might not get the opportunity again for a long, long time.  And, within a matter of days, after thinking about it for forever, I decided I was truly going to go through with it. 

We rounded up every bit of our camping/backpacking gear and added a only a few more things to the things we'd thought we need the night before I left (yeah, I hate packing and I procrastinate) but trust me, I thought about what I'd need for long enough.  I also heeded some advice from this book, which proved to be a pretty great resource for this sort of trip.

I'm not an organized person. I'm often spontaneous. Two things that can be sort of disastrous for a long, long road/camping trip.  But I LOVE camping.  I love the outdoors and hiking.  I love the west.  I love mountains and oceans and fresh air.  My biggest dream is to bike (one of my biggest loves) across this great country of ours with my family and camp for most of it.  I'll have to keep dreaming for awhile, I'd guess, but it's a dream, nonetheless.  But anyway, this trip started off with a PACKED minivan and the five of us.  I didn't know if we'd make it, but I figured if it all went to hell in a hand basket, I'd just come back home.

So we set off on Wednesday, July 8th, and headed first for our friends' place outside of Boulder, CO.  We were there for such a brief time, as we were on sort of a crazy tight schedule and needed to be back for Tate's date with Lollapalooza in late July.  We made it to Gabe's by the late afternoon on Thursday and left by five the next morning to make our way to Utah, specifically Zion because of Gabe's recommendation and it did not disappoint! It was probably my favorite place during the entire trip.

Leaving Boulder.  Such beauty!

It's also worth noting that I am very, very afraid of driving through mountains, as in, I freeze up and sweat profusely just driving through Tennessee to get to Florida.  If at all possible, Eric will drive through any and all mountains when he's with me and one time had to drive nearly the ENTIRE trip from Florida to Colorado and back, as I couldn't stand to drive on the highway in Colorado for more than a few miles (poor guy).  So, it was a bit of concern for me to take this trip based on that, too.  And in the end, it worked out in an exposure therapy sort of way or by miracle, but I weathered the mountains with white knuckles for the initial portion of the trip but by the end, I was a seasoned mountain driver! Yay!