We are REALLY DOING this!!!

We are into our 3rd month here at Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park @ River Bottom Farms with our eye still on our launch date for actual travel being January 2014. 

Had it not been for trading cars & having to put a down payment on Nido along with some bills popping up unexpectedly, we may have already set "sail" on our Westward Adventure.... 

We are happy we made this decision but itching to hit the road... The kids have adjusted well and Homeschooling Jackson began on August 19th. 

And it is going quite well. Evan & Jack have fallen into a good routine and Emerson is playing along nicely. 

We have made some repairs on the rig... We now have New Shower & Bath Faucets and we did it all ourselves without having to have help.. 

(We are not the handiest people in the park) 

Little helper wants you to say CHEESE!!! 

How many people does it take to fit in the shower to fix it? 

(New Shower Faucet purchased at Camping World)

New bath Faucet purchased at Tony's RV

We were also able to buy a LP connection kit so we can hook a 30lb cylinder to our 100lb tank to supplement LP since we were unable to get anyone to deliver LP to us.... 

Although our struggles (not just the repairs - the stress of my full-time job, kid illnesses, unexpected finances) have been major to us, those who have been on the road may think they are minor and I am sure in the long run we will think the same. But for now we have viewed some of these as stumbling blocks until we realized that all we have to do is step over them and move on. 

One thing I have learned while living in our rig is that you can overcome most everything. It may take time & good (very good) patience but we can overcome any issue..... 

The past 2 months we have dealt with trading cars & getting all the paperwork ironed out due to changes in addresses & our tag expiring and GAP checks and down payments and it is STILL not completed (ugh), Jackson getting MRSA & having to have a spot lanced, me working a ton more than any of us want me too, rain rain and more rain, Emerson a hospital stay due to eating/taking some Adult Meds, learning a homeschool routine, oh and MORE rain rain rain.... 

But through it all we are SMILING... 

I love these peeps!!!

T~!

Our 1st Month is in the books.....

Wow what a crazy month June was.... We successfully moved into The Nest and have settled in finally!!! The first 2 weeks were almost torture but we survived.

The rain in SC (and elsewhere I'm sure) has been horrendous. Seriously, I think we were on the verge of floating away at times.

Week 1 of our full timing in the RV was terrible because we were not 100% level and because it was raining so much, we got water in the rig. Carpet was soaked and we were frustrated.

Also thanks to so much rain and the soft ground we couldn't level up for a few days. So we endured the wetness, used the heck out of the de-humidifier and whined..... A ton of whining. At least from me.....

Week 2 we were able to level 

Had to buy wood to help with leveling.. Luigi had quite a load on him. 

Our wood was sinking into the soft sandy ground so we had to replace/add to it... 

We created quite a puzzle...  

To level is to pull in slides and create chaos in my house. :-) 

Evan working away in the 100+ humidity 

At least the rain did hold off a little during this process.

Break time for Boo Boo! 

Despite his hard hot work, he smiles with his little helper... 

.........and then came the heat (it joined the rain) and our rear A/C decided to act up. And to be honest, we have not had it fixed yet but have been able to overcome the issue. The rear A/C for whatever reason, builds up condensation when it runs and then it decides to drip water on the bed and it usually happens around 2 or 3 AM!! So to combat the issue for now, we do not run it but for a little bit at a time like when we are ready to sleep at night or for those lucky naps we sometimes get. Then off it goes and to help circulate the air we have a couple of small fans..... It works. For now. I'm sure we will have to get the A/C looked at but for now we are content. (Without going into a long detailed story.... we tried to have it serviced but it was going to cost an arm & a leg just for a service call, so just held off)

Week 3 was my almost melt down week but I survived.. The separation anxiety & culture shock of everything hit me..... I am still working my full time job and by moving I am having to learn a new territory. Constantly being unsure where I am and being a slave to my GPS tore my nerves up.... Now when we go on the road, I will welcome being lost & trying to find new places & following my GPS but with work, it was killing me... Luckily I was able to deal with it all and now we are loving life....

Our campground is awesome... The owners are super, our neighbors who are fulltimers are wonderful and we are happy.

We fish and swim and go to play ground.....  Evan takes the kids to a local children's museum several days a week (family pass for weekday entry was only $80 - heck yea - and it's paid for itself already cause of all the rain they have visited OFTEN)

 

The dogs love the Dog Park and they smile often... 

We ALL love the pool.... And now that Emerson has her new swimmies, she is unstoppable.

Jackson caught his first fish... 

 

Then a few days later I caught my 1st fish at the ponds... 

Emerson loves to play, get dirty, & show her Diva side........ 

Love Love Love the pool and these 3. 

Although she is smiling.. on this day she went to the doctor due to her MRSA flaring up.. :( 

All is well now but we have to watch her when she gets a sore and/or infection..... 

Emerson loves the ponds (like me) 

Peace & Love.... 

Here we are at the Edisto River

Great fishing spot in the shade but there are dangers.... 

There are 2 resident gators on the property.... 

We have not seen them but our neighbor has...

Columbia has The SC State Museum 

Here are the kids during our visit on Fathers Day 2013

So month 1 is history.... We are learning our new home quite well... Made a few improvements and have ideas for future changes....

We are counting down our days until we can hit the road.....

We have a TOAD..... His name is Luigi!

Meet LUIGI!!!!

This is our TOAD - Our vehicle we will be towing behind The Nest when we hit the road... We love this car. It is a 2012 Fiat convertible and he is awesomesauce! 

Evan gets tickled at me cause I am also excited over the fact that Luigi's color matches The Nest and we will be color coordinated on the road... 

We previously had  THIS Yukon aka Gas SUCKER. 

I have to say that we NEEDED this Boat when we purchased it. We carried 7 people around for several years... Us 2, 4 kids and my MIL. But since we are moving only 4 of us are going therefore we were able to minimize to Luigi! And we LOVE HIM! 

Luigi is awesome on fuel... we drove him 334 miles before filling up this weekend. 33 miles to a gallon. How flipping cool is that???

Since we are moving in 4 days - YES 4 DAYS - to Columbia for 7 months, we are planning to drive back to the Upstate, every other weekend for family dinners. So Luigi will totally be worth the purchase in fuel alone. 

Here are a few pics from this past weekend...... Us in Luigi! 

Fun times had by all this past weekend...... Since Sunday it has been full on work... Cleaning out the house, moving it into The Nest. 

Washer & Dryer picked up yesterday along with a ton of "Stuff" we did not need.

Bunches going on this week... My 18 year old is graduating Thursday, my parents are coming into town for ceremony, my 7 yo is finishing 1st grade, movers on Saturday, final cleaning of house on Sunday, Shopping trip with teenagers on Monday then I am off (with 2 yo in tow) to meet up with Evan and son in Columbia to start our 7 months in the campground...... 

Yes, I am just a weeeee bit stressed.... But I am Happy!!!! 

Count down to June 1st......

It has been over a month since I last posted and boy oh boy did that month fly by......  Our notice to vacate our house has been turned in to the landlord... We have The Nest home from the doctor (shop) and we are really itching to hit the road....

Yesterday I was out near our new home - well the campground we will be living in for the next 7 months..... I have totally fallen in love with it... and yesterday despite the cloudy skies, it was like sunshine to me driving in to take some pictures of where we will be in 10 days - OMG 10 DAYS we will be living in The Nest....

Our New Home!!! 

Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park at River Bottom Farms

Our Site - #24

Big, Shady, Clean, Near Walking Trails

New Playground being built

New Swings

Pool Pool Pool!!!!!!

Other side of Pool Pool Pool!!!!!!

We are so excited! Kids are excited! 

Now is the time to crack down on getting our house emptied and our stuff in the rig...... 

We experienced a rough weekend with the hard rain that came through our area. In fact we had a leak! A LEAK! Scared me to death. All I thought about was the floor rotting and falling thru and us not having a place to live out our dreams..... After much head scratching, searching for locations of the leak and consulting on the "nomadic do it yourself" facebook page we concluded the partnering of the rain, open slide and the fact we were not level allowed for water to get in the rig and soak our carpet.... 

The water was in the carpet in the middle of the hall AND in front of the bench seat in this picture. 

I was scared to death but once we decide the issue, we re-leveled the rig and sucked the water out of the carpet with a carpet cleaner.... now the carpets are dry (And clean since we cleaned all the other carpet with the cleaner) and I am once again HAPPY! 

One step closer..... :) 

On our way to living our dreams..... 

Our Family knows......

We have an awesome family. I have feared telling them of our plans. I just knew they would want to kill us but this past weekend went surprisingly well. There was no gasping, yelling, crying or anything.... Now there also was no jumping up & down and celebrating either but that is totally ok with me.... The fact they did not get upset is a milestone for me and I now have less stress........ 

Now we have time to focus on what we need to do to get ourselves in the rig in Columbia and closer to our goal of hitting the road. 

This past weekend was also our 1st and ONLY Yard Sale..... I say only because I HATE yard sales.... Since we are storing our furniture then our yard sale was to get rid of JUNK... and we did get some gone... We made a little money that we promptly blew through but that is totally ok.... 

E-Diva was a great helper during the sale.. 

She kept trying to keep things I was trying to get rid of.... 

Then she decided she was worn out and 

I couldn't get her to do a thing.....

We had quite a bit of stuff left over. A facebook friend had mentioned her church had a clothing closet so I contacted her to see if they wanted our left over clothes. She came to pick them up and we loaded her mini van slam full of just clothes. It made me happy to know these clothes were going towards a good cause of helping families in need..... All our other "junk" was loaded up and hauled to Goodwill. 

I still have a crap load of stuff to get rid of but I will Freecycle them and/or head to Goodwill again and again and again.... 

After notification of our plans to our family was announced, I felt so much better and relieved. It was telling them that was holding me back from actually completing projects. Now that is over with, we can move forward. 

We have 6 1/2 weeks left before we move into the rig....