Preparing For Our Two Month Road Trip

 We are just a few weeks away from our road trip that will take us to two greyhound events and several National Parks.  We are planning on leaving around August 27th but if a hurricane starts heading our way before then, we will begin our trip sooner.  The worst part of hurricane season is usually from the end of August until the end of September for us.

Dad is busy making a few changes to the van to make it better for us on our long journey.  He has added heat which we will probably need in UT and maybe even Colorado.  He made a table top that will fold down when needed to give Mom more cooking space.  He has moved the microwave to a new location.  I think he said something about adding an inverter which will charge our batteries while driving. 

Mom asked Dad to get the van inspected early so that she could get the license plates renewed before we leave.  He did that and also had the oil changed.  However, as the guy was moving our van out of the oil change garage, he didn't notice that the garage door wasn't all the way up and he ran into it. It damaged our AC unit cover.  We still haven't received the money for a new AC cover but it is supposedly in the works.  We will not go into the long story of the round around that we had with that but we think Mom accidentally called someone big because after she spoke with him, things started happening in our favor.  Dad still needs to replace the cover. We purchased it but he has been busy with other projects.

Mom has been busy organizing our reservations. She has a binder with all the reservations and she made a calendar that shows us where we should be each day.  The binder also has a place for their Covid vaccinate records incase that is necessary somewhere along the way, my shot records too and a few other important documents.   She has a book that she will record each of campground stays just for fun and for the memories.  She went to Office Depot and that put a spiral binding on it for her.  She also has her National Parks Passport Stamp book that she started back in 2012 ready to go.

The reservation binder, RV Logbook and the National Parks Stamp Passport

Mom ordered the America the Beautiful card which will get us into all the National Parks for free. We will definitely get our money's worth out of it since we will be visiting so many places.

Dad ordered Mom a new set of pots and pans for the van.  You have to remember that our van is very tiny and we don't have much storage space.  Mom said the little skillet will work for breakfast but not for much else.  Dad really wanted the kettle for making coffee on days when we might not have electric.  The sauce pan will definitely work.

It all stores in a mesh bag.

The small items are a scoop, a spoon, sponge and the red piece is a knive, spoon, fork, wine opener.

Mom bought a Chromebook for the trip.  It is much smaller than her old laptop and so far she likes it   It the kind that you can flip and make it a tablet.  The reviews said it was used by a lot of schools and good for kids because it is so rugged.  It can have liquid pulled onto the keyboard and it still works and it can be dropped without breaking.  It may be good for kids but my Mom is clumsy, so it works well for her.  She got it for a really good price because it is "renewed".  It looks brand new and so far it has been fine.

We ordered a duvet for Mom's van bed last night.  She plans to sleep on top of it to add more comfort to her bed and then when it gets cold, she will use it like a blanket. She is pretty excited about that and I think I will like it too.

Jaxson,

The Greyhound Who Is Excited To Start Traveling

Fourth of July Was Not Fun

 I am really late in posting this.  4th of July is the worst holiday ever!  I hate fireworks!  People were shooting off illegal fireworks on our beach and they were so loud.  Mom said next year we will not be at our condo.  She said we will go to a state park that is in a rural area and the fireworks will not be as scary for me.  Dad said the AC in the van is loud enough to block out the noise.  The illegal fireworks people left a mess on the beach.  Rude people!

There was a dog on the beach the other day and he had a frisbee in his mouth.  He was really showing off.  Well, I found a frisbee buried in the sand and mine was a lot bigger.  I think I showed him whose frisbee was better. 😀

Jaxson,

The Greyhound Who Hates Fireworks

I Met A Real Crab!

 You never know what you will find on the beach.  I tried to be friends, but he was a little crabby. 😆

He was covered in sand.

This is a crab we met last year.  He had more personality.

Jaxson, 

The Greyhound Who Thinks Crabs Are Interesting

A Tour of Our Van

 Mom realized that we didn't give you a tour of our van.  Dad bought our van back in September.  It is a cargo van.

The van getting ready to become our camper van.

Mom's bed is on the right, I am in the middle (my bed extends) and Dad's is on the left. Mom's clothes are in the bins at the end of the bed.

We put our food above the chairs. The chairs swivel around so the folks can watch TV when we are parked.

We still haven't figured out this space yet. The microwave is on the bottom.  Dad's clothes are on the shelf above it. The pet cam can see the temperature in the van. The door next to the microwave pulls out and that is my bed extender.  

Our sink pulls out.

The sink is under the mirror.  Our fridge/refigerator is in the cooler under the sink.

One side is a fridge and the other is a freezer.  It works quite well.

The fridge runs on a battery when we are not plugged in.

This is the bathroom.  It is quite small.  The shower curtain pulls around it.  There is a shower in it. You can see the pet cam on the wall. We hang back packs above Mom's bed when we are traveling. They contain my items as well as Mom's items for showering.

That is basically the tour.  It is quite small especially when all three of us are in it at the same time. Most people have the beds pushed together and facing to the right instead of back to front.  Dad didn't want to have to crawl over Mom to get out of bed, so that is why he made it the way he did.  The carpet and paint are from our condo.  My bed is made from our old comforter.  It looks like home to me and I really like sleeping in it.  We have a butane stove that Mom can use inside.  We can grill outside, of course. Mom does find cooking in the van to be a real challenge, so she is concerned about the long trip we are planning for the fall. 

We may eventually get a bigger van but Mom wanted something that we could park anywhere and we can definitely do that with this van. 

Jaxson,

The Greyhound Who Likes Van Life

Two Week Vacation - Part 4

 We left Grandma's house around 8 a.m. on Friday morning.  It was a rainy morning.  We thought we were going to be able to avoid it, but the system kept moving down on us.  We were finally out of the rain when we reached Lebanon, MO.  We drove through the Ozark Mountains and through Arkanas again. The views are nice but the roads are very hilly and there are not any rest areas. It was a pretty uneventful day, but it was a long day.  We didn't reach our campground at Atlanta State Park in Atlanta, TX until 7 p.m.  Oh, one funny thing did happen.  We were just a few miles from our campground when Mom decided to follow Google's shortcut.  We ended up on some back roads that were almost too small for the van.  Mom thought it was funny.  Dad did not.  

The Atlanta State Park is nice with a big lake. The campground loop we stayed in was very small and the sites were not very spacious.  We were really only there to sleep and the folks took showers.  Mom said every time she went into the bath house, there were more bugs. It was hot outside, but the van was nice and cool.

Our site at Altanta State Park

We left the park around 9 a.m.  The drive home was uneventful.  We made a few stops for gas and one for lunch.  We finally arrived home around 3:30 p.m. due to traffic slowdowns.

It is nice to be home, but we are all a little bored now.  We have a bigger trip planned in the fall.  We are attending two greyhound events and visiting several national parks on that trip. 

Jaxson,

The Greyhound Who Misses Grandma's House