Vacation from Vacation- "The Switzerland of America"

Our 2015 Family Road Trip has come to an end so this will be my last post for this trip. We left Michigan Monday the 28th around 11am and drove until we didn't want to drive anymore :) I guess my next statement will let you know a little of how I feel about the plains because, I don't even remember where we stopped that night. It was somewhere in Iowa or Nebraska? Not sure! The next day we kept driving and we were able to spend a little while in Minden NE at Harold Warp Pioneer Village. I went there as a kid so it was fun to go back after so long. It's so odd that this place is in the middle of Nebraska but they has a lot of really cool items. They have one building that has living room and kitchen displays from each decade all the way back to the 1800's. We had a nice time walking around looking at all the displays. We got back in the van ready to keep a rollin. Thank you Minden, NE for the 10 massive flies that we could not get out of our van!

That night we stayed at a Walmart in Avon, CO. Talk about the nice Walmart ever :) It was so large and they even had grass growing on top of the buildings so they would eventually blend into the scenery. We were only 4hr from Ouray our final spot for this 5 week trip. We were excited to get there so we started driving. Ouray is such a beautiful little town nestled in the mountains. I've gone to Ouray since I was a child and have a lot of really great memories there. Christopher and I even spent our honeymoon there! I think we went there at last 7 times in the first 5 years we were together :) Yeah I think we like it :) It's called the Switzerland of America and what a great name that is. The quaint little town is surrounded by mountains on three sides. There is a hot springs where you sit and look at the mountains and you can even see mountain goats sometimes. It sits at 7,800 feet so the weather is basically perfect all year! I was debating whether or not I should actually put the name of the town or not because we like to think of it as our little secret but we know it's not :)

What a great 3 nights in Ouray! This was the first time we've ever gone there and didn't do all of the normal things we normally do. We just sat and relaxed the whole time :) Mouse's Chocolates and Coffee was a daily stop. We also found the bakery at the top of the hill and got there right in time to buy fresh bread right out of the oven. They let us know they weren't able to cut it because it was still to warm but we figured that was not a bad problem to have :) It was refreshing to be somewhere that's familiar to us and I'm glad we were able to finish our trip there.

We are back to our normal lives now and it's been going well. Solomon has enjoyed his bouncy toy while Christopher and I have enjoyed being able to see all the friends and family we have missed! Thank you for reading and you can enjoy future posts on past places we have already been. It won't be long before we are back on the road but until next time

Fires, Ferries and Horses Oh My

Even though the truck stop in Canada was a nice experience we were ready to be out of Canada. We drove the few hours to Port Huron. After a few more hours of pointless driving, just for funsies, or not, we finally landed at the Fairfield Inn and Suites hotel in Port Huron. This was, by far, the friendliest hotel we've ever stayed in before. Every single staff member we encountered or saw other people encounter  was genuinely kind and seemed to enjoy their job. Needless to say that the Best Western at Niagara Falls received a bad review and the hotel in Port Huron I could not leave a good enough review. Some of the staff even came out to see our new ride! We were able to get all of our work done and enjoy the spacious room along with all the other amenities they offer. 

He said it was therapeutic :) 

The next afternoon we made our way to Otter Lake, MI to spend the long weekend with our really good friends we had not seen for a while. It was the perfect setting to pull our van up beside their house and plug her in for us to sleep in at night! The weather was really great with little to no humidity and the bugs were not bad either. The first day there, us women took Solomon and went to the big big mall for some shopping while the men tended to their 4 kids and the other domestic duties. The next day we all packed up and headed north to their family cabin. It was such a great weekend getaway. The cabin was a great size with lots of bedding everywhere, a great kitchen and 2 bathrooms. This cabin sits on several acres with some fun toys for off roading and a fire pit. Here's a funny story for you... I've heard about this cabin for a while and I was told that they have a fire going the entire time any time they go there. I was told they go out and have fun on their toys and then come back to the fire. For some reason my mind went to them huddling around a burn barrell with their rolled up beanies on and holding their hands over the fire with their fingerless gloves on.... Yes I just described a street in New York City where the homeless might live. I was interested in seeing this fire myself. But upon arrival the kids all got out of the van and, not even, 5 minutes later they had a fire going, in the really nice fire pit outside beside the house! They even had real nice chairs to sit in, no rolled up beanies on, no fingerless gloves in site and no soot on any ones faces! I might of been a little disappointed :)

Saturday the 26th we all went to Mackinac Island. Why it's spelled Mackinac but pronounced Mackinaw makes no sense to me... But no one asked me when they decided to pronounce it for the first time :) It was a nice experience we even did the horse carriage tour around the island. We would recommend it for a quick easy way to see more of the island. It is a small island and there are several ferry options to get you there. Our second ferry ride of this trip! There are no cars allowed on the island except the fire truck and an ambulance so everyone gets around on bicycles and horses. It did make for a smelly destination but a very pretty one that's famous for their fudge. We didn't want to hurt anyones feelings by not tasting their fudge they worked so hard to make, so we forced ourselves to go in a few stores to buy some fudge! Life was rough that day :) The Arch Rock was one of my favorite things about Mackinac Island. The water was a very pretty turquoise color and was so beautiful.

Arch Rock

Our time with our friends in Michigan was very well spent and very needed. It's a bummer we can't live closer to each other meaning, it's a bummer they don't live in Utah :) 

Horse Carriage Ride

Our trip is almost over at this point so we will have two more posts, for this trip. One very exciting post on the bland, flat, fly filled plains that we drove through. The final post will be on the last 3 nights in one of our favorite places with some of favorite people. Until next time :)

The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island

Main street in Mackinac 

Arch at the Cemetery

Arch Rock

When you live in the city your forget dirt roads exist!
This dirt road is in Michigan

First is the worst and second is the best. Right?

Niagara Falls... We meet again. 3 years ago we were in Niagara Falls, NY and the experience was decentish (depends on your definition of decent). We did the Maid of the Mist boat ride packed in there like a can of sardines. It was fun and misty but we left feeling Niagara Falls, NY had gone down hill a good bit. Everyone told us "oh you have to go to the Canada, side that's the nice side". Here we are needing to get from Boston to Michigan and the route would take us straight through Niagara Falls. We thought we'd stay the night in Niagara Falls, ON, drive up and around the Georgian Bay to Sault St Marie, MI before heading south to Otter Lake, MI. We've never spent time in the UP, so we thought we give it a try. You know the UP, the right hand that sits ontop of the left hand when someone from Michigan wants to show you what part of Michigan they're from. Anyway, back to Niagara Falls.

We get to the border at 7pm expecting to follow all the other vehicles through the normal border patrol lines just to see a sign that says All Tour Buses, Trucks and RVs to the left.... What?? That line was twice as long and come to find that's because a tour bus will pull up into one of the two open lanes and all 50 people have to get off and walk inside to go over all the passports. Long boring story short... it took us 2 hours to get through the line and into Niagara Falls, ON.

Niagara Falls (Rainbow Bridge)

We had purchased a Best Western Hotel room from Priceline earlier that day and arrived at the hotel by 9:15pm. We had to get some work done so we needed the wifi as we were not wanting to use data on our phones in Canada. I walk inside and tell the young man my name and he says there's no reservation under that name. So I pull up my email and the guy is writing down some numbers to see if he can find the reservation. Just then a lady walks up and says "you booked on Priceline right" and I said "yes" and she said "oh we went ahead and cancelled your reservation for you". I replied, "huh?" To which she so kindly said "yeah, we went ahead and cancelled your reservation for you because our hotel is not going to honor the price you paid on Priceline." I replied, "huh?" She said, "you can purchase a room from us at $109.00 for tonight but we won't honor the $49.00 you paid online." I didn't have much to say. She was so nice and helpful with cancelling our reservation and throwing us out into the street for the night that I didn't have any responses coming to mind. What do you say to someone being so kind about cancelling your reservation?? I know we can all think of somethings to say! 

Christopher was so mad that we couldn't help but laugh! Christopher is one of those who tries to be really mad but it makes you laugh instead of tremble. There was no way we were going to pay the extra money to stay somewhere that would do that to their quests. They said they've had to do it to quite a few quests the last few weeks. Well, we needed some wifi to see what our options were and how far it was to just get out of Ontario. As we sat there in the parking lot wondering which direction to turn we see the billboard for Denny's restaurant and in big bold letters it says FREE WIFI. Perfect, we'll go get some food and use the wifi. We drive a few blocks away, get inside and can't seem to login into the wifi. I ask the waiter if there is a trick to the wifi and he said "our wifi has not been working on Apple products for some reason the past week." Of course it wasn't! Why would anything in Canada be working out for us! We paid for our meal and decided to leave, drive as far as we could to sleep in a truck stop for the night and get into Michigan the next day. 

We have a few lovely pictures of Niagara Falls that Christopher took from the van window while we waited in line at the border and a picture of the delicious Denny's where we ate. We landed at a truck stop 2 hours away from Port Huron, MI. We scrapped our plans to stay in Canada and travel to the UP just to get out of Dodge :) The truck stop we stayed at was very nice and the cafe we ate breakfast at was also really nice. I guess we ended Canada on a good note. I'll post about Michigan next time. 

Boston + food + great weather = One happy family!

Wompatuck, what a fun word to say! Wompatuck State Park is a very pretty park and campground right there in the middle of Hingham, MA. You would never know you were in the middle of a city but it's convenient when you need to run to the store for something. We arrived at Wompatuck shortly after leaving P-Town. The lady that worked at the campground was not the happiest person we've met this trip but hey... We are in Boston :) Since we need electric and we are out of staters we needed more cash than we thought for 2 nights. We decided to pay for 1 night, drove to look at the campsite and then left to quickly grab more cash. An hour and half later we had more cash. It was one of those times where your updated GPS keeps taking you to random places saying it's a real store and then it's a dumpy gas station. Once we got back to the campground we set everything up and it was strictly relaxation from there. That night we had steak, mashed potatoes and green beans! High living right there :) We sat around the campfire as I read the book "On Rabbit Trails and Bear Hunts". It's a good one if you want a good read.

Enjoying the Ferry ride

The next morning we made our way to the ferry with 12 minutes to spare before it departed. We love riding on ferries. The wind, the water, the boat and just knowing you're going somewhere by boat is a fun time. The ferry arrives right into downtown Boston so we went straight for Quincey Market, one of the best parts of Boston. We started our day of grazing at the Bagel stop at the end of the Market. There was a man gracing everyone with his terrible piano skills in the main eating area so it entices you to get out there and see all the great things Boston has to offer.

We got a stamp for Solomon's passport and a patch from Faneuil Hall, walked to the Commons and sat in the Gardens watching squirrels run around. The weather was really amazing. No humidity, just a slight chill and clear skies all day long. We walked back to Quincey by way of China Town to get some lunch. We already knew what we wanted and that was lobster mac and cheese for me and a lobster roll for Christopher. Man do they know how to make some good food! We walked through a huge farmers market and sat at the end watching people take dance lessons with Let's Dance Boston. They had a full orchestra that we thoroughly enjoyed listening to as they played swing music. We also stopped to watch the group of street performers by Faneuil Hall who do dance tricks and jump over a bunch of people, eventually, at the end of their funny show. Our final destination before boarding the ferry back to Hingham was at Quincey Market for some bacon wrapped scallops where we relaxed and watched the people go by. We enjoyed our day in Boston and headed back to the campground for round two of the campfire and our book. 

The next morning we headed out for Niagara Falls, ON. We did the Niagara Falls experience on the New York side in 2012 and it was fine. Not somewhere we majorly suggest but if you wanna see the falls then go see it by all means. We were really looking forward to staying on the Ontario side because we've heard it's much cleaner and has better views. Well... do we have a story for you! On our next post :) 

Boston

Boston Harbor 

China Town

Until next time 

2006 Roadtrek RS Adventurous

You can read about the adventure we had with getting our van in our first post but here is some more in depth information the the van alone.

After a little over a month and a half of research and shopping Shekinah and I are the proud owners of a 2006 Roadtrek RS Adventurous. We knew we were after a class B RV, something we could drive long distances in as well as navigate big cities. To accomplish the gas milage for the longer drives I new it would require a diesel engine. That quickly narrowed it down to only a few models which have all been built on a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van.

I found a killer deal on a model built out by Roadtrek for sale in Mesquite, NV. So Shekinah, Solomon and I flew out to pick it up on a Friday and left, for our 5 week trip, the next day. It has been a blast so far and we look forward to the adventures we will have with it for years to come.

So far this trip I have been averaging right around 20.5mpg and have already put over 4,000 miles on it.

Here are some of the specs on the ride:
Mercedes-Benz Turbo Diesel  (2.7 liter) (up to 25 MPG), 98K miles when I purchased
Fully Self-Contained, Microwave oven, two singles or king bed
Satellite Antenna (Auto Tuning), Generator (Onan propane)
140 watt Solar Panel with controller, 2 Trojan Aux Batteries
20 inch LCD W DVD Player (Digital/Analog), TV Antenna w Amp
 Alarm System, Back-up Camera, GPS, 600 watt Inverter
Bike Rack, Roof Ladder, 3 way refrigerator



Video tour of the exact same year model and layout of our new ride.

If there are any other pictures you would like to see or questions about our experiences, with this ride, so far drop us a line.

Who went to the Cape? We went to the Cape!

We are truly winging it on this vacation as our plans changed the morning of the 18th to go to Cape Cod instead of Boston! None of us had ever been to Cape Cod before and it would be the second place on this trip that I had not been to yet. It's been fun marking a few more places off the list with it being Solomon and Christopher's first times too.

The Cape is a fun experience. It can be as rustic as you want or as high living as you want. We stopped along the way at a few different areas to take pictures and look around the Cape Cod Visitors Center. Stamped little Solomon's passport book and bought him a patch as it is Cape Cod National Seashore, Nauset Beach was a beautiful beach with quite the staircase down to the sand. There were a good amount of people there but I could only imagine how it is on the in season summer weekends... I don't really want to find out :) I like crowds in certain settings but the beach is not really one of them! The Nauset Lighthouse and the Three Sisters Lighthouse are all right there by that beach.

Solomon had never felt sand before or the oceans tide washing over his feet. He was so cute and just stared at us like what's the big deal and why is that water so cold :) It was fun to take pictures of the sign that warns you about the great white sharks in the water.... Eeeek... I'm not one for shark movies or basically anything that has to do with swimming things in the ocean however, I still got out there and snorkeled in Cancun when I had the chance but, I'll pass on playing in these waters! Wallowing around in the sand all day sweating in the hot sun and burning, even after applying an entire bottle of sunscreen to each limb, has never really been my idea of a perfect scene but I really enjoy doing almost anything for a short period of time.

Sign at Nauset Beach, Mass

What's my idea of a perfect scene? Why, thank you for asking! It's Seattle, WA or Acadia, ME on any kind of weather day with the temperatures just warm enough for me to take my shoes off, roll up my pants and walk along a rocky beach (fog is a double bonus) in the cold water with my sweatshirt on and coffee in my mug at sunset (or any time of day) - If the weather is slightly to cold and rainy that's ok because I have super cute rain boots (my Penny boots from Lost in Space) and a cute rain jacket - If the high is only 75 that's excellent because then I'd wear some shorts with a cozy sweater - While the oceans tide washes onshore rolling over my feet i'd then do some exploring through all the rocks where all the sea critters live - My hair looks perfect with that salt water breeze giving it the perfect style and everyones shadow looks great with no make up at sunset. I know i'm really hard to please :)

Anyway, back to our current road trip! We finally made it to Provincetown, MA at the very top of Cape Cod. We picked out our campsite at Coastal Acres Camping Court and walked into town where we instantly found out more about Provincetown than we knew that morning. We found out that Provincetown is one of the top destinations for Gay and Lesbian travel. We enjoyed our time walking around the little city and staring at the ocean. We ate at Babulu for dinner where I had fish and chips and Christopher had fried clams. We were excited for our seafood but it was pretty average tasting. With my tastebuds wanting more we stopped at Lewis Brothers Homemade Ice Cream and I had the BEST homemade coffee heath bar ice cream i've EVER had!!! It was so good that I'm still thinking about it! The Coastal Acres Camping Court has a really great path through pretty greenery that leads you right into town. While we were walking back that evening we stopped so I could take some pictures of a beautiful plant and out popped a fox right behind us!

Mr. Fox

While it was very cute it was a little to close so it moseyed in one direction and we picked up our pace in our direction. It was a very nice quiet campground and the next morning we took our time to pack up and then drove to a rocky beach area where Christopher made us bacon, egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches and we all sat on the foggy beach shore for a while.

There are two lighthouses at the end of a very long rock dike there in Provincetown. We parked the van for a bit and decided to get as far as we could and only made it about halfway before the sun got to strong that early in the morning, and our parking meeter was going to run out.

Shekinah on rock dike

 It was so beautiful with all the boats docked by the little town. We've really enjoyed our road trip so far and next time I'll write about our two nights at Wompatuck State Park and Boston.

Docked Boats 

Civilian Conservation Corps (Americas National Parks)

Shenandoah National Park (http://www.nps.gov/shen/index.htm)  was the main attraction for our Tuesday. It's amazing to see the types of trees change just within a few miles of each other. The Blueridge Parkway ends where the Skyline Parkway begins. The same winding roads along the ridge line of the mountains. 

The boys of the CCCs (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_Conservation_Corps) pretty much created the parkway we've enjoyed so much. They would get $30.00 a month with $25.00 of that being sent back home to support their families. There's a lot of history in these mountains so it's amazing to think of soilders marching through and making a base camp or the young CCCs up here building roadways and families farming the land. It's very lush and very green with, what we feel is, a lot of butterflies. I've been to over 80 national parks and monuments but I had never been to Shenandoah National Park  so it was fun to mark it on my list! We stopped at the visitors center and got Solomon's national park patch and even bought him a little National Park Passport book. that way we can stamp it every where we go or at least write it down ourselves so we know where all he's been and when. 

Front Royal... the end of the line for these two beautiful parkways. It may seem like all we do is drive, and that may be true, but it sure has been a nice one. There are many campgrounds and even a lodge in this national park. There are so many lookout points and stops along the side of the road you have to start picking which ones you want to stop at or you can stop at them all and take the day to drive 100 miles :) From Front Royal is was Springfield, Mass with a stop in Hershey, Penn. It's really fun to drive through the town and see the hershy kisses on the tops of the lamp posts. The Chocolate World is a site to see with more candy than anyone could imagine :) We, of course, had to buy something and got a magnet for our stove top. 

Solomon has done really well with all of this driving. We stop and walk around when he's awake to get him out of his chair. Honestly I don't know how he's doing so well with how much he's been in there. He likes his car seat pretty well but he'd rather sit up, be standing or kick his legs around. We've used the heater, baked some really good cookies and have had a great time with our van. 

We are with some friends here in Springfield, MA and they are such a fun, calm easy going family to spend time with! We are grateful for their hospitality and will be heading out tomorrow to Boston, MA. Until next time here are some picture of our last few days. 

Shenandoah National Park

Shenandoah National Park

Shenandoah National Park

Potomac River - Brunswick, MD

Potomac River

Hersey Chocolate World