Omward Bound

A glimpse of Everglades National Park

2008-11-20T15:53:00.000-08:00

This picture was taken at Flamingo on the Florida Bay. It is at the southern most tip of the mainland of Florida.

Fat Gator!

Everglades National Park Visitor Center

An endangered Wood Stork.

The hardwood hammock that this (and the next 2 pictures) are taken in is located next to the lake with the island of trees in the middle seen further down in this post.
It is amazing how much the landscape varies with a few inches of change in the elevation here.

Climbing a Gumbo Limbo tree.

Basking in the sun.

Not the greatest photo, but this is a beautiful Purple Gallinule...you can click on the pic to get a larger view.

Tree Snail...unfortunately, these have been over-poached by collectors.

Cormorant

This is one of my favorite places to go for a walk...there are lots of days when the sky is incredibly blue here.

Although the Great Blue Heron is common in many places, the Everglades is the only place we've gotten so close to them.

Paurotis Pond- where we go to watch Roseate Spoonbills.

Anhinga drying off after a swim.

You never know who you'll walk with on the trails in Everglades National Park.

Pictures

2008-11-10T06:22:00.001-08:00

Florida Softshell Turtle.

Southeastern Lubber Grasshopper in Everglades National Park. 11/08

Having a blast at the beach...what a great ending to a very special day for us! 10/30/08

Outside the Obama rally. 10/30/08

Here's the bald eagle we spotted as we waited in line to enter the stadium for Obama's rally. Did I mention it was perched on a communications tower? "Calling all progressives, don't forget to vote!!" What a great omen for what came next!

During Obama's speech at the rally in Sarasota, FL on October 30, 2008.

Poop Master Brian taking a photo op break from dumping the tanks. Lake Lanier Islands, GA.

Gyan, Shanti, Kavi & Vashti...happy cousins.

Kavi, Deayne and Vashti after a trip to the Lego Outlet in Georgia.

You can take the girl out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the girl. On this day, Vashti spent most of her time talking to Sofia in Austin and her Aunt Lindsay in Dallas.

Our mighty traveler at the bottom of Mingo Falls, N.C.

Poppy enjoying a little rest after climbing many steps to Mingo Falls, N.C.

One of the views from the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Once again our camera doesn't quite capture the beauty, but it was a really lovely day.

Our camera doesn't quite capture how incredibly beautiful the smoky mountains were this fall, but you get a little taste from this pic. Notice the moon?

Hiking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The kids had fun on their first ever pony rides at the fall festival on the Chesapeake Bay.

There were lots of great costumes in Colonial Williamsburg.

Cool kiddos.

The kids take every opportunity they get to climb trees.

Recruiters signing the boys up for the Union Army. Shanti got a little emotional talking to me afterwards because he didn't want to go to war or leave his family.

Reenactment of Union soldiers listening to a speech by Washington in Colonial Williamsburg.

Hanging out with Jason and Monica at Chesapeake Bay. We met them in Hershey, PA, and managed to meet up three times to camp together.

Monica is a no-nonsense kindergarten teacher, and Vashti loved being her little helper working on different projects.

Shanti with the other Jason and Monica

Daph in D.C.

This was the kids favorite in D.C. I'm not sure how many times we paid for them to ride the carousel, but Brian and Poppy got their fill :)

The kiddos striking some of their favorite poses inside the Washington monument.

WWII Memorial

Our native Texan at the WWII Memorial

D.C. sightseeing with Brian's Vietnamese sister, Ngoc.

Catching up

2008-11-09T10:40:00.000-08:00

I can't believe how much time has passed since the last time we updated our blog. Right now we are camping in Everglades National Park which is at the southern tip of Florida (not counting the Keys). This morning, Brian and I rode our bikes for about 10 miles. We saw 3 alligators up close, a diamondback rattlesnake which was being harrassed by a mockingbird, a green garter snake which I gently caught and removed from the road, a black racer snake which was being harrassed by a silly human, a beautiful but dead corn snake, a yellow orb weaver which was 4 inches long, lots of beautiful birds, and a variety of fish (such as florida Gar and large mouth bass). We watched an Anhinga (a water bird) swim under water and catch a couple of fish. We are happy to be back in the Everglades.

Here's a quick synopsis of our travels since we left Ramblin' Pines:

We spent 5 days in D.C. where we visited museums, monuments, and friends. Then, we camped at Chesapeake Bay campground in Virginia which hosted a great weekend festival and had a wonderful hiking trail through the woods. The friends (Jason, Monica and Hunter) we made in Hershey, PA met up with us in Chesapeake and we all had a great time visiting again. We all took a day trip to Colonial Williamsburg which was educational and fun. After saying our goodbyes, we headed off towards Asheville, NC and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We were very fortunate to arrive in the mountains during the peak of the fall foliage, and it was truly spectacular. We enjoyed a couple of gorgeous days and 32 degrees nights (we put our faux fireplace to good use during those cold mountain nights)! Unfortunately, due to the limited amount of time we had left to get to the Everglades, we had to rush through North Carolina. So, after a couple of days we headed off to Georgia to camp with Brian's sister, Deayne, and her family. We camped on Lake Lanier Islands, and it was one of the nicest surprises we have had on our journey. The campground was beautiful and mostly empty. The hiking was fantastic! There were lots of pine trees and it was possible to hike along huge sections of the shoreline which alternated between sand, rocks full of mica, pyrite and quartz, and red earth. One day while we were on the island I went on a four hour hike by myself along the shoreline of the lake and through the woods. When it was time to leave Deayne, Paul, Kavi, and Gyan, we had less than a week to get to the Everglades, and a lot of miles to cover. We drove each day for three days straight, and then on a Wednesday stopped at a campground on the Peace River about 60 miles east of Sarasota. While we were there we saw a couple of alligators (one was a mother with her babies!), and lots of red shouldered hawks. We also discovered that Obama was holding a morning rally in Sarasota the next day. Excited (and nervous) about the upcoming election, we all decided that it was worth it to spend another day driving around if it meant we could show our support for Obama in person.
On Thursday morning, with the kids in their pj's, we headed out just after 7am. As we approached the stadium, we found the whole area buzzing with excitement. Sarasota is traditionally a Republican stronghold, but 12,500 people showed up for the rally (the stadium capacity was 10,000 but since some people stood on the field everyone got to go in). While we happily waited in line the crowd noticed a wild bald eagle perched on a tower just outside the stadium. The eagle's presence seemed auspicious and I think everyone felt like it was a good omen! Everyone was in such high spirits that we all cheered as Obama's plane flew overhead. The thing that struck us the most about the rally was the diversity of the crowd and the feelings of joy, unity, and hope that everyone seemed to share. After the rally, as we made our way back to our car, the bald eagle repeatedly soared overhead. Someone handed us a postcard for a Columbian/Mexican restaurant which ended up leading us to the best meal we've eaten out since we left Austin. We spent the rest of the day at the nicest beach any of us have ever been to. The beach is on Siesta Key and is 99% quartz which makes the sand extremely fine and white (so the sand stays cool even on hot days). The beach also has a very gentle slope which makes it super kid friendly. As some of you know, Vashti has been proclaiming that we are going to the beach since before we even left Austin. She finally got her day at the beach, and now she can't wait to go back!
After one more day of driving, we made it back to the Everglades. For now, it feels as though we have come full circle since this is the place that inspired us to sell our home and begin this journey. We will be here for at least two months, and then we will gradually head west where we look forward to visiting our friends in Austin and beyond.

Maryland update

2008-10-04T12:21:00.000-07:00

Halloween at Ramblin' Pines in Woodbine, MD 10/4/08

Fairy Princess

Zorro

Halloween Hayride

One of Vashti's favorite poses.

Pumpkin Carving at Ramblin' Pines

Shanti with Great Grandmother Johnson

Masonic Temple in Elizabethtown, PA where Brian's grandparents live.

This visitor to our RV was about 3 1/2 inches. Beautiful!

Mini-golf at our Hershey, PA campground...we played a couple of times with Brian's Grandparents and at least every other day during the 2 1/2 weeks we were there. Even the kids were getting hole in 1's on a regular basis!

So much for Brown Widow spiders being a tropical spider....After feeling a sticky web under our picnic table, Brian discovered 3 adult females with a total of 19 eggs and a whole bunch of immature spiders. We still have or "Miss Spider" who currently has 3 eggs after 1 month in captivity. After doing a thorough search, Brian found a couple more of them under our RV with a whole bunch of eggs. Unfortunately, due to their toxic nature and their ability to repoduce quickly and in large quantities, we felt a need to dispose of the ones trying to set up house on our RV.

This is by far the most commercial thing we've done with the kids, but they offer a 20 minute free tour/ride on how Hershey Chocolate is made complete with singing cows. It was interesting to learn about everything Milton Hershey did to help his community especially during the depression.

Beautiful Johnson's

Sitting in a mini race car at the Masonic Temple's Fall Festival.

That's our girl...for every picture that Vashti smiles at us there are about 10 of her making funny faces or refusing to look at the camera (If it's not obvious she has a mouthful of spit bubbles in this one)....We wouldn't want her to be any different!

The kids at the masonic temple.

Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece: Falling Water in western Pennsylvania. At the end of the tour Brian turned to Shanti and said, "So, you know that an architect designed this home. What do you think would be different if it was designed by an engineer?" Shanti promptly replied, "Well, there would be posts all over the place." That particular point was not mentioned during the tour, and it is a great example of "worldschooling/unschooling" in action!

We are currently camped at Ramblin' Pines in Woodbine, MD which is a little west of Baltimore and a little north of D.C. Our primary reason for stopping here is they have a huge halloween celebration, and the kids wanted a chance to be around lots of other kids while partaking in a little sugar indulgence (or I should say over-indulgence). This is by far the busiest campground we have visited which is fun, but GOOD GOD WE WISH THEY WOULD TONE DOWN THE CAMPFIRES! It's like living in a chimney for the weekend! We all have stuffy noses and smell so strongly of smoke we can taste it. The entire park is covered with trees so we are slowly smoking ourselves. But not to be party poopers....we ARE having a lot of fun. We've carved a pumpkin, gone on a hayride, trick-or-treated, and played at the park. Once it starts to get dark we get to go on a spook walk, and I've never seen so many halloween decorations. There are fake spider webs and talking, smoking graveyards around every corner. Who knew there were so many pagans in Maryland! Another plus of being in this area is we have seen a lot more Obama supporters....we were starting to feel like outsiders in our own country because rural America sure flies a lot of McCain signs. Tomorrow we are moving down to D.C. for a few days.

Hershey, PA

2008-09-21T12:35:00.000-07:00

We've been at Hershey for one week. When we first arrived at our campground I spotted an RV flying a pirate flag, and I commented that I wanted to park next to them. It just so happened there was a vacant spot right nextdoor. Turns out they were the first people our age we have had the pleasure of camping with since we started this adventure. Our neighbors have a son who is 9. He loves legos and bike riding just like Shanti and we all became fast friends. Unfortunately, Jason and Monica had to go back to work (although they did play hooky for one day so they could visit with us longer). The good news is they are going to come back next weekend to camp with us again, and then they will be meeting us down on the Chesapeake Bay 3 weeks from now for another weekend.
This has been one of the nicest campgrounds we have been to. The weather has been perfect (sunny with highs in the low 70's and lows in the mid 40's). We have visited with Brian's grandparents twice at their home at a large masonic village in Elizabethtown, PA, and they spent one day at our RV with us. They are in their mid 80's and l hope we are as spunky as them if we make it to their age! We took the kids to Hershey's Chocolate World, and had fun learning about how they make their chocolate. We also attended a huge fall festival at the masonic village with thousands of people and lots of free food. Brian's Uncle Dean and Aunt Barbara drove from Delaware to spend the day with us. For those of you who remember stories about our trip to St. Thomas, Dean and Barbara are the ones who lived their for many years. They have been back on the mainland for 5 years, and seem to have adjusted well.
Today we had a visit from a 3 1/2 inch preying mantis on the side of our RV. One of my favorite things about our travels has been seeing all the different kinds of bugs, spiders, birds, mammals, trees, etc. A couple of days ago we were hiking through the forest when I almost stepped on a large Eastern Box turtle. It was very pretty with lots of orange, and it made me think of Sam in Austin with his collection of reptiles. I'll post more pictures the next time we get a faster internet connection. Our general itinerary is to spend one more week in Hershey, and then we will be camping in D.C. for one week where we plan to visit lots of museums and see Jason and Monica (not the ones we met at the campground in Hershey, but the ones who live in Baltimore).

More pictures

2008-09-11T05:34:00.000-07:00

We first started seeing this billboard on our trip to the Everglades last winter. The question is, "When did they get this picture of Vashti"?

This is a good perspective of the size of our rig!

Ice Age exhibit at the Cincinnati Natural History Museum...very cool!

Vashti and John

Daph's cousin John was a great guide at the Cincinnati zoo where he has volunteered for the past couple of years. 9/08

My dad's mom turned 90 at the beginning of August and she still doesn't have any gray hairs!

Enjoying a morning cuddle.

One of the cave entrances. 8/08

Shanti eating a boxed lunch (which hasn't changed since I last had one 30 yrs ago) inside of snowball cafeteria deep within Mammoth Cave.

The kids sluiced for minerals at Diamond Caverns which is where we camped inside of Mammoth Cave National Park.

This was taken during a 4 1/2 hour, 4 mile hike through Mammoth Cave. 8/08

Vashti with her triplets :-)

Today is September 11th. We made it to Pennsylvania yesterday, and we are staying at a lovely campground just north of Fallingwater (Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece...you can check it out at fallingwater.org). Vashti and I are getting over a short cold and the ragweed is high here, but I love this part of the country. Miss Spider is doing well. She rides in the minivan with my dad, and she is getting much fatter.

Pictures

2008-09-05T06:02:00.001-07:00

This is Brian's Aunt Dorothy. Shortly before we were planning to leave Cherokee Landing for The Farm, we learned that we only had a small window of opportunity to see Dorothy before she had to go out of town. We decided to save The Farm for the next time we passed that way, and we enjoyed a wonderful visit with Dorothy. Besides being an attorney, Dorothy has started teaching Pilates and we had lots to talk about. Our campsite was really nice, and we were parked right next to a great playground and the swimming area seen in the next picture.

The kids getting their feet wet at J. Percy Priest Lake just outside of Nashville, TN

Proof that Poppy is still with us! We are so lucky to have him along for the adventure. 8/08

All gone!

Playing pool, TN 8/08

Walking back to camp after mini-golf at Cherokee Landing, TN, 8/08

Spiders and Bugs and Spiders, Oh My!

2008-09-04T14:00:00.001-07:00

Katydid on my cousin John's head, Wilmington, OH 9/08

One of the many cool spiders we have seen on our travels.

Rhino beetle at our campsite in Kentucky 8/08

Daph's 38th Birthday in Tennessee

We have been camping in Wilmington, Ohio for one week. I have a little catching up and filling in to do so here goes....
If you have been reading our posts, then you may recall my birthday post last month. It ended with a comment about watching my dad and Shanti canoeing across a peaceful pond. Right after I finished the post, my dad and Shanti suddenly sounded distressed. I quickly road back to camp to see what the commotion was all about. It turns out that shortly before they got back to land Shanti realized there was a large female black widow right between his legs in the front of the canoe! Needless to say, he was not happy, but he did manage to keep it together enough that the canoe made it to land where he was able to jump out and run. Personally, I have always liked spiders (and snakes), but the poisonous ones do give me the creeps. While we were camping in Tennessee and Kentucky there was an exceptionally large quantity of large creepy spiders, and we ended up killing quite a few in the RV because I got a couple of nasty bites. I never made it a practice to kill spiders indoors in Texas since we had a large space to share with them; however, the RV just isn't big enough to share peacefully with the creepy crawlies. So now we are in Ohio, and the only spiders I have seen on a daily basis are daddy long legs and some large red mites. Brian was doing some general maintenance around the RV today, and he called me up to check out a spider which had set up a home inside of our RV hitch in the back of our pickup. It's brown, and it has a very distinctive reddish orange hourglass on its abdomen. It also had a very cool, and very large egg sac. Very carefully, with gloves on, we managed to capture the spider and its egg sac in a glass jar. While we were capturing the spider it pulled its legs close to its body and played dead. It was very easy to find photos and articles about the Brown Widow spider on the internet. Here's a website with pictures that look just like our catch if you are interested: http://www.247wildlife.com/brown-widow-spider.htm
We're not sure how long we will keep her, but she is safe for now and we dropped in some dinner for her.

Anyway, we're having a nice time, and have visited with my Ohio family. My Grandma turned 90 in August, and it has been nice to just sit with her (her hearing and vision are not so great). Daphnie's cousin John came out to our campsite to spend the night with us, and then he took us all to the Cincinnati Zoo where he has been volunteering in the summertime for a few years. John was great with the kids (I can't believe he's 17), and we all really enjoyed his company.

Mammoth Cave KY

2008-08-25T13:11:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

We're enjoying a nice rainy day here at Mammoth Cave in KY. Vashti and Shanti earned their Junior Ranger badges today. Yesterday Daph, Shanti and I went on a half-day tour of Mammoth Cave that was very educational and uniquely inspiring. We have seen bats, spiders, deer and wild turkey here in the park, and enjoy swimming and mini-golf when the weather has been dry. Right now Vashti is enjoying playing with a toy workbench here in the common area while I write. Love to all.

Birthday

2008-08-14T07:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, August the 13th, was my 38th birthday. It turned out to be one of those simple, perfect days that I will probably remember for a long time (it reminds me of the day Vashti was born). We woke up to a beautiful, warm, sunny day (the previous day had stayed cool and cloudy with occasional soft rain). I baked a chocolate cake (the first time I have baked in our little convection oven), and I was happy to see that it baked very evenly. Brian and I went for a walk and enjoyed a leisurely yoga practice and meditation together. During our practice, the resident falcon circled above us and even managed to do a spectacular dive right as we rested on our backs and looked up. Afterwards, we ate lunch, went for another walk, lounged around, and then cooked quinoa chili for an early dinner. After dinner, Brian and I walked down to the lodge while my dad hung out with the kids. As usual, we had the whole place to ourselves. We played three games of pool while listening to classic rock music and then played ping pong (it felt very 80's and was a lot of fun). As we headed back to camp for chocolate cake we decided we should get gear for mini-golf so the kids could burn off their sugar buzz. Brian gave me a piggyback ride across the parking lot, and we felt like kids goofing off. For the third time this week we lit candles and sang happy birthday (Vashti is very into candles). The cake was delicious with a very rich dark chocolate glaze. After cake we played mini-golf and I got a hole-in-one on the very last (and one of the most difficult shots). We had a nice walk back to camp and enjoyed watching the bats fly above us.

Brian and I have been reading a book called Respectful Parents Respectful Kids. It blends ideas of interconnectedness and the importance of true co-operation for the health and sustainability of families, communities, and the whole world with Marshalll Rosenberg's style of Nonviolent Communication. So far, I'm enjoying the book, and I'm feeling very thankful for being at a place in my life where I can take care of my own needs so that I am able to better meet the needs of our family and kids.

From where I am sitting outside I can see my dad and Shanti canoeing across the placid lake. It is another beautiful day (the high is supposed to be 87 degrees). I am thinking of all my beautiful friends, and hope that you will all take the time to do something nice for yourselves today. I had another lovely yoga practice this morning, and now I'm going to head off to play with Vashti.

The soul empties itself of all its contents in order to receive the being it is looking at, just as he is, in all his truth ---Simone Weil

Catching Up

2008-08-11T11:33:00.000-07:00

We have been enjoying a simple existence lately without cell phone service or internet connections. After we left Livingston, TX we camped at Lake Tawakoni which is east of Dallas. We had a lovely lakeside campground where we enjoyed bike rides and bird watching. While we were parked at Tawakoni Brian, the kids and I drove into Dallas where we spent a week visiting my mom and little sister, Lindsay (who is now 13). Despite the heat, we all got to spend a fantastic day out on the lake in my mom's boat. We got caught up on all of our shopping in Dallas, and then we finally made it out of Texas to camp at DeGray Lake State Park in Arkansas.

DeGray is about 20 miles south of Hot Springs (which is where Brian and I bought our $8 sterling silver Hopi Indian engagement bands back in 1992...I still wear mine as my wedding ring most of the time). It was fun to revisit the city with the kids. We also visited Diamond Crater state park where we got to play in the dirt digging for diamonds and other gems/minerals. DeGray lake is breathtaking and I highly recommend camping there when passing through Arkansas. After camping in Texas it seemed like we had jumped back in time about a century to be on such a beautiful lake with no houses or businesses surrounding the water. There was a wonderful produce stand just outside of the state park with lots of fresh, local produce. It was incredibly hot while we were in Arkansas, but we finally got a break from the heat as we headed into Tennessee. It rained most of the day as we drove into Tennessee, and the temperature stayed in the low 70's. Currently we are camping about 50 miles east of Memphis. The campground is about 300 acres and we are sharing it with 5-10 other people (depending on whether it is the weekend). We have a swimming pool, pool table, ping pong, mini-golf, tennis court, a small playground, and a pond stocked with very big large mouth bass pretty much all to ourselves. I have found a perfect spot for doing yoga, and the weather has stayed in the 70's to mid 80's during the day and around 60 degrees at night (just cool enough for a campfire and marshmallows with a couple of the other campers). We met a woman who is in a tent with her dog and she is probably between 70 and 80 years old. She camps for part of the year and she has a home in Baja where she stays the rest of the year. My dad said it made him think of what Tricia might be like when she is that age, and he suggested we invite her over for dinner.

After spending the last few years cooped up inside (trying to find relief from our allergies) it is great to be spending the majority of our time outside. We love being lulled to sleep by frogs and bugs, and to wake up with the birds each morning. When we leave here we will stay at a campground near The Farm (which you can check out at thefarm.org), and then we will be heading up to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky. We will try to post some pictures while we still have internet access so stay tuned!

Livingston, TX

2008-07-18T15:00:00.000-07:00

Right now, we are enjoying an evening rainstorm at the Escapees Campground in Livingston. The drive from Lake Conroe to Lake Livingston was beautiful. It's amazing how much more rain this area gets than Austin. Everything is lush and green, and we saw some stunning fields of purple flowers (not sure what kind). Each night the frogs sing us to sleep, and we have seen lots of bunnies and bats. Shanti and I have been going for bike rides together down scenic rural roads, the kids swim with Grandpa Johnson and their daddy each afternoon, and Vashti enjoys chasing the bunnies through the field as it gets dark. Today we visited a local history museum with an old steam engine and and old historical cabin. We plan to stay here until Tuesday. The mosquitoes are huge, but slower than the small ones!

On the Road Again

2008-07-14T13:21:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, July 12th we departed from Austin, and officially began our aimlessly wandering, roadschooling, adventure! We had originally planned to leave Austin sooner, but on June 25th a young man ran into the side of our truck while Brian was out working. Luckily, no one was injured and our gracious neighbors, Karen & Tomas and then Cathy & Larry, let us park in their yards until it was time to leave Austin. We got our truck back around 11:30 on Saturday, July 12th, and pulled out of town at 4:30 after a few tearful goodbyes and a few rounds of the kids singing "On the Road Again".

Brian and I reflected on how weird it felt to leave Austin knowing that it would most likely never be our home again. The comforting part is knowing that the friendships we have made run deep enough to withstand the distance of time and space.

We arrived at our first destination around 8pm on Saturday and set up camp at Lake Conroe. We were very pleased to see that our new membership with Thousand Trails is well worth the cost. During the past two days we have been swimming, playing mini-golf and tennis, watching the sunset at the lake, going for walks and staying cool during the hottest part of the day with board games, coloring, reading and writing practice, watching video clips and reading journal entries on wherethehellismatt.com (which is worth checking out....thanks Marjorie!)and eating Ben & Jerry's. Right now we are enjoying a nice evening rain,and tomorrow morning we plan to pack up and head over to nearby Lake Livingston for a week long visit with Brian's parents. Our general plan after Livingston is to stay at Lake Tawakoni and Lake Texoma for about a week each, which will allow us to visit my mom in Frisco, and then stay near Hot Springs, Memphis and Nashville on our way to Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. I am looking forward to finding cool (as in temperature) places to practice yoga.

Fun in Austin

2008-06-14T13:24:00.001-07:00

We have enjoyed a fun-filled week in Austin! On Monday, Brian and I took the kids to see Kung Fu Panda which was a nice reprieve from the heat for a few hours. Tuesday, Poppy and I took the kids to the little natural history museum at UT, and then we had Thai noodle bowls for lunch. It has been 100 degrees every day in Austin this week. On Wednesday, I went to a great yoga class taught by Charly Pivert, and in the evening the kids played in the sprinkler which they stuck in the dirt to have a crazy mud extravaganza. They were having so much fun that I kept thinking I wanted to play. Not being able to hold off any longer, I changed into my bathing suit and joined in on the fun. When I showed up in my bathing suit the kids couldn't believe I was going to get in with them. As soon as I stepped into the mud, they tentatively began to make mud prints on my legs, but once they realized I was committed they went all out and scrubbed me from head to toe (it was a laughter filled spa session for free :-)! Thursday morning, Poppy and I packed a lunch and drove the kids down to Natural Bridges Cavern (just north of San Antonio). We enjoyed a beautiful hike through the caverns, and a nice picnic lunch in the shade. When we got back to Austin, Brian and I took the kids out for Mexican food, and then Vashti asked if we could buy some balloons and fill them up with water. We stopped by the grocery and found a bag of 200 balloons for $2.99. Back at the Fernandez homestead/campsite, Brian filled about 175 balloons with water while I kept the mosquitoes at bay. Brian, Tomas, all five kids (Shanti, Vashti, Sofia, Cinco and Diego), and I had a blast tossing balloons to each other in the driveway. Everyone got wet, and everyone had fun! On Friday, I had a very leisurely lunch at Blue Dahlia Bistro (which was outstanding) with Mary Londos, and we had a relaxing evening at home swimming, eating pizza, and watching a movie. Aaahhh, Brian is taking the weekend off and we are hanging out and staying cool. It looks like we will be leaving Austin around the beginning of July. We're going to start planning our final going-away party so stay tuned!

Settling In

2008-05-29T07:14:00.000-07:00

We are settling into life in our 5th wheel. Currently, we are parked in our friends driveway (which is only a few doors down from our previous home), and the kids are having a great time staying here with the 3 Fernandez kids. The new owners of our house (Marjorie and Danny) let the kids go swimming every evening at the pool Brian put in last summer, and they are happy to let the kids harvest all of the blackberries this season. It is a little weird being in visual sight of our home of the past 12 years, but this has allowed for a gentle transition. We get to enjoy some of the joys of our previous home and we get to visit Zoe (our puppy who is now living with our next door neighbor) while at the same time we are letting go. Zoe seems very content with her new family which consists of a young puppy named Annie, 2 older dogs, 1 yr. old triplet girls, 8 yr old Brannon, and Larry & Kathy.
As of right now, we have not decided when we are leaving Austin or where we are going first. We had planned to head towards Ohio and Pennsylvania, but it seems very likely that we will spend at least part of the summer in Colorado first. As the heat increases the mountains seem to be calling very loudly! Besides, I (Daphnie), have been really missing the mountains, and I am excited to get out and hike with the kids. Brian has been compiling a list of places he would like to take the kids over the next couple of years, and we are all getting excited about hitting the open road.
We weighed the rig, and discovered that we have to get rid of more stuff because we are over our weight limit! I was pleased because I still felt like we had more than I wanted to be responsible for, but it is tough because it means we have to start eliminating things we really wanted to keep like extra tools, massage table, kitchen stuff, more clothes and books. Everyone is generously giving away more belongings (including Vashti and Shanti) which is pretty amazing since we have already given up so much. Vashti even agreed to part with a whole box of her favorite board books (impressive for a 3 year old)!
It feels like the time to leave Austin is getting close. For now, we will continue to enjoy our friends and all the things we love about Austin.

2008-04-19T06:06:00.000-07:00

We closed on our house sale yesterday! Now we lease back for 30 days and move from the stick house into the rolling house :)

2008-03-21T05:20:00.000-07:00

Just remember: Ask for what you want :)
Last Thursday we had a friend (who is a Realtor) over to discuss ideas and price on selling our house after the summer. What I told our friends I would really like would be for the perfect buyers, who love the house, to show up and buy it now but let us stay for the summer to swim in the pool. That way I can do the work on the house the way they want, instead of just what I think a buyer would want. So, our friend walked through the space with me and said "you know, my girlfriend is a realtor too, and she has a client who could be a good fit for your place, however they're looking now. If you want, we could let them see it, and at the least it would be an interesting exercise." Well, needless to say, that was a little ahead of the game, so I told him we'd have to think about that.

Saturday... Went to the dealership and finalized the deal on the RV. They need a week to get it ready for me. Went home in the evening and after briefly discussing it with DW, we decided to call our friend and allow them to show the house to the prospective couple... the next day :eek:

Sunday... Our new friends arrive at 1:30 to look at the house. We talked a little, then wanting to give them some space we left to go have lunch. After lunch we swung by the video store; need to veg out a little after a hectic weekend. Call coming in on my cell... they are offering us our asking price and we'll have the contract this evening. Not only are the buyers a natural extension of our community, they even want to hold the same intention and use of the unique spaces we've created here. Also, they are generously accommodating of the fact that this is a little ahead of our planned time-line and are willing to help us stay for a couple of months to get ready to leave.

Tuesday... house inspection; nothing unexpected for our 1/2 50+ yr. old house. (The other 1/2 is only a few years old).

Wednesday... repair requests; again, nothing unreasonable or unexpected.

Thursday... complete a few of the repairs.

Friday... guess I better go to the RV dealer and pick up that hitch so I can install it!

2008-03-08T17:52:00.000-08:00

After becoming increasingly dismayed with allergies in Austin, and finding that we're working just to cover overhead, we've decided to hit the road. We love camping and road tripping as a family (dad, mom, son, daughter, and sometimes poppy), so after a three and a half week trip with the minivan and a pop-up, we came home last month and decided to try full-timing and workamping. After extensive research on the net and lots of reading from the library, we decided on a fifthwheel and a dually. Knowing that allergy season will be worst beginning again in the fall, we've decided to leave as soon after this summer as we can sell the house. After our first trip to the large rv dealership nearby, we fell in love with a deal on a fiver with a bunk room in the back and queen master up front (Monte Vista 35rbmv). Two weeks later (first week of March) we've put a deposit on it and purchased an '05 Ford F350 diesel dually crew-cab. It's official... now we're just putting the vibe out there so that one or more of our friends who are turning up saying they want to buy our house will be able to afford it.