Eastbound

Our time with family in Missouri has come to a close :(  and time to head east toward Mehari back in North Carolina.

It's been 5 months since we've been road nomads.......all the way to Alaska, fishing, and camping, and all the way back. And we thought boat life was hard! I think we'll all be glad to be in our 'most familiar' beds, back on the boat. The boat has been sitting out of the water in a boatyard just north of Beaufort  NC, a place called Bock Marine. We're also a bit curious how she's done sitting empty all this time.

Cousins' farm in Missouri

playing in fall leaves

Some of the highlights from our time in Missouri were Levi and Erik going to John's basketball practice every morning and getting a thorough workout. Of course, all the cousins (12!) had a ball hanging out and riding a mototrcycle, a quad, and feeding chickens, turkeys and a horse. Our kids got a little taste of farm life, doing chores in the early morning.......they managed to survive. 

making sure the hotel beds are *soft enough.

Erik managed to squeeze in a VW bus show in Springfield, the girls had a shopping day, the 'boys' went to a gun show, and we had a few game marathons, mostly Apples to Apples, and the grownups even managed a date night ;) and the house was not burned to a crisp when we got back.

Now, we've been scootin' along through Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and finally, North Carolina. 

ice cream break in Kentucky

Catching up......

Ok, we've been a bit occupied the last couple of weeks, but finally sat down for a minute to catch up with the blog and give everyone an update of where we are and what we've been doing!

We spent almost 3 weeks in Arizona all said, catching up with a LOT of friends, family and also doing some work 'stuff' on a commercial property we own. Maggie and Levi and Emma were put to work in between visiting friends, doing a lot of painting, cleaning, staining, sweeping, and organizing our life up to this point. I must say, even though the boat life has it's challenges, living day after day out of suitcase is no cup of tea either. I would rather have everything unpacked, even if its into a small 400 square foot catamaran! Which, I am excited to say, we will be back on in a few short weeks! (Not everyone shares my excitement, but I think they're warming to the idea)

We are now in Missouri, (not Misery!) visiting Rachel's sister for a week or two and all the kids are catching up with their cousins after a long time away from one another. Rachel's sister and her husband, Stacy and James, have 6 kids as well, including 2 teenagers they've adopted from Russia two years ago, so while there's "only" 18 people in the house, it's a good chaos and were really enjoying our time here. 

Photos to follow when we get a spare few minutes of peace and quiet, and pry the computer back from the kid's fingers!

Hems

Homer Sweet Home

Well, we thought the BOAT had it's hard moments! Whew! Road travelling with 8 is tough. 

Most of the photos we put on were of us smiling, but there were a lot of not smiling times. All in all, it was a great adventure, and we lived to tell about it. Actually, I'm mostly joking, but it is what it is. 

It is just difficult with all of us, some as large as adults themselves, in a car....any car, for 12-14 hours at a time. The best solution we found was to drive all night. Not much fun for Rachel and I, but oh well, better in the end. 

We arrived several days ago, and are just getting settled into our new routine for the next few months. The house where we are staying is gorgeous. The people we are fishing with, Mark and Linda, kindly offered to let us all stay, knowing Levi and I would be gone most of the summer and it would be Rachel and the kids here with Linda. It is a big house with stunning vies over the Kachemak bay, just up the road from the town of Homer. They are on 5 acres, and the first morning after we got here, I went out to get something from the car, and there was a moose in the front yard, munching away on the grass.......welcome to Alaska!

Here's the view from the living room

The house has a big loft room where all the kids will sleep, and Rachel and I have a room downstairs with a bathroom. We're all adjusting to all the space, and it's going to be interesting to see if we can cram everything back into the suburban and trailer when it comes time to leave. For now, we're just enjoying the time we have here and enjoying God's amazing creation that is all around us!

Love you all, talk to you soon! 

"The Last Frontier"

Welcome to Alaska

"Sign post forest" over 70,000 signs!

Early morning fog from the road

A river runs through it.....om the way to Homer

The YUKON! "only" 1800 miles to go!

Today we entered the northern province of Canada, the Yukon. 

It was absolutely stunning scenery and as a bonus......we saw tons of wildlife. 

In just a few miles, we saw moose, caribou, buffalo, mountain lion, and bear. It was unbelievable. It was like we were driving through a safari ride, so it made another long day in the car worth it. 

We got as far as a town called Whitehorse, got out and ate some dinner, as we decided where we were going to camp for the night. It was also a LOT colder the further we went north, so some time soon after the pizza, we decided to drive another over-nighter........let the kids sleep warm in the car, and log some miles.  

We made a pit stop for coffee, and off we went. We started doing the math and it looks like we're going to try and make it by Sunday night....although it depends on how many more pictures we need to stop and take. :)

Eight explorers

Canada & north

Hello again, 

We are up into Canada now.....and we used our 'rain plan' last night (driving all night) and made it up as far as a place called Liard Hot Springs in northern Alberta. It is an awesome campground and we got here in plenty of time to take a night long swim in the hot springs before dinner and bed! Although now it is so light so late, it's really strange going to bed when it's light.

The hot springs are just right, and if you want it hotter, you move toward one end of the pool, until you can't stand it. REALLY felt great after some long road hours. 

So, camping for tonight and onward tomorrow........

Hems

 

Canada!

We ended up crossing the border a few days ago and made it up as far as an hour outside of Calgary. It had been raining all day as we crossed the border and made our way north. We were puzzled how we were going to set up camp in the rain and deal with dinner, our back-up plan for rainy nights is to drive straight though and Rachel and I would take turns driving. Not a real clever plan, I'll admit, but that's as far as we usually plan.

Anyway, we thought we'd drive by the campground we were planning to stay and see what it looked like in the rain, and it turned out they had a great little cabin for rent which would fit us all! So, for WAY less money than a hotel room would have cost, we snuggled in there, cranked up the heater, and had a great nights' sleep after all :)

It was just as well, because we ended up driving the next night all the way through, up past Edmonton and into the sand-oil fields in north Alberta. The kids were great travellers, and we bribed them with a good dinner out and then they got comfortable and quickly fell asleep. It was actually easier covering a lot of ground with most of them asleep.

Another strange thing is, as we drive further north, the time the sun sets is getting later and later. I mean LATE! Last night, it finally got dark after 11PM and started getting light again at 4AM. By June, the hours of darkness is only 3 hours a night! It's hard to lay down and go to sleep when the sun is shining in the tent and it's after 10!

On the border

Yesterday was a really beautiful day, driving through South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. Wyoming was super flat and pretty dramatic, nothing but flat prairie in every direction, and then slowly the Big Horn mountain range rose up out of the plains and still had snow on their peaks. Awesome!

We made it as far as Billings, Montana, and found a campground on the Yellowstone River. It was a great spot. The campground had thick grass to set up the tent on, we sat by a campfire for a while, roasted some marshmallows, and slept like rocks. It is getting cooler, the further we go north, even though it's May. I think we might need to add another couple of blankets in a day or two!

Today, we're hoping to make it across the border into Canada and up maybe as far as Calgary.......we'll see. 

tent pegs......check!

We're past Missouri, back on the road and last night was in a little State Campground called Weston Bend.

We ended up getting there quite late, and tested our skills by setting up the tent in the dark. All the little ones were already asleep, so we just laid out the beds and simply transferring the sleeping kids inside. It was an OK first night in the tent, we had no air mattresses (well, we did, but no pump to air them up and no desire to do it at 10:00 pm :) so we slept on the good 'ol ground for the night. Keeps you humble, eh?

In the morning was cereal, a quick shower in the campground, and we were back on the road, heading to Erik's brother's house in the Black Hills of South Dakota. On the way, we saw mile after mile of farmlands in Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota.

After a long driving day, we arrived at Aaron and Darla's late (again! are you seeing a trend?) and they had beds already set up for us and a nice toasty fire in their backyard. We spent a few hours catching up and then were fast asleep! It's amazing how tired you get sitting in a car all day! Aaron and Darla have been working hard on their property for the past 3 years and the amount of work they've accomplished was amazing. Hundreds of trees cut and cleared, a house built, and utilities installed. Pretty overwhelming looking at the property next door which is still raw. We spent a couple days there, hanging out, sleeping, and EATING! They raided the freezer and we had some awesome steaks!

So, in a couple of days, we're off towards Montana and then Canada. See you then!

Missouri photos......

St Louis arch

Kelsey and Emma

Kyle, Emma, and Maggie

John loading the canoes

Rachel, Miles and Lily....ready to raft

Emma and Jen were stuck like glue

Family reunion!!

1200 miles down.....

Hello from the road,

Well, we got some miles under our wheels, but still have a LONG way to go. We ended up packing all day last Sunday, getting the boat ready to leave for several months. It was a very strange feeling, cleaning the boat, and looking at all the memories we made in there. It was also a bit sad as we drove away and looked back at Mehari, sitting on blocks, and all the decks cleaned off. We had to take down all the sails and tie everything that was loose, down tight, as she will be sitting there through hurricane season, and you never know......last year they had a small hurricane go through Beaufort area and there was some flooding in the marina, but no damage. We are praying for the same result this year!

So, once we had the car loaded, and I mean over-LOADED, it was 10:00 p.m. and way too much work to try and stay on the boat again, we decided to just set out on the road and see how we felt. The kids (and us) were all excited to get to our first stop in Rolla, Missouri with Rachel's sister and family (they have 6 kids also) and so we ended up driving all night and the next day, 1100 miles straight! Rachel and I took turns driving and napping, so it wasn't too bad. The kids, once they were wedged in and comfortable, slept all night. It was actually somewhat peaceful, as it rained almost the whole way, and they were snuggled in. 

We've been here in Rolla for a few days, and have had a great time hanging out, playing lots of games, and even worked in a canoe trip down a beautiful river near here, the Current River. It's a really pretty and the water was crystal clear and super cold when the canoe flipped!! It gave us a LOT of motivation to make sure it didn't :)

It's time for us to say goodbye, or more accurately, see you later, as we will be coming through here again in the fall on our way back to North Carolina. So......some tears, but not too many. The next stop for us is probably a campsite tonight, depending on how far we get towards the Black Hills of South Dakota. We are heading to Aaron and Darla's house (Erik's brother) so we will write more from there! 

~eight explorers?