“I have a crazy idea.” When my husband starts a conversation like this I worry. He lives outside of the box; I, however, live very comfortably in it with coffee and a good book. “We should sell everything, live on a catamaran, and sail the world.” My nonchalant reply, with said coffee and nose in a good book, “I will go by land, but not by sea,” would set the wheels turning for a year that would change our lives. In under a year we had quit our jobs, rented our home, and set off to roadschool our children and chase extraordinary.
My daughter has learned what a carbon footprint is, thank you once again Jr. Ranger programs, and has vowed to reduce hers. Bless. I had to remind her our carbon footprint as a family is relatively low right now, and made her recalculate according to how we live at home. The difference is there, it’s…
September 17, 2016 “Why do I need to read this chapter about erosion when I’m sitting in the Grand Canyon!? I mean the chapter has a picture of the Grand Canyon and I’M THERE FOR GOODNESS SAKES!” Touché. We may have hit a bump in this whole road schooling thing. It is admittedly hard to…
September 17, 2016 So there is inevitably going to be some unextraordinary as we chase the extraordinary. I cannot remember what possessed us to plan a stop in Colorado Springs, CO, but it was a bust. If you love this corner of the world, I apologize, but I’ll admit perpetual gray skies and rain didn’t…
August 25, 2016 We are dirty. If you know me you know my affinity for ironing, color coded sponges, and an intense laundry separating system. If OCD is the term coming to mind, I am okay with this. Nevertheless, I find myself in a bind. 300 sq ft does not allow room for indulging in…
August 8, 2016 Let me confess a part of our journey that I don’t discuss as it deeply distresses some… Walmart. When we are making big treks cross country we break it up with a stay at, yes, Walmart. So this is actually acceptable, and we are remarkably never the only RV in the lot….
August 15, 2016 Right below Yellowstone lay The Grand Tetons. A must see if going to Yellowstone. We set up shop in an awesome, roomy campsite and the girls took off to explore the beach. “Mom, I am not sure what that lady was talking about, but that is NOT a beach.” For our southern…
August 14, 2016 After Glacier I was poised to be impressed with nothing else. That is until I told my children Yellowstone National Park used to have a volcano but it was no longer active. I mean that makes sense right? It’s Wyoming for heavens sake, not Hawaii. Correction. We had a lot to learn….
August 12, 2016 As we drove through South Dakota and Montana all I could think is fill up now and cross our fingers nothing happens between here and Glacier because the vultures will find us before anyone else does. I was struck by the endless, empty miles and pretty sure any moment a cowboy would…
August 10, 2016 South Dakota… Who knew? Who knew this would be a place we would fall in love with, a place to which we’d feel so connected, and have such a desire to return. Besides the obvious, Mount Rushmore, I had only a vast expanse of nothingness which I envisioned was South Dakota. And…
August 10, 2016 The words have been spoken… “I do NOT like this RV trip!” The speaker of such words shall remain nameless, but said speaker may or may not have just lost their dessert for injury to a sibling. We may be cracking. You know how you need a vacation after your vacation? I…