On the road, again…

Well, it’s been a while… but it’s good to be back. After thinking extensively about where to begin after this wild ride of a year, I figured to start with the now. We can go back later.

It really is good to be back. After months of getting sucked into the abyss that is social media, unplugging, re-plugging, changing my name on social media outlets, unplugging again, and going back for more gut punches, I asked myself the ever important question: what (ahem) what, in the fuck, are you doing? Is social media enriching or draining? Uplifting or soul killing? Educational, or mind numbing?

In every case, it was the latter. So why keep going back? Well it always started because I wanted to share our fun times with family and friends… only to get sucked into “all of it” every time. I liked seeing the memories from years past…. but would feel my cortisol levels rise after the brief hit of serotonin from seeing friends, family, and strangers comments of “oh how fun” and “beautiful”…

Nice, right? But I really wasn’t posting for them. I was posting because I like to review and remember the times we’ve spent as a family. And there are a handful of people who care and want to follow along… if you’re reading this, thanks… you’re one of them.

So, I’m ditching social media and I’ll collect our memories, pics, and stories here. I’ll fill my writing bug and come back every now and then to check in and report out.

So… back to now. This last weekend we decided to hit the road for our one and only camping trip of the year. Thanks COVID. Tara picked Lincoln Park in East Wenatchee. I figured, sure.. what the heck. At least we’ll dry out. The weather looked as good as one could hope for in a Washington fall (mid 60’s by day, 40’s at night).

I wanted to leave for our 3 hour drive no later than noon. High noon. I worked from home in the morning, packed the trailer and bikes, and got us hooked up. This is when I started to think maybe the universe did not want us to go…

After hooking up the trailer, the electric jack locked up. Like, bend the manual crank, burn the motor on my plug-in drill locked… I bought and tried new fuses, to no avail. I called Tacoma RV and was told to get it in before five…. they’d replace the electric jack for $350. With eager kids, Tara, and me, it sounded like a deal.

We finally left at 2 pm (two hours later than I wanted) and they jumped right on it. The tech found some “wiring problems” that he “fixed” and we were in the road, again, in an hour. More on that later.

Getting on the road at 3 in Tacoma is not optimal… I offered to go home, sleep in our own beds, and get an early start the next day. But I was outvoted and we figured we’d roll in to our camp site by six, eat, explore, and go to bed. Now, remember it’s been a year since we had the trailer out at Seaside, Oregon.

So little details like “how long will a fill tank of gas last me towing this fully loaded beast” eluded me. Two or three hours? Who knows. We decided to see how things looked at the two hour mark, and evaluate there.

At two hours we were passing through Cle Elum with a third of a tank of gas. Should be fine. I figured we can drive for three hours… as we continued driving toward our destination through the mountainous, desolate, no-cell service Wenatchee National Forest I watched our gas needle descend. Down to “E”. The warning flashed 40 miles to empty. 30 miles to empty. Two dashed lines to empty. No cell service. We. Are. Fucked.

Fortunately after some divinely favorable winds, down hills, and fumes, we coasted into a gas station I never would have selected given the angles I’d have to navigate with a long van and long trailer just outside Wenatchee. We filled up, and successfully got back on the road.

We pulled in to our campsite well after dark. We found our spot and parked in a manner that would require us to re-park the next day. Everyone stayed in the van while I set up. Until I got to the slides, which did not open. The rewire “fix” at the RV shop jacked up my slides. As I searched furiously for the manual slide opening bits, cussed, sweat, and almost cried (not really) I decided to try hooking up the power to the van… the shore power was already hooked up and didn’t work. Again, by God’s grace, it worked.

We set up and were off to bed.

The next day, our first in Lincoln Rock Park, we were awed by the dry, beautiful high desert painted in autumnal colors. Rolling hills that looked like the hands of giants reaching over the edge of earth that I imagined as a child. All cut in half by the wide beautiful Columbia River.

The rest of the trip went off without a hitch. We started every day like we finished it: campfire, stories, and time together.

The days were filled riding bikes, exploring, walking, climbing trees, and laughing together.

To celebrate Tara’s birthday, we went to Carniceria Los Compadres (which I highly recommend) for Carne Asada, tortillas, and all the extras. The meal we prepared was a hit… the kids could not keep their hands out of the pan that kept the meat warm over the fire.

We ate cake, s’mores, ice cream, and candy. Too much candy.

We told the kids stories about how we met, good and not so good things we’ve done (with attached lessons) and told stupid jokes.

Tara and I talked about how fast the time is going, and how despite all the stress of this crazy year, it has been one of the most “blessing-filled” years ever.

We pondered having only about six more years of camping with Lillian, with Elle and Caroline following close behind. And while it sounds like a long time, I know it will fly by in a blink.

The days that followed went by fast, and gave us great time together… the most important time I can imagine being blessed with.

In the big picture the trip home was uneventful… aside from a couple re-routings due to traffic accidents, a kid announcing “I threw up all over myself… a lot”, a pee-mergency, and annoying Seattle traffic… it definitely begs the question of how long am I willing to do “the grind“ before we leave the metropolitan area for someplace more peaceful.