Memories

Today I usually share a craft project that I am working on.  While I am, in fact, working on "stuff" I can not share them with you yet.  Why, you might ask?  Well, most of the projects that I am currently working on will be used at my daughter's baby shower that I am co-hosting in April.  So I can not show you any of these things until AFTER the shower.  I know, I know - April?  Really??  Yes, I do get carried away and I want things done early - what can I say?  I have always been that way - is that my OCD coming through?  Probably. 

Anyway - I thought that I would do something completely different today.  I have mentioned several times - okay, numerous times, that my dh and I used to be full time RVer's until a family emergency took us off the road.  However, I have never shared with you about that time in our lives.  I thought I might do a little of that today.

Some of you might wonder how I came up with the name on this blog - Are We There Yet?  Well, actually, this blog was "born" when the Mountain Man and I hit the road and I needed a way to keep in touch with family and friends "back home".  When we would go on camping trips before this big adventure I was never sure exactly where we were going, so I would always say "Are we there yet?" , so when we decided to go on the road full-time - well, the name just seemed appropriate for the blog. 

When we left north Florida we did not own anything except the truck (a F350 diesel) and the 35 foot 5th wheel Montana that we towed behind it.  We pulled out on June 18th and headed for our first assignment in Island Park, Idaho.  We had three weeks to get there and decided to take our time and get used to this "being on the road" thing.  This method proved to be our usual mode of travel.

Anyway, I thought I would share some of the pictures that I took while we were on our first assignment in Island Park, Idaho. 

Mountain Man and I

The morning we pulled out on our

"Great Adventure"

Bryce Canyon National Park

Just one of our stops on the way out west.

Moose behind our camping spot in Idaho

Johnny Sack Cabin

Our first work assignment in

Island Park, Idaho

Mountain Man and I

Yellowstone National Park

Mountain Man

 Virginia City, Montana

Mountain Man float fishing

 Snake River through the Box Canyon

 Idaho

Grand Tetons National Park

Hot Springs

Yellowstone National Park

Old Faithful Geyser

at sunset

Yellowstone National Park

Chipmunk

in the woodpile at the campsite

Object of Sam and Jessie's attention

The Chipmunks kept the pups entertained for hours (and hours)!

These are just a few of the many, many pictures that I took during our two and a half month assignment in Island Park, Idaho.  I just wanted to give you a sample of our time on that assignment  so I did not bore you with the numerous pictures of wildlife (moose, bear, elk, did I mention moose, caribou, coyotes, buffalo, and then there were moose), flowers, and scenery (Jackson Hole, Butte, Bozeman, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons National Park,  Rexburg, Bitterroot Mountains, to name just a few places - and that's not counting just the trips down "roads" to see what was there, or the museums, art galleries, theaters, and historic sites - there was sooooo much there!).   This was a WONDERFUL time but before we knew it the summer was over and our assignment was complete.

Maybe, one day in the future I will post some of the pictures I took on our trip back to Florida, where we had our second assignment at a state park for the months of November and December. 

We took part of September and all of October off and just traveled -  Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Amish country, Niagara Falls - even spent two weeks on a mountain top in Pennsylvania at a friends place.  What a wonderful time!  (Can you tell I miss the road????)

Well, I'll think I'll pack up my memories for now.  I hope you enjoyed my little journey down memory lane - and we'll have to do it again sometime.

See ya soon!

Carol

Linking up to:

http://www.homesavvyatoz.com/google/

http://www.theviewfromrighthere.com/blog/?p=6729

Paris Island, Idaho

Well, we have made it to our summer "home"! We arrived around 2:00 this afternoon in Ashton, Idaho where the Forest Service Office is located. We had to fill out some paperwork - so they can pay us (which will be once a month and automatically deposited into our checking account in Florida - how cool is that??)- then we came out to the camp location. It is beautiful, but not exactly what I thought it would be. First, we can't see any mountains because we are up on top of one and we are completely surrounded by trees - but it is beautiful. The other volunteer that is here is right across the "street" from us. He is like the 'Jack of all trades' and he helped Dan and I set up the camper, cut some limbs off a couple of trees so we could extend the awning and just said if we need anything to let him know. He did tell me that he took a picture of a moose about 100 feet from the back of our camper - so guess what blind is now up all the way so I can see out the back. The temperature today was about 80 but the low tonight should be in the 40's. The mosquitos are TERRIBLE!!!!! They have had around 3 weeks of rain and the rivers are way up. We were told that the mosquitos would be bad for about 2 weeks. That's not too bad.

We went out to dinner tonight - okay we had to check things out. I'll really get into cooking and see how that will go but we had to go and check out the local "inn". Plus, we don't get ANY television reception at all - which means I need to make real good friends with these people so I can watch football in about 6 weeks! That is important to me cause I love my football. (To tell you the truth, Dan is already talking about getting hold of Direct TV again and seeing about getting a portable dish - we'll see.) In the meantime, looks like I will be doing a lot of reading and keeping you guys updated on our adventures.

After dinner we just drove around a little - actually, we found where we will be working and looked around there - then after leaving there we drove down a gravel road and we saw a herd of deer in the distance eating. Got the binoculars out and closer to us was a momma deer with 3 - yes, I said 3 - fawns. We watched them for awhile until something spooked them and they ran off - and no I did not have my camera with me - I had taken into the camper when we unloaded the truck. I will start carrying it with me all the time so when we see wildlife I can get pictures so you guys can see it too.

Tomorrow the lady that is in charge of Johnny Sack Cabin (where we will be working) is suppose to come by and see us and then Saturday we are going out to the cabin to have our orientation. They have already entrusted us with a key to the place. I also plan on doing some cleaning - you know sweep, run the vacuum, clean the bathroom, and dust - that should take all of 30 - 45 minutes. We do have to find a place to do laundry - that could be the only problem that I have seen so far. We are also going to go into the post office and check on how we can get our mail - probably general delivery, but we are going to double check with them. Soooooo, tomorrow looks like it will be a busy day for us, but we are ready to settle down for a while - I know the pups are. (Sam had started to look at us with that "are we ever going to stop this truck for longer than one night" look.) They both seem happy to explore around the camper today. We will need to clear a larger "yard" so we can keep track of them (if they get out in the grass around the camper we can't see them at all because the grass is so tall), That will be important because not only do we have moose, deer, and elk. but we also have BEARS. Oh! What fun we are going to have - Dan is in hog heaven! If any of you want to come out there are plenty of cabins close that you can rent and there are lodges close by also - Come see us if you can - if you can't just stay with me on the blog and I'll keep trying to let you know what is going on.

BTW - in the next couple of days I'll get the budget ready - and come up with the figures of what we spent coming out and how we will live to reach our goal of living on our retirement. I do want to let you know the good and the bad of this adventure - even the money part. So, I will get those figures ready. Keep the comments coming and we miss you guys back east.

The end is in site

Well, the house is empty and all cleaned - tomorrow is the closing. Dan is working on his tools and figuring out what he wants to take with him and what will be stored. The 5th wheel is finally straightened up and I actually cleaned it today - ran the vacuum, swept the floor, dusted the furniture, and cleaned the bathroom. We still don't know when we will leave Dowling Park yet exactly - it will be either Wednesday or Thursday of this coming week.

Now, where are we going?? Well, at the end of May we were thinking we would be going to a state park in Northeast Georgia - Bobby Brown State Park. We were all set to host in the state park for a couple of months. Hosting at a state park means you will be greeting and helping fellow campers as well as doing general cleaning - cleaning campsites when people leave and keeping the bathhouse clean. For performing these chores you are provided a full site campsite at no cost. Then we received a phone call from the park manager. It seems that the state of Georgia has been hit hard by the recession and has changed some of there parks to "honor system" parks which means that there will be NO paid staff on site and the camp hosts would have to perform more duties (which was not a problem) and there would be no help if needed for about 45 minutes - as the closest park with paid staff would be 40 miles away. Dan and I talked about this and since this would be our first experience at hosting we were a little worried. When out of the blue, we received a phone call from a park we had applied to before applying to Georgia parks. We were offered a position where we would work 2 days a week and only have to greet visitors and maybe a little light dusting. Not only would we be given a full hook up site we would be paid a small salary ($15.00 each per day) and milage from our campsite to the cabin where we will be working. So, where is this wonderful place you might ask???? IDAHO! Yes, I said Idaho - actually, right outside West Yellowstone. We are so excited about this that we can hardly stand it. We will be staying and working at Johnny Sack Cabin from the end of June until the second week of September. I'll keep you posted on what we do when we are not working - since we only have to work 2 days a week we will be doing a lot of site seeing.

Also, this is my first post using the "air card" - we will see how much of my KG's on my air card this will take - but it will be a lesson for me to see. I still haven't posted any pictures yet, but I will in the near future.

More on the financial end of this endeavor will come next week, along with our impression of our first days on the road. Should be interesting!