On the Road

August 28-29, 2016
Goldendale, Washington

The first 36 hours of our adventure was a slow trek south from Wenatchee to the Bend, OR area with a one-night stop over on the Columbia River Gorge at Maryhill State Park.  Our goal is to not tow our trailer more than 3 google map hours in a single day, at least for awhile.  As we get used to our truck & trailer, I’m sure that the stress of moving from place to place will lessen.  But for now this is our rule of thumb to keep ourselves from over-doing it.  (It seems that 3 hour treks turn into more like 5 hours…)

Our drive from Wenatchee to the southern border of Washington was pleasant and uneventful.  We’ve given each of the girls one of our old iphones so that they have their own cameras, and they are super excited about them.  I’m trying really hard not to yell at them to be careful with them every time they get them out.  So far not successful, but I’ve got time to grow…

Since we were only staying at Maryhill State Park one night, we splurged on a pull-through site.  Definitely convenient.  We scored a spot right next to the river with unobstructed views of the Columbia River, the gorge, and Mt Hood.  It was a beautiful place to spend the night!

The next morning we began our homeschooling materials in earnest.  Both girls have been really excited to start school.  It all feels like a game for now, so it’s pretty enjoyable for all of us.

Later in the morning while Brad prepared the trailer for take-off (moving your house 2 days in a row is exhausting!) the girls and I took a quick trip to England to check out Stonehenge.  This interesting replica that has been erected in Goldendale, WA as a war veterans memorial seems to be the best hide and seek location ever created.  It also made for an interesting worksheet in our geography notebook.

Our drive from the gorge to Bend had a few more bumps in the road than the day before.  Namely one long construction zone bump full of millions of tar-covered rocks hitting our truck & trailer for about an hour.  Just as we were finally getting out of the ridiculous mess, a semi tire peppered us with its own unwelcome barnacles as it passed and left 2 cracks in our new (to us) truck windshield.  (The construction company denied my claim for them to pay for the windshield, but our USAA roadside assistance took care of it in Bend.  Oh, how I love USAA…let me count the ways.)

We hopped out of the truck after we were clear of the construction zone frenzy to catch our breath and explore the ghost town of Shaniko.

We finally rolled into our campground in La Pine, OR road-weary and hungry and later than anticipated, only to find ourselves trying to back our trailer into a very tight, tree-lined campsite on a narrow road.  It took over an hour, and even though Brad keeps bragging on my trailer-backing abilities, it was ultimately he who got it safely into the space.  But I take some credit myself because… #1 We didn’t yell at each other through the whole thing (only our children). #2 I am the one who finally rolled a giant log out of the way in desperation and that was the key to the whole thing working in the end.  And #3…I didn’t even cry.  Success. Also we didn’t run over our own children, although at one point I did toss them into the passenger seat next to Brad saying, “This is the only place that they are safe.”, AND we didn’t run over any other people’s kids on bikes who were riding the loop over & over & over again as we tried & tried & tried to get the trailer lined up properly without scraping any trees on either side as we made an almost 90* turn in reverse.  One sassy little gal chanted, “Hi!….Bye!” to me through my open truck window each time she passed me.    “Wait!,” Brad would yell to me, breaking my concentration on the task at hand, and I would wait as one bike would go by my window…then another…then another…the kids on each bike getting younger as the parade continued, “Hi!….Bye!”, the next couple were more spaced out and with training wheels, and then one final, “Wait!” from Brad, and we sat and waited for the last little 4-yr old caboose to ride past.  And then begin again.

But I’m getting ahead of myself….the pee-wee bike gang is another story for another post.