Pioneer Beginnings:)

It's been awhile since I have been able to post anything. I know what you are thinking......busy busy busy with working Yellowstone. Well, my fellow travelers and wannabes, that couldn't be further from the truth. First let me say the the drive out here was awesome.....once we got off the highway for the last 2 hour stretch of Nebraska. Earlier in the drive, we lost the newest member of the family, Lilith our Ball Python, to the scorching dry heat of the Nebraska plains, everyone was upset. So let me say that for the most part, Nebraska is best driven at night. Once we got off the highway, we checked out Chimney Rock and Scottsbluff and spent the whole day in that corner of the country. When we finally made it to Yellowstone, we were greeted by 5 buffalo sleeping on the side of the road. We spent 3 hours driving through the park just to get to our campsite, did we see everything on that first drive?......not even close:) But I was able to give my son Marshall what he wanted for his birthday....Snow!! On June 9th there was 6 feet of snow on the sides of the mountain we were transversing as well as a heavy snow fall! He was in heaven:) We arrived at the campground, unloaded and began to unwind. I started work the next day working for as cashier for one of the gift shops. I loved it, this appeared to be a dream job, we were able to tour the park on my off days and get discounts to boot. About 3 weeks into it, I was awaken by a knock on the door from my manager and informed that I was laid off, unfortunately, with the current over all sales being in the red, and dispite cutting everyones hours to 26 a week, they had to start laying off the newest employees,(me being the first) but not to worry, when they picked back up, they would call(yeah right). You have 3 hours to be out....Ok where do we go??? With my next check a few days away, and our finances still not recovered from the 1000 hit it took to get there, we decided to temporarily boondock until we could figure something out. We ended up at a wonderful spot right on the Yellowstone river where we had our own private access to our own swim area . Talk about roughing it in style:) We stayed there for a few weeks, feeling very much like pioneers! River water for all our water needs, including laundry and cooking with only a campfire. I had the best lasagna in that fire pit! Yes it can be done, you can eat more than just hot dogs and eggs, but thats another blog:) After 2 weeks of pioneer life, I concocted our plans. We decided to store our wonderful home and truck and  head west. We loaded up the Metro with out tent, pillows, blankets, food storage, and all other necessities I could cram between the kids and headed off to a new adventure and new chapter. To Be Continued...... Next up. 5 people 1 tent 2 months

Workers Neeeded

I recently got off the phone with Yellowstone and was informed that they need more workers for the season, they had about 10 people cancel on them. I'll be starting work there on the 10th. If anyone is looking for work and want to visit Yellowstone for a few months email me. They pay 7.50 an hour for all hours worked and your campsite is either free or 50 a week depending on where they place you. As far as I know, it's only cashiering work in the gift shops, but I may be wrong and they may have other openings in the park.

Home at Last

Before

When we first got our rv, Kurt had brought up the idea of remodeling and I was completely against it. I didn't want to affect the resale value with modifications that would affect our ability to resell it. After living in it for 2 yrs. I got the itch to change things around. So far we have changed the living area, dining area kids room and some of the kitchen.

In the Living area, we removed the jack-knife couch and replaced it with 2 recliners that can be pushed together to make a love seat. The Dining room area we an easy change. After we removed the dinette, we replaced the seats with restaurant booths and kept the table. The seats are especially easy to clean and we didn't lose and storage space.

After kids room

The kids room was the most involved, most exciting, and still in progress. We started with two twin bunks and a mini dinette that converted to a twin and a small skinny dresser between the two. We tore out the dinette completely and replaced it with an entertainment center/dresser that is a foot shy of the total length of space. Prior to this the remodel, the kids were using Rubbermaid dressers with 3 drawers each. Not wanting to throw anything away, I put them in the space between the entertainment center and the wall, perfect fit! I then proceeded to dump all the kids toys in the kitchen and my lovely little ones, went through everything and separated the toys and put then in the drawers. We are just about done with the kids room, all we have left to do is build Marshalls bed on top of the entertainment center and in the spirit of recycling, the jack- knife couch will replace the bottom bunk twin!

As I sit here typing this up, I’m eyeing the kitchen cabinets. We already replaced the standard rv fridge with a residential, and will be replacing the rv oven with a standard one soon, so what makes the cabinets think they are safe! I thought this rv felt like home before, now that I have begun to really make it “our” it feels much more like home!
Written for The Families on the Road Blog Carnival. Feel free to join in every month at Families on the Road Pics will be up shortly, I'm running on VERY limited Internet:)

Fast Approaching Moving Day Prep

We'll, it's been a few months since we had to move. 5 to be exact. We are scheduled to be in southern Illinois by May 22nd, 8 hours away and 210 in gas. Not a bad trek with the added bonus being we will be spending a few months with some good friends of ours and their kids, so my kids are super excited. They are actually looking forward to getting the house ready.

So whats involved in Moving Day prep? Well a lot but really not that much if you know what I mean. Since it's been 5 months since our last move, our house is in complete "living" mode, Clothes in hampers, appliances on the counters, toys everywhere, your typical day to day house. So our first step is to completely get the house cleaned and try to keep it that way for the next 6 days:) Good luck right? 3 kids thats never going to happen:) but once it's done, it's easier to do a quick run through the night before moving day then to try and do it all the night before.

Once the house is cleaned, all the appliances get put back up. The toaster, the Crockpot, coffee pot, griddle, everything that has found it's home on the counters. After that, there really isn't much to do until the day of the move, thats when we empty all the shelves so nothing falls off, this is normally just the bathroom shelves and the one in the kids room. everything from the bathroom goes into the shower and everything in the kids room goes onto the bed. Viola! The house is done. Now the outside.

Our home

The last thing we do outside is disconnect, don't want to be without water or electric:) Prior to that, we load up all our things into the bed of the truck, blue boy, bikes, chairs, grill, and outside kids toys, leaving room for our jacks and leveling blocks. This is normally done 2 days prior, but there have been times when we had to move in less then 2 days notice! Those are fun times:)

Once all that is done, we disconnect, close the slide, hookup to the truck, and begin another chapter in our Journey through change!

The 20th Annual Suwanee River Jam!

Jerrod on the left and Lee Brice on the right

 

My friend and I went to the Suwanee River Jam where we spent 5 days listing to awesome music and hanging with Country music stars. We had no running water or electricity at our site but we didn't care. Armed with our tent and nuts and berries for food, we had a memorable time. We plan on going back next year with one of our RVs in tow.

Great Expectations

We've been on the road now for a little over 2 years. Is there anything I would have done differently? What mistakes have I made since we started full timing? What would I do if I could start all over? Honestly, my first thought is " We should of started sooner", but everything happens for a reason. We hit the road when we were meant to. So, really, what would we have do differently if we could hit the proverbial REDO button?

First, I should have never expected anything other than to have an adventure. When we started I had high hopes of moving all the time, boondocking a lot, and sightseeing. We have been on the road now for 2 years, and I have been to a hand full of states, mainly for workamping jobs which meant no sightseeing. Like I said, an adventure, but an ever changing one. We have made a lot of new friends and some really great connections and so have our kids. So no regrets there.

Second, I would have packed more of the kids toys. I never realized how much time they would actually spend inside. It maybe raining out, snowing, or just too dang hot for them and no matter how hard I try to kick them out the door, they don't want to go when the weather's like that. I envisioned that the kids would be outside all the time, so I packed mostly outside toys with only a few inside ones.

Third, I got rid of a lot of my specialty pans that I wished I would have kept and have been slowly replacing. I thought I wouldn't have the time nor the space to bake. I've learned I can't go without making Christmas cookies or cheesecakes and learned how to make the space. I love baking and don't know why I got rid of my good pans. I thought that by being on the road, my day to day routine was going to change drastically, it really hasn't. I get up a little later because there's no bus to put the kids on but thats pretty much it.

Since being on the road, I have learned to always have a backup plan, and a backup for your backup, just in case. No matter how concrete something maybe, you just never know. A job could no longer need you, you may get there and not like it, or a better offer may come along. I'm always keeping on eye on whats out there.

So all in all, if I could talk to myself 2 years ago, before I sold everything, I would tell myself: Keep your bake ware, don't give all those toys away, things may not go as you expected, expect the unexpected, and always, have a backup plan, nothing is written in stone. You never know what to expect! Some people are born to be fluid and flexible(me) and others have to learn how to just go with the flow:) Being a Gypsy Rebel helps!


This was written for The Families on The Road Blog Carnival. Wanna join? Visit http://familiesontheroad.com/carnival.html#3

                                                                     Happy Travels!!

Andersonville Largest and Deadliest Confederate POW Camp

 

 



Kurt got a 3 day paid weekend for the 4th of July holiday, whohoo! We went to Andersonville then Stone Mountain. If you've never heard of Andersonville, let me give you a brief history. It was the major Confederate Prison in the south during the Civil War, located in Macon county, it was cramped, had horrendous conditions, and a high mortality rate. The prison was only 26 acres, with a small swamp running down the middle for water, 16 ft high blockade walls and the "Dead Line", which was located 19 ft away from the stockade walls, if a prisoner crosseed the line, he was immediately shot. The prison held 50,ooo Union soldiers, with a total of 15,000 that didn't survive the prisons short run from February 1864 to April 1865 . There was a miracle that happened in Andersonville that saved many of the soldiers lives. The only water that they had was the small swampy stream that ran down the middle of the camp, this was used as their sink, toilet, and drinking water. Up stream, was where the confederate officers lived, who used the stream for the same purposes. So the union soldiers never really had any clean water. One day in August 1864, a great majority of them got together and prayed for rain, what resulted was a massive thunderstorm that produced lightning that struck the ground. When it struck, it opened up a small spring, which provided the union men with fresh water. The only thing was that the spring was just on the other side of the Dead Line and guards offered no leeway when it came to crossing the Dead Line. Prisoners fashioned sticks and rods together with a tin cup on the end in order to reach the spring. The spring was named Providence Spring and was dedicated in 1901. The plaque by the fountain reads: "The prisoner's cry of thirst rang up to heaven. God heard, and with his thunder cleft the earth and poured his sweetest waters gushing here. Erected 1901."  The first time we went there, there was no warning about drinking the water, so we drank it, and it was some of the best tasting, sweetest water we ever drank. The next time we went they had the sign erected, but being the Gypsy Rebels we are, we drank anyways, BIG mistake! It was the worst tasting water in the world. I don't know what happened to it between those 2 yrs but DON'T DRINK THE WATER!!



The fountain.



We all love Andersonville and have been back a few times since our 1st family trip. Across the street there is a cute little town full of antique shops and old style buildings. Andersonville it's self is a little bit out of the way off of 75, but well worth the trip if you enjoy Civil War sites. If you arrive around sunrise, as we did, the fields are covered in a light mist and deer can be seen grazing. It's truly a wonderful and eerie sight, you can almost hear the men and feel their suffering. The National park also offers a POW museum and a National Cemetery which were really nice. They also have a Jr Ranger Program, but we didn't know it at the time:) So I cannot tell you about it.

If you want a more detailed account of Andersonville before you go, may I suggest reading John Ransom's Andersonville Diary/Life Inside the Civil War's Most Infamous Prison.
John Ransom, Brigade Quartermaster of the Ninth Michigan Calvary, was only 20 years old when he became a prisoner of Andersonville:

"One of the best first-hand accounts to come down to us from the Civil War, uncommonly rich in the love of life...a tale of adventure, of suspense, of fierce hate and great love."

How the union soldiers slept in Andersonville

Or Just watch the movie "Andersonville"