Nothing yet

Latest update on "our"(positive thinking helps!) house:
The propriety is being appraised tomorrow. Things seem to be going in the right direction. Bill was told that the final decision would be made on Sunday. I think they like us and we are with no doubts the ones who want it the most. We'll see....

Thanks all for your comments!

The kids and I spent the afternoon at the beach today with our friends.... it was cold... we didn't stay long. The air is quite smoky from the fire in Santa Cruz.

Sylviane

Surprise!!

Hi everyone,

Sorry for leaving you without any news from our adventures for so long.
Here is briefly what we’ve been up to for the last month.
We left Quincy and the mountains in the middle of July to come south to the Monterey area. Bill had to be around to help start a job on the navy base in Monterey and has been going to work everyday. We’ve been staying in a koa camp near Santa Cruz that is geared toward children and families. Ben and Eva have been having a blast and made new friends. We’ve also been visiting with our friends from Modesto... many play dates and sleepovers... a real summer vacation!
This stay also had us reevaluate our priorities and needs as we ran out of steam. Is "a life on the road" the right choice for our family anymore? Traveling is a full time job just by itself. It has been a challenge to keep our needed routines and habits going. Working part time for Bill has often turned into a full time job where the internet connection was slow or intermittent. It’s very frustrating especially when the outdoors is calling you. Anyway, it would take me pages and pages and more pages to explain everything that went through our heads during the last month.
A week and a half ago Bill and I made the decision to buy a house. The market is at its "best" for buyers and it’s the right time for us. San Diego is our choice, THE place that feels like home to us. We contacted a realtor, went through long listings, drove nine hours down to San Diego last Saturday, visited some proprieties, found the perfect one and made an offer. That easy... well, it has been a roller coaster of emotions condensed in such a short amount of time. We are waiting to find out if our offer is accepted or not. Maybe we’ll find out tomorrow! The wait is just so unbearable. We haven’t slept much lately. Bill trying to learn everything about buying a house since this is our very first one and me repainting, remodeling and furnishing the rooms in my head.
To us it is a great and exciting change in our life but the down side is that we are stopping the traveling full time. We will still take "Thelma II" out for more adventures during numerous vacations (I hope!) and the rest of the time it will make a lovely guest house.
These last eleven months on the road have been awesome, a very positive adventure, and have taught us a lot about our family dynamics and what our needs are individually. We do not regret any bit of it... we’ve gain so much from it!
Hope that this gear shift isn’t too disappointing to you! (I still expect to keep the blog going)

I promise to keep you updated on the house hunting.

Sylviane

A day in town

Yesterday was town day. It started with the library in the morning. Each Tuesday they have a kids program where they read and do crafts. The children are completely taken care of so I was able to zoom around the library and do some reading. Ben and Eva had a lot of fun there and are looking forward to going back next week! After that was chore time at the Laundromat. We wouldn’t have enough water in our tanks for doing laundry... we are almost taking dry showers to conserve water. We had a picnic there while the machines were doing their job. The kids were good helpers after I found the off button to the big screen hang on the wall but before that they were glued to it learning about cooking from the food channel... It could have been worse, though, like the news or cartoon network. After all the clothes were neatly folded we stopped by the sewing shop to find some help with our project. Eva wants to make herself a summer dress. We’d done the fun part already, choosing the pattern and fabric. I thought:"we have a sewing machine and everything we need... how hard can it be to make the dress?" Well, I changed my mind as soon as I opened up the pattern... that’s why we stopped by the shop to find more help. The lady there gave us the contacts of the Quincy’s sewing club maybe someone there will be of assistance. Eva is really anxious to start on her dress. Hopefully it will be done this summer.

In the evening we made a camp fire and roasted some freshly caught trout and crawdads.
Yummy!

Sylviane

Elvis and the rattlesnake

The other day when we were mining for gold dad heard and saw a rattlesnake, he cut its head off with one side of his digging bar... it still moved as if it was alive! That evening dad brought home the rattle.
Elvis is a California king snake. Dad thought we should call him "Elvis" because Elvis was the king of rock’n roll. We saw Elvis four days in a row around dad’s mining pit.

Ben

Gold!

The other day, for the first time, I did some panning here at the camp. Bill does the hard work, the digging, vacuuming and shoveling then Ben and I put that material through the sluce box to get rid off the bigger rocks and dirt. After that only black sand, small rocks and gold are left. Then it’s time to pan all that is left to get down to the gold! Well, guess what? I found some... it was quite exciting but not enough YET to make Bill a new wedding ring with. He lost his a few years ago and we are planning to replace it with the gold we find... let’s be optimistic! The ring was made from gold that his brother had mined for in Alaska. Read more about our wedding rings...

Sylviane

Our 4th of July celebration

We spent the afternoon in a small town called Taylorsville watching a rodeo. I thought it was a perfect way to spend Independence Day, very American... except that we didn’t have cowboy’s hats! I didn’t enjoy all the parts of the rodeo as I though they were quite rough on those little calves but the horses were beautiful and so well trained. After that we took some dirt roads to go check out another river where we could go "golding"... but for sure, without taking the bus along! We probably spent 2-3 hours on those roads and did a little panning but didn’t see any shinny speck. Back to town we grabbed some food at the supermarket for a picnic at the golf course and got there just in time for the fireworks.
It had been a long day and everyone went to bed but me. I watched a French movie on Bill’s computer with earphones not to bug anybody. I enjoy those movie moments!

Sylviane

In the woods

Last Monday we moved to this more remote part of Quincy... anyway, I think we’re still in Quincy. It’s a 15 minutes drive to town from our camp. The first part is a rocky, bumpy, dirt road. The bus did just fine on that road, though. Bill drove very slowly. I was following him and it was amazing to see that giant machine going between the trees without getting stuck! The paint got a little scratched on the sides and the top. Now we’ll have a matching bus and car. Because during one of our scouting trips Bill took the car through a gnarly dirt road that got narrower and narrower, fortunately he was able to turn around and come back safely... result many, long, deep scratches along the side of MY car ;-) It is now an officially off road vehicle.

We’ve been doing some fishing, prospecting (not rich yet!) and swimming. The river is very pretty and there is a walking trail that takes us pass a natural spring and to a series of nice cascades.

I also found great classes in town... on raw food, yoga and African dance. I don't know if we unknowingly just pick places that offer these type of classes or if they can be found in every town! They must be part of my journey!

Have a great 4th of July everyone!

Sylviane