A scouting trip

We left Monday morning for a road trip to Utah. We had a vague idea where we wanted to go (around Zion) but we had no precise plans, no reservations and no research on the Internet done in advance. 

At first, it was hard for me to let go of controlling all the aspects of our trip. Like, finding the most amazing hikes, the perfect deal on accommodation and the must stop restaurant, which is hard to believe since I have done a lot of traveling in the past, not knowing where I would be the next day! Actually, that is how I ended up in San Diego... but that is another story! 

It is a relaxing feeling to just let go of all the planning, go with the flow and follow the road. Not having an agenda gives you more time and leaves the door open for opportunities. We let ourselves be surprised with what came our way.

We drove in and out of Zion wanting to find a place less traveled. We ended up in the small mountain town of Duck creek. It was surprising to find most of the motels there, full. I guess people come here for fishing, hunting and enjoying the outdoors. This little town is also conveniently located between Zion national Park and Brice national Park. Local knowledge makes all the difference. We ended up finding a cabin for three nights, with a kitchen and two bedrooms. We also gathered great information to visit the area.

We started the next day by visiting some caves. We traveled a few miles on a dirt road, driving through beautiful meadows, expecting to see a horde of buffaloes anytime. No buffaloes but we saw many deers in this area. Arriving at the caves we found that we were the only people there. We felt like real adventurers walking and crawling freely through those underground caverns. We had so much fun!

Next, we took a hike along the flank of a mountain to arrive at a cascade. The view was gorgeous, we could see mountains and valleys indefinitely. 

Behind the cascade we found another cave. We had to do a little bit of a rock climbing to get to it which made it even more special. To add to this already wonderful day, we found some quartz crystal and geodes along the trail on the back.

We finished the day at a small lake, fishing for trouts. Well, I didn't fish but everybody else did. We came back to the cabin with three nice rainbow trouts. Thanks to Ben and Bill!

This day was amazing and even more so beacause we didn't have any expectations, everything was a surprise :-)

More pictures in the gallery...

4 countries in 2 days

England, France, Belgium & now The Netherlands. 

We left London Monday morning. Driving on the left side of the road with a "normal" car, we headed to Dover to hop on a ferry. From Dunkirk, France we drove to Brussels that afternoon. It was mostly a stay "gastronomic".

Mussels & French fries, waffles, chocolate and beer. 

Now, here we are in Amsterdam for three nights, staying in a house boat on a canal. We parked the car not to touch again until Friday and rented four bikes. 

I jumped out off my skin

Saturday morning, I got up early to go hike along the crest of the Jura mountains. I went all by myself but the great thing, here in Switzerland, is that there are no coyotes, no bears and no rattle snakes. So I felt pretty safe and relaxed hiking on the trail until I stepped close to a fresh cow patty :-/ Hundreds of BIG black flies that were feasting on it took off at the same time...making a loud HISS. They scared me half to death ! I felt pretty silly jumping away. Thank goodness I was alone on the path. They should have a warning sign " beware of the patty flies" They probably would if we were in California ;-)

Then, I had to walk through a pasture (opening an electrified wire and closing it behind me) with lots of BIG cows in the way. They wouldn't let people walk by the cows if they were dangerous, right? That is what I told myself anyway. I soon found out that they were curious but thankfully also very skittish.

I made it to the highest point from where I had a full view of the "lac leman" and the "vallée de Joux" on the other side. Gorgeous!

Three hours and fourty minutes later I was back to my car...happy and safe. 

Venezia

This was not my first time in Venice but it is every time a special place to visit. It blows me away to think that the entire city is built on top of wooden pillars planted in the lagoon floor.  My favorite thing to do there is getting "lost" through the narrow streets, especially away from the touristy areas. You never know what you are going to see...a small courtyard with a cafe, a bridge over a canal, great architecture, laundry strung across the alley, a piazza with an enormous church or a dead end into a canal. There is always signs taking you back to landmarks like the Rialto bridge or the piazza St Marco so you can't get really lost even without a map.

Everything is done by foot or by boat here. It was very interesting to sit at a terrace along the grand Canal and watch the traffic of boats and gondolas. The gondolas have priority over all the other boats. They seem the hardest to maneuver. We saw all sorts of delivery boats, water taxis & buses,  a freezer boat, police & firefighter boat, funeral boat and a construction boat with the crane.

We rented an apartment on the fourth floor with a view of the rooftops. Nothing was plumb or level and the floor was on a slight slop. A charming old building !

Below is a picture of Burano, an old fishing town on a nearby island. It is such a fun colorful town. It has a Disneyland feel to it and it is just as crowded ;-) The story says that the fishermen's wives, being tired of their husbands mistaking the neighbor's house for theirs, painted the façade of their home with vivid colors. That way the fishermen, after a day at sea and a few drinks with friends could better recognize  their own home !

Ciao !

Venice

Right now we are visiting Venice. It is a very interesting city because instead of having roads, there are just canals. So everybody either has a boat or walks.

We are staying in an apartment. It is really cool because it has an intercom. Near the door on the outside there is a button and a speaker, which is connected to a phone in the apartment. There is even unlock the door for whoever is trying to get in! Here's some more pictures of Venice:

Hiking

We went on a hike today. The flowers and the trees were so beautiful. It was really fun seeing all the different kinds of flowers and how different color they were purple, yellow, white, and pink.
Eva

Packing

Today we are leaving for a three months trip to Europe !!! So exciting...

We are now sitting in San Diego airport, relaxing after a crazy week of packing and getting ready. 

The bus will stay put at our friends house until September when we return. 

This week was also busy with a school play that Ben and Eva were part of. 

Ben received an award for being an outstanding sound technician. Just bragging ;-)

The final performance was last night. Our plane taking off at 8am this morning, did not allow for much sleep (between 2 & 4 hours). It is all worth it though. The show was amazing and fun and we are off for some great adventures. 

Here' s my star :-)

A smooth trip

It took us 18 hours to reach Switzerland, including two layovers, one in Minneapolis and one in Paris.

We had about four hours to wait in Minneapolis so we decided to have one last American meal before crossing the Atlantic. 

In Paris we got to walk on the tarmac. Just like when I was a little girl going on vacation to Spain with my parents. It is rare to get this experience nowdays with those new flexible corridors that bring us right to the plane's door. There, we could smell the aircraft exhaust...love it :-)

We are back...living in the bus!

2015 has been very eventful, right from the beginning. It all started with the decision to put our home on the market.

It is amazing how much stuff we accumulated in five years. We had lots of help from our friends to clean up the yard, paint railings and pack.

 Ingrid Pasco, our friend and realtor, organised a beach party in celebration of everyone's hard work and a smooth, profitable sale of our house.

My parents were also here to lend a hand. They actually came for their annual relaxing vacation, not knowing what was about to happen. They both worked hard. My mom helped me with cleaning the house and keeping the daily shores done while I was packing. My dad work in the yard with the kids.To make it up to them, we rented a vacation home by the ocean for what was left of their 2 month stay. After the craziness of the move we all enjoyed a bit of "doing nothing"...well, doing nothing never lasts very long :-)

Late March we moved into our dear old bus with our two dogs. It is a great feeling to down size and go back to just the essentials. I think we still have too much unnecessary stuff in the bus, though ;-)
It has been a great period for our family!

Staying cool

These last couple of weeks have been quite hot in San Diego, especially inland where we are! Good think that our A/C is working well. Today I brought my friend Sophie to see the house. We exchanged some ideas on interior decor. I am very anxious to get the green light to start furnishing and decorating but until then it just happens in my mind. After the house visit Marion (Sophie's daughter) and Eva arranged a tea party under the slide out... with chilled sparkling cider instead of hot tea, of course!

Aren't they precious?
Hope that you are all staying cool!

Sylviane

A step closer to getting the new house!

Well, it is looking pretty good for the house. It’s just an awesome property. There is a 3000 acre preserve owned by the city that is right next to the property. It has lots of trails for biking and horseback riding. As a preserve this huge area will not get developed. Very cool to have this set aside right in our back yard!

I just love this place and it’s looking real good that we will get it.

Yesterday we sent an addendum to the contract for terms that are required as a result of the appraisal. There may be some negotiating to see who pays for what repairs. We expect that the seller will pay for all the repairs but still need to hear from the seller.

Very good family friends have just moved back to san diego. They lived in Paris for the past couple of years and flew into LA Monday night. We surprised them by bringing the bus up to pick them up at LAX. Several friends came with us and it was a fun welcome back party! Champagne and laughter and food. There were four ladies, six kids and Me, the driver (BTW I only had one sip of the champagne for the welcome home toast). It was a blast and Sophie was surprised to see we picked her up in our bus. She hasn’t had a chance to see it since we finished it. The kids were playing back in Ben and Eva’s room most of the time. For me it was just awesome to look in my mirror and see everyone having a good time.

I think there will be a basic difference now in the way we use the bus. For the past year the bus has been our home and our platform to live a traveling lifestyle. In the luggage bays I have all my tools, spare parts for the bus, gold mining gear, fishing gear, survival gear, camping gear, and gear and gear and gear.... On the car we have bikes and boat and stuff that just couldn’t get squeezed into to the luggage bays.

But now I see us using the bus more as a vacation RV. Most of the gear we have now won’t be needed on the bus all of the time. We can just bring what we will use for that trip. The mentality of vacation travel verses "the traveling lifestyle" will be much different too. We loved the traveling lifestyle, don’t get me wrong, but naturally there’s going to be a difference as we use it more for vacations now.

The past three weeks has been an intense period! I am looking forward to things settling down a bit and spending more time with Sylviane and the kids.

Bluegrass festival

Ben and Eva spent the last four days at the bluegrass festival in Vista. They were part of a kid's camp where they learned and practiced some songs. In the picture Eva is on the left side, in front, looking at her guitar (well, her grandpa's guitar!) and Ben is also in front but on the far right. They both had a wonderful time making friends, performing and spending time with grandpa and grandma. I wish I knew how to put a video on the blog that way you could hear them play and sing too. It was so cute! I had tears running down my cheeks... can't help it!
They will be back tomorrow morning.
While they were gone, instead of shopping for flooring, I did some spring cleaning... just to try to keep my mind off the house... the wait and uncertainty is driving us nuts!

Thank you for keeping your fingers crossed for us!

Sylviane

Still waiting...

Today an appraiser is coming to see the proprety. Maybe we'll find out what his price is late today or more likely tomorrow. Our offer might be higher than the appraisal price which will result in more negotiations. We just need to buckle up and hang on to our seat for this roller coaster ride!

Today Ben and Eva are going with their grandparents to a bluegrass festival which they've been going to every year since the festival started six years ago( Eva missed the first year!). They will both be part of a kid's camp where they practice some songs together or as different bands and will perform on stage on Sunday. They will both be playing the guitar. They couldn't wait for this day to come. It's always a bunch of fun spending a week end with grandma and grandpa... staying up late, sweet treats and who knows what else... it's their secrets! I am so grateful for this close relationship they have with their grandparents.

What will I do without them for four days? Well, I will go check out some charter schools in the area that offer homeschooling program and learn more about them since it would be the first time we use them. I'll go get some color samples for the walls of the house and look at some flooring... a lot of fun stuff!

As if all this wasn't enough for excitement for this month our good friend Sophie is coming back to San Diego next week. She has been gone for a whole year living in Paris, France. August is a very special month indeed! Lots of great changes...

Sylviane

Some news on the house.....

This roller coaster has been a nerve wracking ride with thrills and tense moments. We did not hear anything yesterday as we expected to, regarding our offer for “The House”. Last night and morning was a bit low and we were looking at other possibilities from the list we have on line.

There were three houses that we liked the most out of all that we saw. But still none of them fits us, not nearly as well as the one we really want. "The House" fit us just perfectly. Looking at everything else on the market made us want “The House” even more. I felt drained, and I felt tired. I wasn’t feeling as positive as I have up to this point.

I called the lending agent to ask a question but only got his voice mail. He didn’t call back for awhile.

Finally I saw a call come into my cell phone...... it was from our agent!

He said that we had a counter offer from the Owner (a bank). So now we are back in the game after feeling like we were out. The news of the counter offer finally, slowly, sunk in, it looks real good for us at this point!

There is still a concern about how the appraisal comes in, and what things need to be fixed to be eligible for an FHA loan. But we are still in the game and in the lead. It looks real good right now but it’s not for certain. Dang this feels great. Keep your fingers crossed for us. I will keep everyone updated as we hear more.

Memories and Feelings

Sylviane has said much of what I am writing here but I want to share my perspective. Some of what I write here has already been said on the blog, but I needed to repeat it just to try to make sense.

Living on the bus the past 11 months has been an awesome experience. As we contemplate settling in one spot, many of the memories and feelings flood back to me. From our stay at Malibu beach, Campland on the Bay (San Diego), the desert in Quartzite Arizona, Disneyland, windy Bodega Bay, Mendocino and Quincy. The hiking and fishing, crabbing and gold panning, the exploring of new towns and new rivers all come back to mind. Swimming in the surf and time with the family. I think time with the family just hiking together, or telling stories around the campfire were awesome. The special things like abalone picking, horse back riding, seeing all the deer and so many other things, are great memories too. This has been a trip we will all remember for the rest of our lives.

One of the reasons that we wanted to travel is to find a place to settle down. My goals were to just work remotely via computer wherever we found the most desirable location to live. Be that Mendocino or the Sierras, Oregon or anyplace in the country that we decided was the best. Of course the thought of not living near the ocean is just out of the question. We tried real hard to convince ourselves that maybe if we found a place with a river and/or a lake that we could sacrifice being close to the ocean. But after a lot of thought and discussions we decided that we just can’t live away from the coast. Mendocino was awesome. We all liked it a lot. The fishing, the abalone, the basic attitude of the residents, are all great. But it was very secluded. Sometimes my job would require me to meet in person. It is hard to avoid meeting in person or on jobsites completely, even though I would like to do all of my work remotely I now have learned that is not practical. To fly out of Mendocino was a tough couple hour drive to San Francisco, then another flight to wherever I needed to go.

Not sure I ever described what I do for work on this blog so I will give a quick idea of what that is:

I work for a construction company as a project manager. So I negotiate and write contracts, change orders and basically over see specifics projects to make sure that it completes on time and below budget. I also work to insure the client is happy with our services. I made arrangements with my employer that I would work half time for half pay as we traveled. It has worked out generally well. The biggest frustration was having poor internet and cell phone signals, often we had a complete lack of service. It was taking much more time for me to do my work, often I worked 5 or 6 hours in stead of just 4 hours. There were so many fun things to do like fishing and panning for gold or getting some more abalone, that sometimes I felt like there was not enough time to do all that I wanted to.

A month or so ago Sylviane and I decided that we definitely want to end up living in San Diego. Up until 12 days ago we had planned to travel at least one more year. But I tossed out the idea to Sylviane that maybe this is the best time to buy a house. We know where we want to live and it appears to be a very good time for buyers right now. When we add into the equation that our cash flow is slightly negative as we are traveling, the conclusion is that we may not have the cash in a year from now to buy a house.

I expect that we will still be able to take extended vacation several times a year. The bus is all set up for working as we travel. Depending on what stage a project is in there will be times that we can take month away without affecting the project. The start and finish of a project takes the most time so during those periods there is extra work. I don’t mind that type of "seasonal" highs and lows, if fits my style.

We looked at a house last weekend that we like a lot and made an offer. With luck we will hear tomorrow if they accept it. I hope they do because we all love that property.



Bill

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