Ok, i know it’s corny, but i love squished penny machines. Early in our travels i realized they were the perfect souvenirs for RV living – cheap, fun, and most importantly SMALL!
Anyway last night i got the idea to scan our collection…
Write a comment and tell us which one is your favorite! Mine is the Frank Zappa one from a Maryland rest stop, i just love how Maryland’s claim to fame is being the home of Frank Zappa. awesome.
Ok, so yet again i’ve been slacking on adding albums to the photo archives. This summer has flown by and we’ve been putting on the miles and snapping lots of pics. I finally got to a place with killer 4G and got off my ass to upload over 1500 pics.
After Moab we headed east, first stopping in Golden CO. Despite spending tons of time there and hanging out with my pal greg, I took hardly any pics. I think Moab sucked all the photographer out of me.
After Golden we headed to the Rockies to get another nature fix. Estes Park was insanely crowded (it was the 4th of July weekend) but still it was really pretty and we saw tons of cool critters. As an added bonus for the the first time in my life I spent my birthday playing in the snow.
As much as we loved CO the clock was ticking and we needed to get to St. Louis by August so we could fly to Hawaii for Marie and Albert’s 50th anniversary. So we headed east and made our first stop in Omaha for a quick week. Omaha was kind of a pit, although the county park we stayed at was really nice. Since there isn’t much to see in Omaha, I only took one pic…
After that “exciting” week we headed to Des Moines to see my Aunt Becky and Uncle Frank along with my two cousins Misty and Ben. None of which I had seen in at least 15 years. It was funny though because despite my horrible memory the Payne clan was pretty much as I remembered them and we had lots of fun playing cards and enjoying some delicious dinners at their house. Despite insane temps we even braved the big Des Moines attraction known as Adventureland. it was a bit overpriced, hotter than hell, and reminded me of crappier version of Disneyland run by ex-circus carnies. still, ingrid had fun.
Since we were so close to Minneapolis and I have a few friends there, we decided to head up there for a visit. I didn’t take as many pics as I should have here either, but it was lots of fun hanging with my old friend Jamie and my current co-worker Jennifer.
Our stay in Minneapolis was pretty short because our next stop was the Air Venture air show in Oshkosh, WI. The event was totally nuts they have a HUGE RV park on the grounds and it is packed for the week long event. The air show was spectacular and the fly-in atmosphere was really cool, it definitely makes me want to fly.
After Oshkosh we had to bee line it St. Louis to catch our flight to Hawaii which was a bit off a bummer because I would have liked to stop in Chicago…oh well, next time. Besides it’s hard to complain about missing Chicago when the alternative is Hawaii. We flew out a week earlier then the rest of Silvia’s family so we could chill on the big island. it wasn’t as much fun there as it has been in the past, mainly because I was super busy with work and pulled like two all nighters while we were there. the big island highlights included visiting the volcano, finally buying our own snorkel gear and having dinner with my old friend Rhea. It was really great to see here and hopefully next time we visit we can meet her family and hang out more. After the big island we spent two weeks in Maui with Silvia’s family to celebrate her parent’s anniversary (and ingrid’s birthday). it was a ton of fun and we got in some -great- snorkeling. we saw dolphins swim right under us, octopuses, spotted rays, turtles, eels and tons of awesome fish. Ingrid had lots of fun with her cousins and overall it was a great trip and a fun way to celebrate her parent’s anniversary.
When we arrived back in St. Louis the heatwave was finally calming down and we ended up spending another month hanging out, having fun, and doing some project on the RV including refurbishing our couch (again) with a more dog/child proof pleather.
Not included in the St. Louis pics is a little weekend getaway we took in the vanagon to the annual “Busses Nowhere Near The Arch” a vw van/bus camp out that has been going on since I lived in St. Louis. it was of course super fun, and ingrid met some great friends and I met some friends from long ago including the guy who sold me my first car/vw.
While we were in St. Louis we also made a big purchase and bought a killer 3 person tandem bike from Co-Motion Cycles. we’ve already racked up a few good miles on it and look forward to adding more. I think late spring we may return to St. Louis and ride the tandem the full 240 mile length of the Katy Trail.
I’m sure there is more stuff i’m forgetting to mention, but that pretty much covers the last five months in the life of our little traveling circus. People keep asking if we get tired of living on the road, but after almost 3 years we’re still going strong and wouldn’t want it any other way.
Andrew’s mom and her friend Mike came to see us for a 5 day visit here in Moab. It was their first time to Moab, so doubly fun for us. We got to play tour guides in one of our favorite cities on the planet.
We did a bunch of trail rides in vanny, all green (beginner) level. That was for me, after being scared to death on the “red” portion of the trail ride from Syncro Solstice, I really never wanted to go on another trail ride. But I gave in, thinking it might be less scary with other reasonable people in the car. I was right! Not only was it less scary, but alot more fun than just by ourselves. We also checked out Arches National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park. It’s hard to say which place had the most outstanding scenery. They were each better than the last.
A nighttime boat ride on the Colorado River through the canyons seemed like a great idea, but it was underwhelming overall. The show they put on was not as interesting as the canyon itself. Next time I’ll opt for the daytime ride.
Pam and Mike brought some games for Ingrid. Maybe so that Ingrid wouldn’t keep beating them at Uno! There was Quiddler (word game), electronic scrabble, and Set (identifying patterns). All awesome additions to my homeschool collection! We’ve been playing them everyday at lunchtime.
Check out the photos, they are amazing this time.
The first ever Syncro Solstice event turned out to be pretty fun. Unfortunately vanny busted it’s clutch slave cylinder on the way there so it put a big kibosh on trail riding. We tried to go on one trail, but it was too hard to drive with a barely functioning clutch. I wasn’t so upset at the time, as we were on a difficult trail and I was scared to death, and happy to turn the car around and head back to camp.
Andrew got to go on a killer bike ride through Porcupine Rim, about 30 miles I believe. We flew our new kites, and Andrew attached the GoPro for the first time. The dogs loved it, being outside all day long. At first they whined at being tied up, but eventually they succumbed to the heat and general peacefulness of the campground, and were totally happy after that.
Ingrid met some new friends, including a 7-year old named Madeline, the daughter of the organizers. We’re happy she’ll be there every year. They and a bunch of other girls played with the merpeople I made, and had a ball. By the time the event was over (2 days later!) the girls were nearly in tears at having to say goodbye.
Such a great family time, the only hitch is that it happens at the same time as the Carnaval parade in San Francisco. So I have a terrible choice to make.
