Full timer.

     

     Now that I have had a few weeks to get everything situated I am a full timer with the bus. I will be selling the small SUV I have to help with the overall cost of the bus. I am still planning out the layout for the inside but I'm already enjoying it and really look forward each step of this project.  There are so many things that I want to do but I will have to take it slow as it all has costs and requires time to do.

     I am planning to hopefully be able to take a few longer trips with it in the late fall and winter season.  I very much want to take the kids home to Montana this Christmas season to play in the snow and see some family.  It has been six years since I have been home and seen any of them.  No one in my family has ever even met my son. 

     I would also like to try for Yosemite National Park.  I really enjoyed its splendor as a child and would love to see it in the fall colors while watching the kids take it all in. We'll have to see how progress is going at that time and see what happens with our schedules.

     I do have to say that I have driven a full gambit of vehicles of all types but this definitely ranks at the top for me when on the road.  The window views are awesome and the International DT466 just hums right along full of authority.

Rock climbing?

     It was Tuesday and after our morning routine we packed up camp.  I find it amusing how the kids so much want to help set up camp but are so against helping the tear down process.  With some parental encouragement and a little explanation of the expectations if they wished to have an afternoon with some fun we made good progress.

     On the far end of Lake Mineral Wells Park map it says there's an area for rock climbing and we were headed to check it out.  I have heard about it from some other people in the past and hoped it would be a fun excursion for the kids.

     It's not exactly what I would call rock climbing coming from a high mountain region of the country.  The area was built up of a lot of large stone and broken rocky ledges. The maximum height was probably about 40 feet and the majority was around thirty.  There were lots of places however that the kids could challenge themselves climbing around the rocks.  I helped them up a couple of obstacles and we explored all around the area for a few hours.  We will definitely come back to this area on our next trip and let them play some more.

   
     As a side note I seem to be bad about taking pictures while on our adventures.  I will have to make a much more focused effort to do so so that I can share with all of you who choose to keep up with us.

     This past week was  my sons 5th birthday so for fun our trip of camping concluded with a trip to Dairy Queen for lunch and ice cream on the way home.  What's better than that! 

Critters

     

     In the late Monday night hours and wee early Tuesday morning hours I spent some of it hanging out with guests.  Not really invited guests but guests all the same.  Now I've never had anything against the average critter from the forests but I wasn't completely enthused about the noise and timing this evening.  The local raccoon's were having an absolute party scurrying through all the empty camps chattering and dumpster diving.  After a few hours of this I decided I would get out of my hammock and encourage them off to other areas.  A few steps into my walk and I found I had another camp friend.  Not quite as entertaining however.

     I of course standing there in shorts and slip on's with only a flashlight in hand felt a little unprepared for the possible skirmish that could arise.  Choosing to equip myself with better tooling before directing the serpent to vacate I made the ten steps to the back of the bus full well knowing he wouldn't stay where he was.   With the right accessories now in hand for removing the critter I turned back to see his movements.  To my slight surprise he took a hard left and had bailed for cover.  Where?  Under the tent that was housing my sleeping kids.  While I was fully confident that he wasn't going to get in the sealed up tent having him under there with my son rolling and flopping as he does when he's asleep didn't seem like a good situation.  I decide that the tent and kids would have to move.  I pulled up the tent stakes as I watched the tent floor move between the  two kids.  I grabbed the foot end of the tent and lifted it straight up and the kids rolled up and over as I turned the tent over.  Our unwanted guest made a lunge for the treeline opposite of my position. I quickly fallowed him in to the grass and piles of leaves prepared to strike until he slipped under the leaves and I could no longer see him.  With the quick realization that he now had the upper hand and that I was still not dressed for such a dance I chose to return to the tent.  With a little work I had the kids rearranged and humorously they never stirred at all.  I spent a few minutes there with the tent removing some very large spiders from the area including one carrying hundreds of babies on its back.

     I returned my attention to the raccoon's and had a rather one sides conversation with them.  I think they got the point of my side of the conversation however as they made off to other campsites and didn't return.  I'm not sure just how long this all took but it seemed like it was about an hour of which was long enough for the mosquitoes to do there damage and while I was in the grasses it appears I had run in to a pack of chiggers/red-bugs.  I wiped off and prayed down with some more repellent and made my way back to the hammock hoping for some rest.

A New Campground

 
     Sunday afternoon the kids and I headed out to Lake Mineral Wells.  I had been to the lake about 6 weeks prior camping with a few people.

     The campground the kids and I went to is a little further up the lake from my previous trip but it has good shade, a decent amount of trees for hanging the hammocks and is pretty spacious.  Sunday evening my kids found some playmates from a neighboring campsite to play soccer

with.  

     This campground was overall much better maintained and the facilities where miles above the cleanliness of the last place we visited.  We even got to catch a gecko lizard while we where using them. 

     Monday morning we had our bible reading time and my daughter continued reading from genius and then I read out some from psalms.  I'm really not sure how we got on the topic but my daughter showed off her bible knowledge a bit clarifying that Jesus was not baptized in a lake but in the river. It was an interesting conversation to have with my 5 and soon to be 8 year old.  I am always in awe as they continue to reveal just how much they are learning from the kids classes at the church.

     This day was pretty relaxing overall as we did the usual go down to the beach and swim, grill some burgers and just hangout.

A Slow Week

     Well the Forth of July was good and the bus and I did a little bonding, well I bonded with it while I sat on the roof and watched the fireworks.

     I haven't got much else done on the bus over the last week.  I have just been enjoying it and contemplating all the possibilities.  Even a few of my friends have started thinking of the possibilities of one for themselves.

     On Thursday I made another trip up to the regional title and registration office and was surprised to find them closed for the day. This was what I saw when I arrived.

     I was not very pleased to say the least as it's a bit of a trip to get there and it's not like I can really just put it off until it's convenient for me in a few months or so.  While I was there there were about 20 people that came in to be surprised by the shutdown and had some really nice things to say about it.

      I really just find it sad that it takes an entire office shutdown to do training and the only notice provided seems to be the sign on the door after you arrive. They seemed to omit those of us that needed tax and title work and that this is the only local station.  I guess I'll try again next week. 

This weekend the kids and I are off for a few more days of camping.