Our Traveling Tribe

not the drive, the journey!

Some of you who have joined us on the road have asked how we got to where we are. Meaning, how did we come to full-time rving, both in the decision and in the logistics. So, this post is for you…

A few years ago, Vaughn and I began to be burdened to get out of debt. We didn’t have much debt by today’s standards, but we still felt trapped by it. We wanted to sell our home that Vaughn had built in 2001; we had a lot of equity in it, and we knew that we would be able to build again debt free. Our house sat on the market for nearly 2 years; twice we thought it had sold, but both times it fell through.

We dreamed that if we ever sold our house, we would take some time and travel a bit. For years had been toying with the idea of taking a vacation, but didn’t think that we could swing it while losing income from not working (Vaughn is self-employed), still paying the bills (debt), and then spending money on top of that for the vacation. We decided that if we sold the house, we would set aside a certain amount of money for a vacation before we started the building process again.

Our house finally sold in July of 2009. It was a whirl-wind experience since we figured that it would fall through again, so we didn’t start really packing until we were quite a ways into the 30 day closing. We also run a fireworks stand every year, and by the time that we knew the house was actually selling, it was time to run the stand for 10 days. We ended up closing 5 days after the 4th, and it was pretty hectic! We could never have done it in that time frame without so many hands to help – children are such a blessing!

Because our closing was so far into the summer, we knew that we couldn’t finish building a house by the time the snow flew, so we decided that it would be fun to travel for the winter and then build in the coming spring. We moved into the 30′ travel trailer that we had already owned, watched for land, and waited for fall so we could hit the road!

We spent the summer dry-camped on a friend’s property up in the mountains. We didn’t have electrical or sewer hookups, but a septic service would come once a week to pump our black tank, and Vaughn hauled fresh water in a 100 gal. tank in the back of his truck. This is our kind of camping, and we loved the peace and quiet, the solitude and wild animals, and the huge boulders that the kids spent hours climbing on. We stayed there from mid-July until the end of September while Vaughn finished up the construction jobs that he had committed to.

During this time, while we were in the camper, we spent time having a huge garage sale (at a storage unit), getting debt paid off, organizing storage units, and just getting ready. We also were blessed with our 11th child while we were ‘camping’. Molly Margaret (no, we are not Catholic or Irish) was born September 1. While we had enjoyed 3 home births before this, I will readily admit to being a little hesitant to give birth in the travel trailer. Our midwife is located out of town, but God provided us a place to give birth when a local midwife moved and our midwife took over her office/birthing center! So, at a few hours old, we welcomed Molly to our Home Sweet Travel Trailer.

On October 1, 2009, in freezing weather and spitting snow, we hit the road. And, after traveling a big loop around the country, with quite a few detours, we find ourselves back home for the summer. Well, kind of back home. We don’t have a house, and we aren’t building one. We will be spending the summer(s) in our hometown where Vaughn will still teach the boys about construction while he works so that we can buy food and fuel for the winter.

Our family has decided that we would like to travel for longer than one winter – there are so many places that we would have liked to visit, but just didn’t have the time to! And we have made so many new friends that we would love to see again! And, believe it or not, we are finding the gypsy life very freeing!

for those of you that are interested in a little bit more about our family, here are a couple of links to an article and a blog post about us: (these are clickys)

Full-Time Families magazine (pages 8 & 9)

Happy Janssens blog

these probably have a few details that I haven’t gotten to yet. But, I am working on a post about our journey – both figuratively and literally

That’s what we have been doing since we got ‘home’.

Actually, we have been busy every day, but not doing anything ‘exciting’ – at least compared to when we were on the road and always seeing someplace new.

We had pulled into town on the 4th, and spent the first night in WallyWorld because we weren’t sure where we wanted to stay (read ‘who will have us’…), and the next day moved to our new-found ‘spot’. We got into the park that we were hoping to, and rented this site for the rest of the month. Thursday morning, this is what we woke up to… I had asked to detour to home through AZ, remember?!?

Next year, we are NOT coming back at the beginning of May – maybe the middle. LOL!The snow was beautiful!!! It was really nice to see it, but I’m a woodstove person, and it just wasn’t the same without a big picture window next to a roaring fire.

The kids all begged (well, not the biggest kids) to go outside, so I let them – it took them longer to get ready than they stayed out, of course!

On Thursday, we also celebrated Daniel’s 9th Birthday… Wow! I can’t believe that he is 9 already!

Savanna ate most of the frosting off of her cupcake, and then set the rest of it on the floor and went off to play. Molly was so excited over her new found treasure… She just smooshed it around in her hands for awhile, and didn’t even try to eat it (thank goodness!).

That evening we went over to some friends’ house for some yummy chicken and brats on the grill.

This past week was spent doing schoolwork, laundry, and errands. We also spent some time going through our storage unitS. We have 2 20′ units, plus paid to park 2 vehicles there over the winter. Our initial plan was to travel for this past winter, and then come back and build another house. Once we were on the road, having such a great time seeing so many new places, the family voted unanimously to travel for more than one winter. That kind of changes what we would like to keep and what we should get rid of since we will be storing things for longer now. We are trying to consolidate down to one 27′ unit. It has been kind of a mess (and a NOT fun job) to always be taking stuff out to storage to store, finding long lost treasures and HAVING to bring them back to the camper (like little GI Joe guys), and trying to re-organize both the camper and the units. We spent this past Saturday moving about half of one of the small units into the new larger one; we didn’t get nearly as much done as I would have liked as we are going through everything and taking lots more stuff to Goodwill, making a garage sale pile, and then re-packing everything for the new unit. But, I do love to feel organized, and the kids and I may go out tomorrow and work on it a little bit more.

Saturday, after moving boxes and furniture at storage, the boys were chomping at the bit to get back to camp because it was the day that creek (we pronounce it ‘crick’!) fishing opened for the year… And my boys are all about fishing! That is one of the things that they did miss on the road! ~And one of the reasons that we wanted to get into this park; the creek runs right through it…

while the we do not have a creek-side site, it is very close. It is a little bit of a drive for Vaughn to go to work, but worth the extra miles to be here.

The boys were so excited to get fishing that I saw them very little Sat. evening and Sun. afternoon!

The girls aren’t real big fishermen, but they do love to play in the water. Sunday it was in the mid 70s, and the little girls took off their flip-flops and went wading… Molly isn’t quite into cold stream water yet, but she does love to be outside…
Emma got filthy dirty building a dam – good thing that there was plenty of water around to rinse off in… (then she and Peanut had to take baths!)

There is a little area across from the campground that is not developed, and the boys can’t wait until they see the owner again so that they can ask him if they can play airsoft back there… While our campground is near a little more traffic than we are used to, we are still enjoying it! Sat. night after it rained, Beth and I went outside and just stood there breathing deeply. Hmmmm…..I sure missed the smell of pine while I was gone – I just didn’t know it until I got back! I’m looking forward to being camped here while it is so hot – the creek is right there for the kids to play or to cool off in. We plan on being here for the rest of the month, and then we will have to move since this site is reserved through the 4th of July. We are hoping to reserve it for August and September also, and then we are not sure if we will head out then, or if we will stick around for a bit of hunting season… guess we will see how the work-load is, and that will help us decide then.

Peanut is a wild-fire. She will usually pose so sweetly when I want to take a pic, but it was also pretty obvious when she was done with having her picture taken today… We are starting to feel settled in our spot, and have been getting lots done. But, I still feel like I should be packing for our next winter’s trip! Wishful thinking I guess!

(…way back on April 29th!)
Our last day in Rapid City was spent doing some shopping, and then in the evening, we went to…
Watiki is located between 2 hotels, but is open to the public. Vaughn and I had been talking about hitting a water park, and we planned on staying at a hotel so that we could go to one. Googling, I found Watiki, and also found that it costs about the same to go whether we stay in the hotel or not. Hmmm… 3 hotel rooms (at what, $90/night, each?) to save $6 in water park fees? No brainer… we just stayed in the rv (across the interstate at Cabela’s), and drove over for the evening.
Since it was off-season, the park was only open from 4 to 9 p.m., which ended up being plenty of time to wear the kids out.
We were the first ones there – even before they turned on the water…

It was a nice, clean, family-friendly park, with fast water slides for the big kids, and a little kid’s area too…

Everyone was super excited except for Molly…

She cried and fussed for 3 hours straight (no exaggeration!). It was pretty noisy in there, so she wasn’t bothering the other swimmers; she would stop as long as she was being held and was far away from the big monkey that would dump a huge bucket full of water.

Everyone else was busy running here and there, and making sure to try out every pool/slide…

The kids’ favorites were the water slides that you had to ride inner tubes down – there were both double and single tubes.

One of the slides had this huge funnel…

It didn’t take the kids long to figure out that the double tubes are faster…

The kids made round after round – up 3 flights of stairs (toting a tube), down the slide, across the pool, back up the stairs, down the slide…

as fast as they could, with an occasional pause to swap riders…

One of the major hits of the evening was finding out that we happened to come on ‘free hot dog’ night! WooHoo! The little girls thought that was just the greatest!!! LOL!

But it seemed to be ‘eat as fast as you can’ so that you can get back to the slides…

The little girls weren’t much interested in the slides (especially after Emma thought she was going to drown coming down one of the big ones – no, she wasn’t by herself), but they enjoyed the lazy river…

Dad is one of the biggest kids, and right in the middle of it all…

If you aren’t riding your tube just right, you can get quite a dunkin‘ coming out of the slide…

Taking a break from the slides, it was time for a game of hoops…

FINALLY, after 3 hours, the boss decided that maybe she would give the hot tub a chance…

and Loved It!!!

You’d think that Molly could have decided to like it a bit earlier in the evening!

We couldn’t get her out of it…

But all good things must come to an end, whether they be nights at the waterpark, or traveling the country (at least for the summer).

One parting dunkin‘ from the dumping bucket…

Watiki was super fun, and boy did everyone sleep great that night…

The next morning, we hit the road for home, spending a couple of days at each of the grandparents’ homes catching up on hugs, kisses, and fudgesicles.

After our morning at Mount Rushmore, we headed down the mountain, and stopped a few miles down the road…I had been here before; 25 years ago.

I remembered it being a little larger, but it was still cool!

A big building full of lizards, and gators, and snakes! (oh my!) There were so many animals! And, being from the north, we had never seen many of the different species. We had a great time learning about the reptiles on display here… (though I couldn’t tell you what kind this lizards is – I’m just the photographer!) there were some creepy looking frogs… and some other frogs that looked like bats!

This overly-friendly fellow was giving me the evil eye – I’m pretty sure that he was sizing me up for dinner! There were hundreds of different kinds of snakes, many of them very poisonous. and lots of rattlesnakes on display… and other kinds of snakes that are not found in the US in the wild. Some of them didn’t look very happy… and others, like this albino python were looking for their dinner (glad it wasn’t us!) Outside they had a prairie dog enclosure. There was a little tunnel that led to this viewing dome – Peanut thought they were so cute! Since it is not officially ‘tourist season’ around here, there were not many programs going on the day we were there (which was fine by us, it was chilly). We did get to see a Snake Show though! One of the snakes that was shown was a King Cobra. Lance (I think that’s what his name was), was a knowledgeable guy, and made the demonstration very entertaining. The King Cobra that he showed us wasn’t feeling very sociable though, and it struck at him! we laughed – he looked over at us and joked that we had a sick sense of humor! LOL!

The little boys had a great time posing for photos… we finally had to force them to move along.

In the main, circular building, there is a ‘rain forest’ of sorts in the center. It was toasty warm, which was wonderful since it was a little blustery out, and we took our time walking around finding lizards and parrots, and all sorts of beautiful, and unique flowers… but, of all the different attractions that Reptile Gardens offered, I believe that the kids enjoyed the circus mirrors the best. It was the end of the day, and we were the only ones left there, so when the little boys lined up and started dancing and singing in front of the mirrors, I let them… I don’t know who initially started it, but they were kicking their legs off to the side, and singing the Oompa-Loompa song from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory ~ you know, “What do you get from a glut of TV? A pain in the neck, and an IQ of 3“… – we love that movie – and especially that song! ~I think you had to be there, but it was the funniest thing ever!

Though, on a side note, when you are in WalMart and your son sees a kid throwing a fit and starts to sing, “what do you do when your kid is a brat? Pampered and spoiled like a Siamese Cat? Blaming the kids is a lie and a shame, you know exactly who’s to blame… the Mother and the Father!!!” Now, that can be a little embarrasing! hehehe!!!!

Anyway, after Reptile Gardens, as we drove back into Rapid City, we passed the Rushmore Waterpark. Since it was May, the outdoor water slides were not yet open, but it was still neat to see them again; my family would often would stop and spend a day there on our trips back to see my grandparents while I was growing up. Arriving back at the camper, we ate some dinner, and then went in to play… Peanut is a pretty good toss!!!

The kids had a great time trying all the different sports… and it tuckered them out for bedtime.

In this camping spot, we had a pretty cool nightlight… Hmmm… do you think that they offer travel sponsorships???

One more day to play in Rapid City, and then we are off and into Montana!

On our way back home, we made a couple more stops.
We pulled into Rapid City on Tuesday (the 28th – yeah, I’m way behind!), and parked at Cabela’s. We had actually tried to find a campground by calling around before we got to town, but all the ones that I had called were not yet open; most campgrounds there open on May 1st. So, we just pulled into Cabela’s, and once we were parked, we stayed there instead of moving again.
We believe in supporting our campgrounds, so we went shopping…

We picked up a couple of items including a birthday gift for Daniel.

The next morning, it was off to Mount Rushmore. We spent the morning there checking out the Hall of Flags, looking at the monument, and going through the visitor’s center.
We watched a couple of movies – the one about the monument was interesting, but the animal one was lame (maybe it would be good if you lived in a high-rise in Chicago…).

Found this little plaque interesting – course, we like to read into things, and when the headlines are about the Big O chastising 80% of Americans for not supporting everything that he wants to do… (sorry – soapbox…hehehe!) It was a beautiful day – a little windy, but the sun was shining (and it wasn’t snowing yet!) On top of Theodore Roosevelt’s head was a cleaning crew. One of the rangers said that they were cleaning the faces as a team was coming (from Switzerland?) to scan the monument. The scan would record every measurement of the monument so that if anything were to happen to the carving, it could be replicated. The kids completed the Jr. Ranger program… This ranger was great – he quizzed the kids to make sure that they really knew their info instead of just copying it down. When we were walking up to the monument, there was a mountain goat alongside the path. Then, when we were leaving, there were 3 more right by the exit… The baby was so cute! And they didn’t care a hoot that we were so close (we were in the van).

We drove a little farther up the highway to see the ‘profile’… We are really glad that we took the time to stop by Mount Rushmore! The kids learned a lot about the presidents – more than just the 4 on the monument, and we got to see some beautiful country.

It was getting time to be home – I could tell because when we all got out of the van at the monument, we just stood around smelling the air. Hmmmm….pine trees – smelled like home. I think that I was getting a little homesick!

Ahhh~

feels good to be home
(at our home town, not the WalMart!!!)

LOL! (well, OK, maybe we’d been missing our WallyWorld parking too!)

After we left Gramma’s house last Sunday, we got as far as Clear Lake Iowa, and stayed at the state park there. It was a blustery evening, so we just stayed in and watched a movie – well, the kids watched a movie while Vaughn and I went into town and bought a few groceries.
Got up the next morning and drove as far as Mitchell, SD, and pulled into Cabelas. Now that we have spent so many nights in WalMart parking lots, we feel pretty comfortable just pulling in and boondocking. Cabela’s had a special parking lot just for rvs…we were the only ones there.

We did go into the store, and spent some time looking around – left without too much damage; 3 life is good Ts, if I remember correctly.
Oh, and 2 dollies with camo dresses… (daddy is a sucker for batting eyelashes and a little kiss…)

The next day took us to Wall Drug…

took a few pictures of the kids…

and checked out all (well, WE didn’t look at them ALL) the interesting old pictures that they have lining hallways…

and got away with only a bumper sticker!

Then we hit the road again…

Heading for Rapid City to check out Mt. Rushmore. Vaughn and I have both been there (eons ago), but the kids never have been…

We stayed at my Gramma B.’s house through Sunday morning. While we were there, Gramma gave Molly a baby quilt that she had made…

and the boys set Gramma’s clotheslines in cement… you’d think that Greg and Eli were practicing to get government jobs…
and the little girls loved taking baths in a ‘real tub’…

On Friday, my Aunt Sharon invited our family over for a scrumptious dinner. We had a wonderful time in her home, and got to meet her grand-daughter Hailey, who Emma had a great time playing with.

My sweet aunts were feeding us every time that we turned around!

And my cousin Dawn, with her family, came down to visit us for the day on Saturday. We had been fast friends while growing up, but had not seen each other in 25 years! My kids, and her 2, spent the day playing games…

and wrestling…

while the guys talked concrete.

And we sat and caught up…

It was a marvelous day!

We had such a great time at Gramma’s house. It was so wonderful to be able to see relatives that I had not seen in years! Gramma made our visit special, and we were sad to leave here, but we really need to be heading home.

So, Sunday we were on the road again… - heading home (with a quick stop in South Dakota).

Feels kinda good to be heading home – even if we are, by most people’s definition, homeless hehehe!!!

Here is where we are today (eastern edge of MT)…
Obviously, we came home WAY TOO EARLY!!!
I tried dropping the hint to Vaughn that we should detour the rest of the way home through Arizona. Unfortunately, as he ages, he seems to be losing his hearing – he didn’t seem to catch that and we are still heading due west…