Missouri or Bust Day 4

Day 4

Today was our only day with no long term driving.  We planned to spend the day with Dan in Bozeman, MT since we have never been here before and it's always so nice to visit with family.  We got to "sleep in" until 630 and have breakfast at the hotel.  Side note: our hotel has a fresh pancake dispenser!  Did you know this was a real thing?  CRAZY!

So after breakfast we went back to Dan's house and headed out for a real Montana hike.  We hiked 2 miles on the Cottonwood creek trail south of Bozeman.  It was a beautiful hike with lots of water poking out of the side of the mountain and a nice rushing creek towards the end of our journey.  We really had a blast.  Dan taught Rolland about different animals tracks in the mud (horses, bears, dogs, bikes and people tracks) and the dogs got to smell the forest.

After our hike we were all hungry so we hit up a little local cafe called Sola in Bozeman.  It was amazing.  It's a little cafe/market where everything is homemade from scratch with as much local ingredients as they can get.  The Tea/Lemonade bar was my favorite; 6 kinds of iced tea and 3 kinds of lemonade to choose from or mix and match.

After lunch we took Dan back to his house since he had to head into work.  The dogs got to play once more and we headed back towards our hotel (first stopping at the mall to get Wes another pair of shorts since he only had 1 pair and the weather has been really warm).  Back at the hotel we ordered some italian delivery from a local restaurant, took the boys swimming (although the pool was too cold for me and Teddie).  Wes and Rollie got in a swam for about 15-20 minutes and we headed back to our room to relax and re-pack our suitcases.

After Wes got the car all packed back up the passenger side sliding door wouldn't shut.  After many attempts on Wes's part, the door unlatched from the tracks and he couldn't figure out how to get it back on.  So after a LOT of discussion & calling all the towing places in town to see if anyone could come fix it we had to come up with a plan for the night.  No one could help us and none of the repair shops (or the Honda dealership) opens until the morning.  So poor Wes had to go back out and take out all of the valuables, including the car seats, so that they weren't stolen overnight.  We can't move the car because we're afraid that the door will fall off completely.  So I will be getting up early anyway to call for a tow to the Honda Dealership so we can be there as soon as they open to try to get this fixed so we can still potentially get to Rapid City, SD by tomorrow night.  We'll have to install the car seats in the La Quinta shuttle, somehow get all of the animals there too to wait, and hopefully Honda can get the car fixed for us ASAP in the morning.

I'll update tomorrow when I write.  Right now, I am headed to bed because tomorrow is looking like it'll be a LONG day.

Missouri or Bust 2015 - Day 3

Day 3-

We left Spokane around 5am in the brisk cold morning air.  It has actually been quite refreshing getting up this early and getting on the road.  The kids are sleeping, the dogs and cats are sleeping, there are no other cars on the road and we just GO!  This day was exciting because we were going to Bozeman, Montana to see Uncle Dan!  Rolland was so excited to see him.  The drive went really smoothly.  The kids were happy, the dogs got lots of walking on our rest stops and we weren't in a hurry at all.  It's seeming as though a 2 hour drive first thing, followed by a long (45-60 minutes) stop, then a couple more hours of driving followed by a long lunch, then the rest of the driving after is how we are going to get through this trip.

The mountains and scenery through Idaho and Montana is stunning.  It's such a beautiful country we live in.  The hills are rolling and the mountains are towering.  Everything is just picturesque.



Part of the way through Montana Rolland yelled out that he had to go to the bathroom (good 'ol #2).  Rolland hasn't quite grasped the concept of NOT waiting until you can't hold it any longer.  So naturally when he screams that he needs to go, we have to stop FAST.  Montana is pretty much the middle of nowhere and you can go for 30+ miles without any services of any kind (and Rolland doesn't understand the "You have to go now because it's going to be another 45 minutes before there is another toilet" mentality.  So after a couple miles of "NO SERVICES" signs I told Wes to just get off, we would find a place or he would have to "do his business" on the side of the road.  I see a small brick building that looks like a school of some kind so we head that direction.  As we pull up closer I realize that it's fenced in with barbed wire. I said "Oh my gosh, it's a jail."  Upon further inspection, we realize it's a Juvenile Detention center out in the middle of nowhere.  We decided that we had NO CHOICE but to stop and just ask.  I mean, how could they turn away a sweet 3 year old who is begging for at toilet to poop in?

So Wes takes Rolland up to the door, which of course is locked, and rings the buzzer...twice.  "Can we help you?" comes out of the speaker and Wes says "Yeah, my son REALLY needs to use the bathroom and there is nothing out here.  Can we please come in so he can poop?" They replied "Hang on."  Then nothing, for almost 4 full minutes, while the poor kiddo is dancing around trying to hold it.  Someone comes to the door and says "Um, can I help you?" (So obviously the speaker people were blowing Wes off).  Wes explains the situation again and the lady says "Well we don't normally do this, but sure, go ahead."  Rolland entered his first (and hopefully only) visit to a Juvenile Detention center, sang to himself while he used the toilet and merrily walked out the door to the car.

And would you guess that as we got back on the freeway, the very next exit had gas stations and restaurants, all with restrooms. :-)


So we made it to Bozeman and got to visit with Wes's brother, Dan, for the afternoon and evening.  The dogs absolutely loved being out off of their leashes on his property.  They romped and played together, smelled every single blade of grass and ran more than I have ever seen them run.  Eva even got in the creek by the house.  It was a ball watching them and makes me so excited for all the property we have at the new house.

Dan made us amazing burgers with homemade slaw and sweet potato fries.  A home cooked meal was much appreciated after all the crummy food we've eaten on this road trip.

Back to the hotel we went after dinner where the kids crashed and Mom and Dad got to finally relax and sleep too.

Missouri or Bust 2015 Days 1 and 2

Moosman Missouri or Bust – Day 1

Our circus has left town.  Well, kind of.  We’re on the on ramp to I-5 moving about 3mph in typical JBLM rush hour traffic.  We are all exhausted and ready to just get there, and we haven’t even gone 15 feet.

I can’t even get a whole thought written without having to look to my left and make silly faces and noises to a crabby baby.  And Rolland is going to burn through my mountain of new books and activities before we get to Spokane.

Tomorrow the real trip begins.  Tonight is a “leisurely” (I say that in quotes because we are only going 20mph on the freeway at this point) one hour drive to SeaTac to sleep at a hotel.  Bright and early at 4am we will push out of Seattle and head towards our first destination, Spokane.  I feel like once we get to our first major destination we will feel a lot better but right now we are all tired and frustrated with the amount of stuff in the car.

As we dwindle down the grocery store worth of snacks I packed (because, let’s face it, 3 year olds can snack 24/7) the car will seem lighter and less crowded.  But for now the 3 loaves of bread (2 homemade banana and 1 wheat) will have to occupy some space in the middle of the van. 

2 hours later: 

Finally all of our errands are done.  Cable box returned to Comcast, baby clothes returned to a friend, and all of the hardest goodbyes ever said and we are ready to roll.  Oh wait, gotta grab some food.  And since both boys are sleeping I guess we will just get sandwiches from Jimmy Johns and scrap the idea of having one last local dinner.  I could probably just eat Pirates Booty and apples and be just as happy.

I didn’t even get to finish this entry before we crashed for bed.  Rolland commandeered my computer in the hotel room to watch Planes: Fire and Rescue, which I have a feeling will be VERY old by the time we arrive.

May 2, 2015 – Day to, Seattle to Spokane

Taking it easy for our first day. Just a quick 5.5 hour drive to Spokane, WA.   We have lived in WA for 4 years and have never driven over there.  It’ll be so nice to see the opposite side of this huge state.  Although, Spokane gets a bad rep I am excited to visit.

It’s 5am and we have been awake since 330.  After the fiasco of trying to get 2 kids and 2 dogs into the hotel room, PLUS all of our crap, we have reevaluated our packing situation.  We have packed clothes into a smaller backpack so that we won’t have to take huge suitcases into our hotel every single night (especially because the suitcases are on top of the car). Here’s hoping that tomorrow morning we are able to hit the road earlier without waking earlier.

Anyway, I want to recap yesterday a bit before I move on.  We cleared our house with the landlord yesterday morning, only after I had to postpone them by 30 minutes because we hadn’t finished loading the car.  That’s what happens when you have 34938743 animals, 2 kids and EVERYONES stuff.  So the landlord comes and I’m all worried because there are a few things that we couldn’t finish up (didn’t have tools or the right hardware, or the right paint color).  They were seriously awesome about it and are trying to get us as much of our deposit back.  We did, however, have extra trash that we couldn’t fit in the car to even take to the dump. We had filled the trashcan at the house and still had 2 bags (so much for a small footprint).  Anyway, part of the trash ended up in my neighbors car.  She was doing her walkthrough with her landlord at the exact same time as us (crazy, right?!) and she was headed to the dump so a little slip of a $10 and she took our 2 bags to the dump for us (thank goodness for AWESOME neighbors). Wes also had around 50’ of chicken wire from our garden beds and other things leftover that we had forgotten.  I had NO clue how we were going to get rid of them so I took a quick picture, posted them in a City of Lacey swap group on Facebook and I kid you not, they were picked up in 10 minutes!  My landlord was FLOORED.  He couldn’t believe someone came and took (basically, my garbage) the wire that quick.  “Curb alerts” do wonders.  So we were able to leave the house with no garbage behind.

The car, however, was packed to the gills.  We couldn’t even open the passenger door and had to roll the window down to put MORE stuff in the front seat.  The cable box, diapers and baby gift for a friend, all the extra food from our fridge, laundry, etc…. We were STUFFED.  But thankfully I have the best friends on the planet because they let me unload all my food/condiments/cleaning supplies at their house and they all took stuff home so we weren’t pitching everything.  I even got to do a last load of laundry so we were only heading out with cleaning laundry (not that it stays very clean for long when you have kids).

So after 4-5 stops, dropping things off and a quick rearrange at the hotel, the car is now packed better with room to spare and everything where we can get to it when we need it.  Wes is driving and Teddie is asleep.  Rolland is awake but I expect him to sleep again soon.  Wes and I may switch driving here soon since the baby is sleeping.  We are hoping to get to Spokane by 1 or 2 and have time to find a park for Rolland or somewhere the kids can stretch their legs and be out of the car for a bit.