1 Road trip, 2 countries, 3 bee stings, 4 baths in lakes, 5 campgrounds,14
days, over 2300 kilometers and now our holidays are over! We are back home. Back
to sleeping in our own beds (I can’t wait), back to showering daily and a diet
that can no longer be justified by the words, “Why not? We’re on holidays right?”
LOL
As I detox from my daily dose of chips and guaccomole, beer, beef jerky, s’mores
and sunshine, I reflect on the adventures that made up another awesome road trip and the things I've learned:
2: 2 Toddlers and 2 babies will never ever all nap at the same time, so any relaxing you thought you'd get to do while everyone napped will NOT happen....but there are very few toddler noises a cold beer and good adult company cannot help you tune out!
3- No matter how well you plan drive time around naps and feedings, your baby will probably scream her head off anyway, and even though you said you'd never, if you take her out of the car seat for a snuggle, she will almost always stop screaming!
4-You can handle dirty, itchy hair for at least 4 days before your willing to jump into an ice cold lake with a bottle of shampoo!
5-Bees love a BBQ as much as you do and the one person who is allergic to bees WILL get stung, especially if there is no Benedryl in her medicine box...but if you ask around someone in the campground is sure to have some and what better way to make friends than to offer someone the opportunity to save a life?
6- Bed times are nul and void in the wilderness. The sunshine doesn't turn off at 8pm and neither does the fun...but if you let the toddlers scream long enough, they eventually tire themselves out...just kidding...kinda.... :)
7- It will only take the dog three days to figure out that if she asks to go to bed inside the trailer before the adults turn in for the night, she can sleep on the toddler's bed virtually undetected...and it turns out there's more room in the trailer when the dog is on the bed and not on the floor, so the adults will pretend they don't notice she's on the bed.
8- No matter how potty trained your toddler is and no matter how many precautions you take, he will probably shit his pants...at least once, maybe more....and you'll end up changing the bed sheets at least once in the middle of the night...
9- No matter how late you wanted to stay up bull shitting around the fire enjoying some drinks, the thought of early mornings with toddlers and babies will almost always be enough to make you turn in by 11pm!
10- Nomatter how tired you are, or how much you'd love one night in your own bed, it Always sucks when holidays are over!!
Day 1:
We left July 28th in the afternoon with the hopes
that both kids would nap as we drove the short distance to our first destination.
Right away it was obvious that Peanut was less than happy, (read: she was screaming her head off,) so we moved her car seat
up front, between Marty and I and she and Scout, who had now just scored the best
seat and the most room in the truck, were much happier!
Screaming Peanut....
Much happier, quiet Peanut
Plan A was the Pine Coulee campground. A place we’d never
stayed but one that sounded good when we read about it on the internet. It was raining when we arrived, so we decided
to just keep driving. The novelty of “road trip” was still new and Ryder was
loving wearing his new headphones watching movies in the back seat so covering a
little more distance seemed like a great Plan B.
We pulled into Fernie, BC, knowing that the Provincial Campground
would be full. It always is, so like many times before, we headed up to the ski
hill (in the summer it is a downhill biking mecca.) We parked our trailer on the
ashphalt pad that serves bikers and skiiers as a parking lot and settled in for
the night. Ryder rode his bike all evening and once the kids were asleep, Marty
and I sat in our anti-gravity lawn chairs in the parking lot, surrounded by other campers who had been met with the same, "Campground Full sign" and soaked up the sun set as it slipped
behind the ski hill. We actually love
camping here, it’s beautiful (as far as ashphalt parking lots go and it’s free!!)
Day 2:
We headed for Montana and the USA! This would
be Peanut’s first trip across the border. We had planned to hook up with Aim and
Shane, Max and baby Kennedy, Tuesday, but since we had gone farther than we had
anticipated Sunday night, we decided we might be able to meet up with them at
Flathead Lake a day early! I was sooo excited! I couldn’t wait to see my sister,
her hubby and her adorable children, one of whom I would be meeting for the first
time!! Kennedy was only 7 weeks old!
This was also going to be the first time she’d be meeting lil Peanut, who
had just turned 4 months old! Ofcorse
because of our resistance to planning (ours, not the Coles) there was no camping
available on Flathead Lake at all!! I honestly didn’t care that much. All I cared
about was that we were all finally going to be together and I knew we’d find a
spot somewhere. We always do and we did!! It was on a smaller lake, (Lake Mary Ronan,)
but we got two campsites right next to each other and the minute we parked, we turned
Ryder and Max loose to bond like only cousins can!! The boys played until they were crazy tired…then they rode bikes
which ended when Max crashed hard and got a bleeding lip. He recovered quickly, but we all decided
it was time for bed. Our holidays were
officially beginning!!
The girls bonded too:
And the whole day wrapped up with a campfire with s'mores
Day 4: We decided to move on. We found this great National Forest campground called: Bad Medicine. The campground was a giant forest where the boys explored and played. The lake had a boat ramp that allowed us to wade into the water though there was no real beach. At this point in the trip we were all getting desperate for showers and since there were none, we all had lake baths, except the girls. Aimee had brought her collapsable baby tub so the girls got bathed in style!
Trying to escape his bath.....
It's all worth it in the end if Daddy throws you sky high!!
Peanut didn't have a lake bath, but I did and by the time it was my turn other campers had gathered at the lake. I'll admit, I hesitated before knocking the hair off my bikini line in front of everyone, but there was no way I could just leave it....nope, I am not shy! LOL
Day 5: We were all excited to head to Sandpoint Idaho. We knew there were some great National Forest Campgrounds there, but of corse they were all full! We had no choice but to keep driving. We were disappointed to miss out on Sandpoint, but we ended up at beautiful, beautiful Priest Lake. The campground only had 2 spots and they were no where near each other, and only one of them was available for more than one night. We'd been driving all day and decided to take a chance and stay anyway. We hoped to stay for a couple of days, so we banked on the hope that someone would leave the next day so one of us could move closer to the other. The campers in the site across from Aime and Shane had a tag indicating they were leaving the next day so bright and early on Day 6, we started stalking them, waiting for them to vacate so we could pull our rig into their spot.
Day 6: We successfully managed to snag the coveted spot across from Aim and Shane, so we all relaxed and enjoyed a cloudy, somewhat rainy day in the woods, playing trucks in the dirt and riding bikes. Marty and Shane got to go for a bike ride themselves and Aim and I hung out bonding with the little ones. Ryder had so much fun playing that he ended up pooping his pants (first accident of the trip.)
The bees were horrible on this trip, like insane! I've never seen soo many bees swarming around, especially when the food was out. I am petrified of bees and have been ever since I got stung at Grandma Betty's house when I was a kid and had a reaction that required a trip to the hospital and a shot of something in my ass! I've carried an epi pen ever since but have relied on Benedryl as the first response to any stings I've sustained since then. I had my epi pen with me on this trip, but for some reason no Benedryl, so when I got stung on my hand, I freaked out!!! My hand just kept swelling and getting itchier and itchier. I couldn't stand it any longer so I went on a hunt for Benedryl. I knew some other camper in the campground would for sure have some. I met a lot of people before finally tracking down some medicine! The Benedryl came with the advice of putting yellow mustard on the sting to take away the itch...both worked and I didn't have to resort to my epi pen though my hand stayed swollen and itchy for days!!!
Nothing like a big pile of dirt in a forest! Just making noise!
The girls bonded too! Little Miss kennedy!
Peanut
Ryder
Into the forest with buckets of trucks of corse!
Ryder trying desperately to keep up to the older, more agile big cousin, Max!Biking in the rain...with buckets!
Could they be any cuter??
Sitting under "tarp city" in the rain.
The Coles and the baby girls!
Day 7: Saturday, laundry day! We drove into the nearest town to the laundry mat. Time for clean undies!
Everytime we go anywhere, we have to stop to pee on a tire and admire Peanut's cute smile!
Yep, washing my pants!
After laundry, the sun came out!!!!
Clean clothes, clean bodies...second lake bath of the trip!
Day 8: Time to move on! Today, we headed to Farragut State Park. The campground was full to capacity, but they had this awesome overflow area that ended up offering more privacy, more off leash opportunities for the dogs and more sunshine than the campground! Score!! Once we had camp set up, we headed to the nearest store for ice and ice cream!
After supper, the sun was still hot, so we went down to check out the swimming area on the lake. The boys found a big driftwood log and had a great time pretending to be pirates in search of a treasure!
There wasn't much loose dirt for the boys to play in at Farragut, but they never got bored!
We spent Days 8-11 at the Park and on Day 12 we parted ways with the Coles. While in Farragut, we got to have two showers. Real showers with hot water!!! Those were the only two real showers of the whole 14 days for us!!! We had a beach day down at the water where Ryder tried water wings for the first time. Shane got to motorbike, both Shane and Marty mountain biked, the dogs got to swim in the lake and everyone listened to me wine about how itchy my bee sting was! Shane ended up being stung twice over the course of the trip, but he never complained once.Ryder got something questionable and sticky in his hair. After three days, Marty decided to take some peanut butter to it...worked like a charm. Sticky substance easily removed!
Daddy and Peanut
Peanut enjoying the shade, while the boys swim!
Aimee and her sweet lil Kennedy!
The girls!!
Day 10: Our two families spent the morning exploring on our own. Us Wrights went to Coeur D'Alene. Beautiful!!! We hooked up with the Coles for lunch and took in City Park.
The boys played together, peed together and ate popsicles together all week!
Day 11: Us Wrights did some shopping in Hayden Lakes, while the Coles
explored that little town. We spent the rest of the day soaking up our
last few hours together!! We had gotten to spend time getting to know each other's kids and just being together, something that doesn't happen often enough!! I am sooo glad we were able to make this trip happen!! It was soo much fun to watch the little cousins together!!
Day 12: We had to say Good-bye to the Coles. They had to head back home and so did we! Our time together was too short but sooo great!!
We left Farragut and headed into Sandpoint. We still couldn't find camping there, so after walking around town and checking out the Army surplus store, we continued down the highway back to Montana where after a long day of traveling, we stopped at Peck Gulch, which turned out to be a small piece of paradise (assuming paradise is full of bees!) LOL We got a campsite right on the lake! This was more of a boating destination, so no real beach to speak of, but there was an old boat launch where we could wade in and where Ryder spent hours riding his bike down the ramp right into the water! Peck Gulch was only 20 minutes from Eureka Montana, so Day 13: we headed into town to buy a bee trap. Yep, that's right, 13 days into our 14 day road trip, we finally bought a bee trap and guess what? They work!!!!! It was here at Peck Gulch that Ryder had his final poop accident of the trip...in the middle of the night, in his bed! oooops!
Peck Gulch
Scout started sleeping on Ryder's bed with him...she never does this at home (she's not allowed on beds at home, but how sweet is this???)
Biking into lakes, biking on boulders, this guy does it all!
Daddy and Peanut
My favorite "mommy and Peanut" pic of the trip.
Day 14: We sadly headed home. Holidays were over. Booo!
Kiss your babies, count your blessings and spend 14 days in a small RV with your family if you can, you will learn sooo much about each other!
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