Journal

We are finally back in Florida.

I kept thinking of the best way to close this journal... but as I said.. I just don't like good byes! lol

It was a long drive and funny... we were so eager to get back that we were saving on bathroom stops and completely ignored our gas-saving rule in keeping our speed under 65mph. Our beater and trailer were rocking at 75mph! lol We don't really know where we stopped to spent the night, but we didn't search much, we simply parked at a Wendy's somewhere in Mississippi, didn't even unhook the trailer like we usually do.

During our last gas stop... I thought I left my purse on the top of the car when Nick drove out of the gas station... and only realized that about 10 miles out. My heart was beating so fast...I just couldn't believe that. I told Nick to stop the car (he wasn't happy about it), I stopped and tried to replay my last steps in my head again... and thought there was a slight chance that I could have brought the purse to the trailer when nick asked me for a soda before we left. I ran to the trailer... and there it was, safe, my purse.

We arrived in Hollywood around 11pm, welcomed by Gus and Veronica. Oh boy we were tired.

I slept till around 11am, Nick wasn't there in the morning. He left early to help out a friend to move and make some extra cash.

We are staying at Nick's dad's house, he has a garage that was transformed into a room that fits the purpose. We will be here probably till Monday.

We just can't believe we made it! Against all odds... the numbers didn't add up...and during the gas prices crisis..... we made it!!!!!!!!

Here are our numbers:

* 1989 Nissan Maxima
* 1963 beachcomber trailer
* 35 states - we drove by 35 states!
* x000 miles (I still have to sit down and figure this number out as our odometer was broken)
* $4.74 was the highest gas price we've seen along the way
* $1.67 was the lowest (to bad it was on the very last week of the trip! lol)
* 06.02.2008 we left
* 11.18.2008 we arrived back to FL
* 1 - only one time we broke on the side of the road! That was on the very beggining, still in FL!

What did we learn?

* There is no place like home!
* America is BEAUTIFUL and the more we saw, the more we learned we haven't seen anything!
* Never underestimate the power of an old car!
* Tool set is the man's best friend!
* We can live with little, but not too little! lol
* I can't go over 100 miles without a bathroom stop
* Canned food poisons your body! Go fresh!
* (I will keep giving some thoughts and update the list later)

I'm just so glad we did it, it was difficult sometimes and I'm not sure if we would do it again, not the way we did it now... it was too long... but we definitely loved it, we met so many nice people along the way, Nick reconnected with his family and I had the chance to meet everyone...and seeing places we never even knew about. It was incredible!

We recommend! =)

Thank you so so much for being with us during our journey! The website comments always cheered us up, we were so excited every time we received a new comment! And actually we found out that there are way more readers than commenters... so for all of you that are reading it but never left a comment - we thank you too. =)

THE END

P.S.: I still have a few more pictures to upload from Texas... but I just can't do it tonight... all I want is another nice night of sleep. Check back tomorrow.

P.P.S.: For those that actually looked through the hundreds of pictures, please let me know what are your favorite ones... I'm putting a photobook together and it is tough to pick through so many!

Our stop in Texas was 90% family time.
I met "Uncle" Bill and "Aunt" Helen and Nick's cousin Danielle and her family. Danielle has a 17 months baby: Annalise. Anna is just a great baby, I'm in love. She smiles very often and shows her full set of teeth every time she does that. God bless her and her family!

Danielle reminds me Anthony and Jamie, she is very calm with her baby, what's giving the baby a great personality. I love it.

We heard more stories from the old days (about Gus and his brothers).... we went to the Greek restaurant Niko Niko - which was deliciously great.. yummy! And we attended Joel Osteen service on Sunday. It was very interesting to go to a service that has broadcast to the whole country - everything is big, bright, loud but nice, a great message.

During the service Nick and I walked forward to pray for my mom with one of the deacons, it brought me to tears. Prayer is powerful.

Monday we all went out for lunch to take some pictures and say our goodbyes. We went to the Mediterranean, a very nice little place with good food from different countries.

Good byes are not my favorite thing...

We hit the road around 5pm with a long stretch ahead of us... over 1100 miles and lots of hours. 

Sunday we went to the Greek church with Georgia and Pete. After church Nick and I stopped at Old Navy for some winter sale bargains as our clothes are completely giving up the trip lol. We have rips and holes everywhere.

Monday and Tuesday Georgia and Pete took us around the area for some sightseeing. We went to Saguaro Lake and the goldfield ghost town. We are very impressed in how beautiful the area was and also how CHEAP! New and big houses are in average 100-200s. Awesome.

Nick spent some time looking at old pictures and hearing stories.

We had a very nice time with Nick's family and Wednesday was time to hit the road again. We drove from Gilbert, AZ to Houston, Texas. It was a looooong way. We left Wednesday morning and arrived Thursday night.

We almost ran out of gas, we were below empty and we had over 20 miles till our next stop... somehow we made it lol. It was almost 2am in the morning and I really didn't wanna be stuck on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Prayer is powerful! lol After filling up the tank we crashed in a rest stop and slept very well.... we woke up after 10am! lol Our lunch stop was at a granny's place in a small city called Junction in Texas. Cowboys and cowboys.

The family (Aunt Helen, Uncle Bill, Danielle, John and the baby Annalise) were waiting for us. We had some great dinner and did some catching up.

Saturday we drove through the Oak Creek Canyon to get to Sedona. A scenic route that slowly changed the scenario to gorgeous red rocks.

After driving through Sedona and visiting some of the famous sites, I can probably say I think Sedona is the most beautiful in the city US (I've been so far) and Nick agreed with me. The Red Rock formations are just so beautiful! The red color contrasts with the blue sky and fall colors, turning the city into a picture perfect

Besides, the state of Arizona is so rich in history, myths, legends, outdoor activities that adds a lot of "content" to the beautiful place.

I'm posting pictures of some of the sightings, the Slide Rock park, the beautiful Red Rock Crossing park (with the Cathedral Rock view), a little Chapel built on the rocks, etc.

Right after Sedona we visited the V-V heritage site to see the petroglyphs (amazing!) and the Montezuma well and Castle.

The Montezuma Castle is an amazing constrution (20 rooms) on the cliff preserved by the US Park Service 'tells a 1,000 year-old story of ingenuity and survival in an unforgiving desert landscape.' Then 11 miles from there we visited the Well, which was part of the Montezuma unit, considered a live oasis in the middle of the desert a 1,000 year old irrigation ditch that still in use by local residents today! Amazing!

After all this we drove back and got together with Uncle Pete and Aunt Georgia for dinner.

Friday we took our time in the morning, had a nice breakfast at a little diner in Flagstaff and drove to the Grand Canyon.

The drive from Flagstaff to the South Rim of the Canyon was not what I expected at all. I always thought we would be driving through a desert, sandy or red rock formations. It was a very green drive with forestry and some pastures, interesting.

We entered the park through the South entrance, followed the road to the visitor center and right there, from the parking lot, no hiking needed - ta-da: THE GRAND CANYON! Yes, it is beautiful, it is grande, it is canyon! lol Big, deep, wide, red, amazing, windy...all that.

We followed the road to the East side and stopped at all main views - Mather Point, Pipe Creek Vista, Grand View Point, Moran Point, Lipan Point, Navajo Point and Desert View (and some secondary stops along the way). Our favorite view (no doubt about it) was Lipan Point and it is hard to explain why - I would say it has a different composition? (is that the word?) - you can actually have a beautiful view from the Colorado River and some different geographic characteristics.

Just when I was taking some pictures of our third main stop...my loved camera, partner of so many years and adventure, from hikes and days on the beach in Hawaii, sunny days in Florida, hundreds of superheroes shows, dating days, studio/ebay work, our wedding, to a entire road trip accross the country (or almost) simply passed away (lol). The lenses didn't retract, I could hear "her" heart (aka engines) pounding faster than normal and... black. It was all black. No on, no off, just dead. All I got was a last goodbye, a error message saying E18. I did some research and I found over 6000 complaints to Canon about this kind of error.... but I have to confess, I won't complain. I had my S2-IS camera for over 3 years and used A LOT. I shot over 50000 pictures easy over this 3 years, easy. It was time for a new one. RIP my buddy! (lol)

Now, we are extremely lucky we have our little waterproof Olympus. If not, I would be really mad! lol

Ok back to business....the way OUT the Canyon throught the East side to loop back to Flagstaff was what I had in mind. What a scenic drive! We drove by different Canyons, real deserts and Indian Reservations, just like I pictured.

At night, we went out for dinner, and passed out... we are not very good in going out during freezing nights.

WOW again!

We are so close to end of this adventure and yet, so many new places and stories (it will not be over till it's over! lol)

Thursday morning we left Gilbert heading to Flagstaff. It was a very nice drive through mountains covered with giant cacti (I mean giant, over 7 feet tall). Unfortunately I didn't get a good shot because we couldn't stop on the highway, but I took some pics from the car.

We arrived in Flagstaff early afternoon, stop by the tourist information center and found out there was a lot more to see than what we planned. We checked in at our hotel and started our adventure at a local museum to try to learn a little more about the things we were about to see and mainly the Indian culture. We started get familiar with names we don't really hear in Florida (at least, I never heard of) - Montezuma, Navajo, Sinagua, Cliff Dwellers, etc.

We didn't have a lot of daylight left so we headed to the Walnut Canyon. Different than all the parks we've been so far the Arizona parks are more native, less structure, less pavement, less asphalt....awesome! We walked the aprox. 240 steps trail down the canyon, with amazing views and contact with the Cliff Dwellings - Ancient indian communities built off canyon walls, very intriguing! We were amazed for being able to experience that. It was like walking on the indian footsteps that lived there about 700 years ago.

It was amazing and so worth it (and our annual pass works at all the National Monuments and National Forests here! Wooo Hoooo!)

It was cold during the day but the temperatures were dropping drastically every minute. We ran back to the hotel, took some hot showers and went for dinner. We picked the Black Bart's Steakhouse and RV resort. Very very weird place, located behind a dark campground! This was Rebecca's and Uncle Pete's recommendation and... it turned out just like they sad: GREAT! The waiters actually are great singers (are student of the local university NAU) and put up a whole show during dinner and the food was awesome!

Once we left the restaurant the temperature was close to low 20s. Frrrrrreeeezing.

During the night, we woke dehidrated because of the heater, Nick had to go to the car at 4am to grab some water.... and the water bottles were actually starting to freeze! This was definitely the coldest night of our trip! Brrrrr! (thanks James and Jen for the jackets again).

It was a tough farewell for Nick. Reconnecting with his sister after over 20 years was one of the most amazing experiences he had during his trip. Getting to know her, and realizing how much alike they are even being raised so differently and so far was mind blowing.

There were lots of tears but everyone is certain that was only the begging of a beautiful relationship.

After all good byes, time to hit the road heading to Arizona.

It was fun drive, Nick and I played a lot with a little travel card deck we purchased. We did a quick stop at Joshua Tree National Parks as it was right off I-10. I wanted to take some pictures of the Joshua Trees but we found out the trees were about 28 miles in. We didn't want to drive that far out so we turned around.

The drive was also very interesting, desert lands, with lots of huge cacti (cactus).

We arrived in Arizona around 8pm and met with Nick's uncle Pete and aunt Georgia.

Kathi and David rented a nice cabin inside the park from Friday to Sunday.

We left on Friday very early in the morning and arrived in Yosemite mid afternoon. It was a very gray/rainy weekend, a little cold, but perfect for the whole cabin in the forest idea.

The first stop was the Sequoia trees area. Amazing giants....! The trees were just so beautiful and HUGE that took our breath away. The pictures didn't come out great as the lighting wasn't great. The cloudy day added to the late afternoon ours made it difficult to not get a blurry shot.

Second day we drove around the park to see El Capitan (3000 feet vertical rock formation), the Valley and it's waterfalls. At first we thought we would not be able to see the waterfalls as fall is the dry season in the valley as all the snow is gone. Well... blessed by God the rainy day magically brought the water flow back, and we got to experience the spectacular waterfalls flowing just like spring time. The day was clearer than friday and the pictures came out great!

At night we enjoyed the cabin, fireplace, some delicious home cooking, and family time.

Sunday on our way out we made a few more quick stops, including a nice bridge over a creek, the swinging bridge and the hotel built on the 1800s the brought us back on time.

During the whole weekend, the lower temperatures and rain created a mystic and amazing mist that covered big part of the fall colored trees and forestry. I probably saw some of the most amazing sites I've ever seen. Water reflecting colors, mist, mountains.... breath taking.

Yosemite was definetely one of the most nature sanctuaries we've visited.

So Nick was out of town last week (the whole week) working for the shelves company. I stayed at Kathi's house and worked on two new costumes. One it's ready, we posted yesterday for sale and thanks the good Lord it is selling! Woo Hoo!

On Friday I went to LA, to meet my other ex roommate from Kauai, Aynsley! We spent the day together and had a great time. At night I met Nick and stayed at his hotel with him. Saturday we drove back together.

Saturday Nick was working on the patio with David while I was working on our costumes. At night we all went out for dinner to "late" celebrate Melissa's birthday (her bday was on the 22nd but Nick and David were out of town). We went to one of those places where the chefs cook in front of you. It was very fun!

Sunday we all went to a Calvary Chapel together, in Oxnard. It was so good to attend to a service similar to our home church! Not that the other churches are not as good, but it's just what we were used to and what brought us together. We had a great time.

At the end of the day on Sunday we went to a fruit stand to pick up our pumpkins. We will be carving pumpkins this week, actually my first time carving a pumpkin. We don't really have Halloween traditions in Brazil and I've never done it during my five years here.

It will be fun!

Today is Monday and Nick is out of town again (it is so hard to be away from him after all this months together. I miss him a lot.) he will be back on Wednesday so we can prepare ourselves for our weekend trip. Kathi rented a cabin in Yosemite from Friday to Sunday. This will be our farewell from California as next week we are heading out, towards Arizona.

Disappointing.

Hollywood is not a city, it is a district, therefore does not have its own government. It is outside downtown LA and had till recently an "honorary mayor" for ceremonial purposes only, he passed away in January (not such if they nominated a new one after that). Weird ahn? Well, that's Hollywood for you.

The world famous "Walk of fame" is the side walk of a very busy, not so clean street. Cheap-cheesy souvenirs stores are all over the place! So basically we drove to Hollywood, got very disappointed with it's decadence, took some pictures of the so famous stars on the walk of fame just for the record and decided to take one of the tours to check out celebrities homes. That was fun....the driver was very nice. It was a "no top" van. So once we started moving we realized how cold it was but they had blankets available (that was funny).

Can you picture an open van touring Beverly Hills with a bunch of tourists wrapped in colorful blankets? Well, that was us! We had fun though. lol We probably saw over 50 homes... we took some pictures of the gates of these homes.. lol and I will be posting some just for the record if Nick remembers who the houses belong to (my short term memory is not that great).

The tour took us around Beverly Hills, Belle Aire, Rodeo Drive and a quick view of the Hollywood sign.

At night you walk by lots of street artists. We had a little hard time with them with the exception of few. The street artists in Hollywood are a little cocky and the push visitants to their limits asking for another dollar. If they see that people are taking pictures without giving them money they act like any local mega start hiding from paparazzis hiding from cameras. Argh!

But, during our walk we met the AMAZING joker, the artist was definitely a Heath Ledger look-a-like dressed up in a perfect costume and great make up. He was extremely nice, humble and actually stop to chat with us without begging for our money. Other two artists were kind too - the transformers guy, the tree man and the gold robot or something like that.

The "city" was bad.... we don't really recommend, but we made the best out of it.

The plan was to leave the house Thursday morning, stay in Vegas two nights to see my sister and then head to the Canyon but nothing happened as planned.

We woke up at 5am to get ready and leave around 6am. I checked my emails before leaving and unfortunately there was a message from my sister saying things didn't go accordingly and she would be in Vegas for only one night in a big rush. We looked at each other and decided to go anyways to tour Vegas.

The drive was long, we hit some morning traffic, so we took almost 7hrs to get there. During the drive we searched for a cheap hotel and ended up finding the "Arizona Charlies" about 7 miles away from the famous strip.

We were a little skeptic about Vegas considering we don't gamble, drink a lot or party but as soon as we drove through the strip we were amazed! There was so much to see! We didn't even go straight to the hotel, we parked and started walking down the strip.

The hotels are giant resorts, we underestimate the dimension of those hotels from pictures. Each hotel has a different theme, it's own show/attractions, mall, restaurants, celebrities performances...etc.

Yes, there is a very bad and dirty side of Vegas... hundreds of people on the streets handing out cards with numbers for "not so dressed girls" (let's try to keep the website rated for all ages!), free drinks, and very sad to see so many people donating their money to the machines!

The gambling industry can be very good for someone that does not gamble! Vegas has free parking everywhere, options for cheap buffets, cheap hotels surrounding the city and all those deals if you have the time and patience to go to a timeshare presentation (which we did!). We were living the life!

We decided to accept the "invite" to attend a time share presentation and receive two tickets for a show (for only $20 each), two 2 day cruises to the Bahamas (leaving from Fort Lauderdale!), $75 in vouchers for dining... for 4 hrs of our time. Why not?

So we enjoyed our Thursday day, headed to the hotel to check in on Thursday evening, headed back to the strip Thursday night. Friday morning we watched the time share thing... got our gifts, and enjoyed the whole day/night on Friday. What a great time we had. It was so much fun and so romantic!

Ah, Friday night we went to Criss Angel's preview show "Believe" at the Luxor, it wasn't an amazing show, but quite interesting and yes, some of the illusions were great!

We didn't get to see all the hotels and all it's attractions, not enough time at all! Those places are gigantic! But we did see a lot! I would say our favorites were the water fountain show at the Bellagio (sooo romantic!), the inside and out of New York, New York, the half size replica of the Eiffel Tower at Paris Hotel, The Luxor, Cesars Palace and the Canal at the Venetian.

We didn't get to see my sister, lots of disencounters, she attended her conference and left right after. Oh well... me and my luck.. lol

Friday night we hit our beds exhausted planning to wake up on Saturday and go to the famous Hoover Dam and the Canyon. We had so many different information on how many hours it would take to get to the Canyon that when we stopped to look at the atlas, we realized the South Rim of the Canyon was only 1-2hrs away from Sedona (one of our stops in Arizona).

Besides, once we started driving the car decided to act up, and there was smoke everywhere! We stopped look at the car, and Nick couldn't find the reason for all that smoke. We decided to have some lunch, let the car sit... and re-think our plans.

We decided to not go against the odds, leave the Canyon for later, when we stop in Arizona, head to Hoover Dam (only 20-30min away) and test the car.

Hoover Dam was quite impressing! Huge! You don't get to see a good view like in the movies if you don't take an helicopter ride, but it was very cool. I wasn't feeling right anymore (the dry air was killing me) and we decided to not take the guided tour.

My nose and eyes were literally burning... and my skin was cracking... (I can't believe Nick didn't even feel the difference on his body!). We headed to a pharmacy to get me some sprays.

By the time we left the pharmacy it was already 5pm, so we decided to start driving back to Kathi's house. It was just a matter of minutes, once we got in the car and hit the highway my nose started bleeding very bad.

Once the sun went down, temperatures dropped and I started feeling better.

We arrived at Kathi's house around midnight, ready to crash!

Sincerely, I would definitely schedule another trip to Vegas! It was fun! What a great time we had!

Monday Melissa had a school trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain Park and needed some extra chaperons! Kathy and I volunteered and had a great time.

It was a beautiful day, lots of roller coasters and no lines! We arrived at the park by 10:30am and by noon we were already light headed. We rode probably six rides in a row with no lines... so we stopped for a long and relaxing lunch. Two more rides in the afternoon completed our high-in-adrenaline day.

That was my first time as a chaperon and I loved it. Easy and fun job.

Nick couldn't come with us, he got some work with David's brother for the day and he decided to work instead.

We decided to wake up early and drive through the coast instead of taking the highway.

There were so many places we wanted to see... we stopped in almost every single little beach (that did not require any hikes) to check it out and take some pics. It was a very nice drive and we got to see Oceanside, Dana Point, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach (where we stopped to check out a nice farmers market and craft fair and ended up having a great lunch for very cheap at JB's - I mean good! Gourmet good!) and finally Santa Monica Pier. We didn't get to go to Malibu as planned as the sun went down.

Again, another great day!

We have more pictures than words to describe! (I will upload later today, promise!)

Tuesday Nick work half a day only so we left to Encinitas before 4pm. We stopped for some Chinese food on our way as we had a 3hr drive ahead of us and probably some traffic.

We took our time and arrived at Dora's house at night. It was so nice seeing her and her kid Daniel after more than 2 years. She was my big sister in Kauai. Daniel is still doing great in surfing, and last year won the NSSA, 1.place high school surfing contest in Cali. Good job!

Wednesday Nick had to work, so I spent the day with Dora. We went to the Caetano's house (a Brazilian family that just had quadruplets!!!) to give a little hand. The mom had to take two of the babies to the doctor so we stayed home with the other 2. The family is in need of help (helping hands or donations) so if anyone that is reading this blog wants to help please let me know and I will send the information.

When Nick got home Dora drove us around the area to see some beautiful beaches: Moonlight Beach, "D" Street Beach and Swami's. So pretty! The cliffs meet the ocean and the town as a artsy-zen look. At night I cooked some Brazilian dish and we did catch up.

Thursday Nick worked half a day so we decided to drive South to San Diego and tour the area. We arrived at the tourist info center in San Diego around 2pm. The information desk lady was a whole show. We asked her about some nice sightseeing for the afternoon and she said the afternoon was already over (it was 2pm!). So then she told us to walk around the visitor center and we would find tons of brochures on what to do, but again the day was "over". After a very frustrating attempt to get any info from the information lady I asked her if then I should read the brochures and not ask her anything - her answer? Yes. lol So we asked her if she had a map, she lift her two heavy elbows from the counter and flipped a big map for us. Great.

Not convinced that we could not get any advice from the information lady we took our last chance (at this point she was already turning red and breathing heavily), we tried: you know, we are not from here, can you please tell us what is a beautiful place to see in town or point in the map. She grabbed her red pen and traced two streets by the harbor. Well that was a begging.

We felt so welcomed in San Diego!

As we were leaving the visitor center, we spotted a different lady... and we couldn't believe: She had a smile on her face! The lady gave us awesome directions and timed our visit, telling us to go spend an hour at Old Town (historic park) and head to the harbor - the Sea Port Village.

We had a great time. Old Town was awesome! A piece of the oldest part of San Diego completely restored and transformed in a park where you can actually go back in time. Shops, houses, church, farms, crafts... and all the employees dressed up (old time costumes) and believe me or not: FREE!

Seaport was just another cute/charming harbor plaza, shops, restaurants and pictures. Nick and I had some greek food for late lunch and enjoyed ourselves. It was very fun. We got home exhausted!

One of these past days David took Nick and I boating and diving.

It had been two years that I don't scuba dive so I was very excited! I was a little concerned on the weather (it was a cloudy day) and the water temperature (David rented me a 7mm suit and hoodie). I never dove with all that gear.

Anyways. During our way to the Channel Islands (one of the best diving sites in the world!) the ocean started getting really rough! While I was trying to keep my balance I saw something HUGE swimming parallel to us. We turned around and it turned out to be a whale! It was just too quick to take a picture. The whale disappeared in a matter of seconds.

Unfortunately during our whale watching stop Nick felt the effect of the rough waves and got sea sick. We kept our way to the islands and ended up seeing lots of dolphins. They were all over the boat.

Once we arrived at the island our boat died, it would not start. So David and his brother called vessel assistance. We put on our gear, Nick laid downstairs to try to get better but he just seemed to get worse. We jumped on the water and everyone was feeling uncomfortable, little claustrophobic and we had equipment problems. So we decided to not go against the odds, and cancel the dive.

The way back was twice as rough. It was awesome to see the sea life but I was feeling horrible for Nick.

We didn't try to dive again up to this day and I don't really think want to get near a boat anytime soon.

I've been spending a lot of time home as Nick has been working but yesterday I got everyone to go see a sunset with me! I took some pictures and I will be posting soon!

Tonight we will drive to Encinitas, about 3hrs south. Nick will be working in San Diego (20mins from Encinitas) and I will get to visit my ex roommate Dora. I'm very very excited! I lived with Dora in Kauai for 1.5 years and we left the island on the same year. So much to catch up!

Thank you everyone for your comments and emails! We love you all!

We are very excited to see everyone at the end of the year and even more excited to head to our second trip and visit Brazil for two months! I still can't believe we are doing it! =)

As soon as we got here Nick's dad got him a job with an old friend/co-worker.

It was definitely God's hand at work, as we were running on our last $6! Nick has been working installing industrial shelves. He explained to me like those at Home Depot (big and tall). He works week days, usually wakes up around 5:45am and gets back home at 4 or 5pm.

Thanks dad for the job!

We are having an incredible time getting to know Kathi and her family better and rescue this relationship that was lost for almost 20 years. (they are SO brother and sister!!!) :) Her husband David is also an incredible man, that takes very good care of her and our niece Melissa. They are all Christians and very strong in their faith.

We also enjoy the company of Zoe (the cat), Aspen, Tenaya and Kona (the doggies). Tenaya is a very smart dog and we will try to film some of her tricks over the weekend.

Back to the road trip...

As we are out of money, Nick will be working here for a few weeks so we can save it and keep going. We have two prints on the way and I should be able to put two costumes together before Halloween and sell it.

After a long talk we decided to start heading back to Florida. We still have a couple stops on our way (Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, visit his family in Arizona and Texas, New Orleans and Florida).

Two important factors in our decision to start heading back were:

* My health - my body and mind took a big hit from eating can food and dollar menus for a long stretch. Nick has stronger genes and I guess a little more tolerant with this kind of food so it did not affect him as much. But me? I think twice before shopping for can foods after the trip. I may post something about it with more details later.

*Our trip to Brazil. This will be Nick's first trip abroad and I will be with seeing my family after 5 years! There are so many places I want to show him, from amazing places to different (and yummy) traditional restaurants...so I know we should work and save some money for that trip. Dollar is not such a strong currency anymore what makes South America more expensive.

So we should be arriving in Florida by November.... and we will have 3 months (Nov, Dec and Jan) to work and prepare ourselves for the next journey!

 After so many days sleeping in parking lots and true, no shower... we finally headed to Nick's sister house, Kathi! They were all at work/school when we got there so the maid opened the door we had the chance to shower before seeing them! (that was great!).

We were very happy to see/meet them, and it was a very emotional moment for Nick and Kathi. We met David (Kathi's husband) and Melissa our niece! Yes! Uncle Nick and Aunt Cami!

We went out for dinner to have a chance to catch up and saw the amazing west coast sunset on our way to the restaurant.

Thank you for everything guys!

We started our day walking the Cannery Row in Monterey.

A beautiful old fisherman village, with beautiful colors and home of the famous Monterey Bay aquarium. We saw seals (lots of them) everywhere we looked. We did not go to the aquarium as it was too expensive ($25 per adult). So we walked around to stretch our legs and took a bunch of pictures.

Monterey was also the beginning of the one hundred mile scenic route - Big Sur. Incredible! The most beautiful drive so far. I googled some info as I'm out of words: "...The route follows some of the most spectacular and highly scenic shoreline found along California’s coast. Views include rugged canyons and steep sea cliffs, granite shorelines, sea lions and other marine life, windswept cypress trees, and majestic redwood forests. This Byway also provides you with a lesson in California’s rich Mission-era and natural history..."

We stopped at some key spots (the ones suggested by the book Steven and Rebecca's lent to us). It really reminded me of Hawaii. Mainly the Julia Pfeiffer Burns Park, where the landscape is dramatic and a beautiful waterfall meets the ocean.

Check out the pics!

We took our time and spent the whole day at that route. Ending at a K-Mart parking in Arroyo Grande to spent the night.

The campground in Dutch Flat was quiet, behind a gas station. We were not very interested in touring around the area. It was just an opportunity to stop for half price before we get closer to bigger cities (we've been making good use of the card Chris gave us in Indiana, that grant us 50% of in the participating campgrounds).

Friday we woke up late, and hit the road around mid afternoon.

Around 6pm we were on the road in Fairfield, California when we drove by the Jelly Belly Factory! We decided to stop right away! How exciting! The Jelly Belly Factory tour was in our plans when we first started looking at places in California, but we didn't realize it was on our way!

We drove to the factory and they were already closed. Luckily there was a Wal-mart right next to it. So we decided to spend the night and take the tour first thing in the morning.

The tour was amazing! We litteraly the first ones there. While waiting for the tour to start, the lady openened the sample bar. Yes, free Jelly Bellys... any flavor we wanted... till we get tired of it. My favorite was Cantaloupe and Pomegranate, Nick fell in love with Red Apple, Pomegranate and Kiwi. But we tried it all... Crush, 7up, Mint Chocolate, Sports Jelly...yummy!

During the tour they showed us the history, how they come up with flavors, the production process (it takes several days to make a perfect Jelly Bean, we saw millions of tinny little beans, Jelly Belly art work... etc. It was great.

After the tour, time to hit the road again, heading to San Francisco.

It was really hard to find a place to park our trailer safely to tour the city, or find an affordable place to stay (we were on our last few dollars). I looked at the map and googled truck stops outside San Francisco (I knew we should not drive the trailer in the city, San Francisco is famous for it's steep hills!!!). I found one in Oakland. We called them and a very nice guy let us park there.

We arrived at the truck stop around 11am. It was a industrial area by the Colisseum (home of Oakland 49rs)/ Oakland airport. We parked, and took public transportation to the city. It was actually a big challenge, we had to tour without much time as the truck stop closed at 6pm!

We are the champs of quick tours! We went to a awesome farmers market by the San Francisco Port, Pier 39, a far view of the Golden Gate Bridge, Lombard Street and shared some chinese food. We did it all in 3 hrs got back in the car and hit the road again. San Franciso is a beautiful city, with a lot going on. The streets and piers were packed with tourists. (Everyone in the trolley was holding a map! It was funny.)

Our next destination was Monterey - the beggining of Big Sur (route one) the scenic route along the coast.

We found a Wal-mart just a few miles out of Monterey and spent the night.



 

Reno.... nothing special.

The city seemed interesting but when we walked around it didn't take us more than one hour to turn around and hit the road again. Old city, empty streets, lots of beggars and packed casinos! The casinos were packed with older people and...not winners. Very sad reality.

The only that caught our attention was a hotel room service crew's competition. It was on the Harras' entrance (a big casino/hotel) and there was a lot of action going on. The hotel crews had to accomplish tasks (making a bed, carrying trays, toilet paper relay races) and the fastest would win the prize. Very interesting.

After that quick stop, we hit the road to a campground in Dutch Flat, California.

 

So we left monday and our plan is to take our time!

Before leaving Salt Lake we stopped at a Humane Society shelter to play with some puppies and kitties. We met Oakley, a beautiful golden retriever that would certainly be with us right now if we were not in the middle of this trip and having tickets to go to Brazil in February! As soon as we get back to normal life... we will adopt a pet! No doubt about it.

Nick's sister Kathi lives in Ventura (all the way down in LA) and will be entering the state through the Northeast side. We took I80 in Salt Lake City, drove through the salt deserts of Utah and are crossing North Nevada right now.

Monday night we stayed at a truck stop in Wells. Tuesday we camped on the same city, just to have the chance to rest and shower. We met some really nice people at the little campsite on the middle of nowhere. It was a beautiful peace of land in the middle of that arid region.

Today (wednesday) we drove all the way to Reno - almost border with Cali. Reno was Las Vegas before Las Vegas - the biggest little city in the world! We will drive around tomorrow.

The funny story today was.... Nick and I got stuck inside the trailer! lolol... no panic, it was too funny to panic. We stopped at a Walmart to sleep around 10pm, grabbed some Wendy's and when we tried to get out of the trailer to get something in the car... we realized the door knob would spin spin but not open. Nick grabbed his tools but it didn't work, so we broke the screen and I squeezed my hand through the window and open the door through the outside.

It was funny...

Sunday was Nick's last day at his gig in Salt Lake City so I decided to go with him and tour the city by myself to take some pictures before we leave.

We parked the car at the Energy Solutions Arena (home of the Utah Jazz basketball team) where the event was going on (Dew Tour) and I walked to the Temple Square where the Mormon temple is located (so beautiful!), to the State Capitol (good exercise, a nice walk uphill) and the Eagle Gate (downtown). By the time I was done, it was almost time to pick up Nick, so I decided to check out the event.

Once we got back home, was time to do some laundry and get our stuff together as we were leaving on Monday, heading to California! A looong way to go!

Nick got a weekend job in Salt Lake City! I searched for gigs on craigslist.com and I found an event company looking for someone with his characteristics. I email them, sent some pics, and everything worked out!

What a blessing! =)

We spent the day on Wednesday resting at home and getting him ready for his gig. We bought him some shoes, white shirts and went to Staples to print some documents he needed.

At night we had a nice roast and watched a movie.

Tuesday we completed 100 days on the road!

We will tell you a little secret - it feels way more than that! lol We've seen so much, met so many people, learned so much that it feels longer than 100 days. This trip has been teaching us beautiful lessons that we can make it with very little. It is not easy, but Faith makes you stronger and prayer is powerful. Prayer is SO POWERFUL.

It is amazing the way God works! He sends people on your way, angels and you have to have your heart open to accept and understand why they are there on that moment. Angels don't look like angels, but you will know. Be humble and have Faith.

We are thankful for every single minute of this journey, for every single person we met, for everyone we visited. We learned with you all. We love you!

So you are probably wondering what we did to celebrate our Day 100?? - Well, we ran some errands, and then set in the couch and cried watching Oprah the entire afternoon! hahaha...(TRUE!) We cried watching all the Olympians stories (Oprah was having a special with all the medalists) and later with Charice (the little Philippine girl that sings like a star) achiving her dreams and thanking it all to God (watch her videos on YouTube).

We were very sentimental.

We woke up and drove about an hour to Park City. We can't believe we made it! We drove 25 miles uphill and second gear! Poor car! lol

We stopped by the office and once we glanced the instructions we got very scared. The house was in the middle of a hill, 10% incline, slow climb. I don't remember breathing during the drive...haha...

Little engine that could. We made it. The biggest challenge was the garage, very low clearance, we barely made it! The car? Well... the car gave 110% and when Nick opened the hood everything was boiling.

Passed the minutes of horror... we opened our eyes and realized how worth it everything was. The house was beautiful, with incredible views for the mountains. We didn't know (never been skiing before) but Park City is a famous ski resort and also home of Winter Olympics in 2002. Beautiful!

Thank you Laura!

All we did was shower and relax the rest of the day! What a good plan!

Our destination was Park City, Utah where my friend Laura has a house. She was nice enough to let us stay in the house for a week. We were booked to get the keys in the office during business ours so we had the entire day free on Sunday.

We were in Idaho Falls but decided to not see anything just drive straight to Salt Lake City (one hour away from Park City) and spent the night as our budget is getting tighter. We looked for a safe Wal-Mart and parked. Nick used the day light to work in the car again as we've been smelling gas again.

The temperature difference was shocking! Over 60 degrees warmer!

I wasn't feeling well, so I just took some medicine and slept (I had a very bad headache and sinus).

We slept all the hours we could, packed and hit the road mid afternoon. We sold our generator to make some extra cash as the next drives will be very long. We didn’t use our generator a lot, and it was taking space, it was heavy…time to go.

 

We had to drive through the park to get to our next destination Utah. If you look at the map, the only on North West Wyoming cuts through Yellowstone. If you are traveling around the area, be aware of the $25 fee even if you’re just driving by.

As we had to be in the park again, we stopped to see the Grand Prismatic Spring (cover of many books) which we missed during the other days (there was no sign so we didn’t find it). Luckily it was on our way! We got the right information, parked our trailer and went check it out.
 
It was beautiful but a little disappointing as we could not have a good view. The spring is huge (largest hot spring in the USA, and the third largest in the world) but built path is low on the ground, so we could not have a view of the whole thing. Well we did it, we took some pictures and head out. I’ll post a picture of it from an aerial view so you have a better idea of what I’m saying.

After over 100 miles driven to cross the park, we were in the highway again but we decided to not drive too far as it was night time. We drove to a Wal-Mart in and stayed there.

We woke up super early as it was very cold in the trailer. We grabbed some Mcbreakfast and hit the road. The driving to was a mix of different sceneries but still very boring for hours, it was cold and hard to keep the car warm! The sceneries got better once we drove through Cody and actually arrived at the campsite.

 

We arrived at Yellowstone Valley Inn campground around 10am (in Wapiti) but it was so cold that we decided to relax and wait to go to the park later. The temperature was around its 30s, windy and rainy.

 

Once we had our hot drinks, packed up all the jackets and all the socks we could find, we went to the park. The park was 30 miles away from the campground (the closest one to the East entrance of the park).  A beautiful drive, amazing I would say. Snow capped mountains, rocky hills and creeks.

Surprisingly on Thursday we had our first snow! Little flurries coated our shoulders and hoodies! Cold but very exciting!

We spent the rest of the day of that day and all day on Friday in the park (Friday was a sunny day, no snow!)

Yellowstone is spectacular. We saw all the volcanic activity, the mud volcanoes, boiling hot springs, colorful formations, geysers, the wonderful old faithful and the wild life. We saw hundreds of huge bison, elk, deer, coyotes…but most exciting of all we saw a grizzly bear really close to us! The rangers make sure you’re safe, they track the animals with their radars, so they are always close to where the bears appear, there was no danger. So beautiful!

 

We also saw a black bear from far (very far), and Nick climbed up a mountain to join the wolves specialists to watch a pack running on a field far away. They used special equipment to see them (telescopes).

 
Just like , you can see the animals really close, crossing the roads, jamming traffic.

 
The park is huge, hundreds of miles of roads, basically a big loop and a couple of ramifications. Our advices if you ever plan to visit the park are:
 

• Make sure you fill up your tank! You will drive A LOT, no matter what your plan is.

• Stop at the closest visitor center and learn about the geology of the park. is actually a huge crater of an old volcano that is still in activity. A hot lava layer lies under the park, boiling its water, creating its geysers and mud volcanoes. Watch the free videos and learn before you travel hunting for good shots. It will make more sense.

• Another reason for a visit to the information center is so you can pick what you want to see. Unfortunately the maps and the road signs are not very well assigned, and you can miss some of the most famous attractions by driving pass them.
• Wildlife – Bring binoculars with you! Once you spot a couple of cars parked on the road slow down, open your eyes and prepare your camera. They probably see something.

• Have a well packed cooler with drinks and food for a day! Again, it is a long drive, with not many service stations.

• Camp inside the park! offers different campsites in different locations. The best time to spot animals is dawn and dusk so it makes it easier if you’re sleeping inside the park. We didn’t camp in the park and regret it. Our drive at the end of the day was exhausting and we would get back to our trailer around midnight.

• If you are not camping, stay on the west entrance – busier, lots of motels and restaurants.

 
So Friday night, we got back to the trailer by midnight, had a good night of sleep and prepared our minds to be back on the road on Saturday.

 

We left South Dakota around mid afternoon.

During one of our gas stops Nick noticed we had a little problem with our inverter (the inverter keeps our refrigerator running while we drive). The 30amp he used temporarily was too small and blew.

There were a few auto part stores and also a Wal-mart right next to us so he stopped to get it fixed. We lost a lot of daylight time during this mission, so we decided to drive just an hour more and park.

We found another Wal-Mart on the road, Worland, WY if I'm not wrong and spent the night.

We woke up around 7am. It was a beautiful morning, perfect sky, deep blue, no clouds….and a very gentle 20mph freezing wind that dropped the temperatures to its 40s with a 20s sensation! Thanks God and James and Jen we were equipped with a heater and 2 amazing winter jackets. We put our hoodies on and headed to a touristic day.

 

Our first stop: .Mt. Rushmore National Memorial -It was way more interesting and intriguing than we ever thought it would be. It was amazing. We learned about it’s history: different layouts, why those four presidents were chosen, why it’s called Rushmore, how they built it, the life of the sculptor, the chamber behind the faces that holds part of the American history…) – I will type some historic information right next to the pictures once I post it).

 

Second stop: Old Time pictures! I always wanted to do it. We found a studio in Keystone that had outside settings! I was just too much fun! The pictures came out great! I was a saloon girl and Nick the cowboy! Wait and see the pics!

 

Third stop: Wall Drug – A Huge Drug store/museum/café/chapel/gift store/mall/playground/tourist attraction. This place has everything thing. What once was an old western town still has that old western look with new modern day twist. We saw this attraction in the book that Steven lent us and it was worth it!!

 

Fourth stop: Badlands National Park – Once again we got in free because of our National park pass!! Woo Hoo!! It’s an enormous park of dramatic landscaping beautiful erosions, and deep valleys. We saw Pronghorn Antelopes, zillions of prairie dogs, and a couple of rabbits and chipmunks. The park was so beautiful that the drive through the park was only about 20 miles but it took us 4-5 hours to cross, and we only saw the east side (the better half). Took us two hours to get back to the camp site, cooked tacos and passed out.

 

Tomorrow we will be departing around mid afternoon heading towards national park. We are very excited!!

By the 10000^th time Nick had to work in the car for some “routine maintenance”. Oil change, check this, check that...there were some things he had to fix because it was lowering our gas mileage. So he fix it all, added K&N air filter and ZMAX (a product that supposedly increases your gas mileage and horse power).

 

 We packed and ran away from the storm!!! We drove 8hrs IN THE MIDDLE OF NO NO NOWHERE! I mean, nowhere and DARK! There was no gas station for over 100 miles! It does not end there… no gas stations AND NO EXITS! There was no way out! At one point the road was so dark for so many miles that we started having hallucinations! We could swear we were seeing UFOs!!!! LOL!!! (well, we didn’t but it made our time go by faster, try that!).

 

The good news was that the adjustments he made in the car and the ZMAX really increase our fuel efficiency. We went from 11-13mph to about 18mph! That is a huge change. We probably increased 100 miles to the tank! AWESOME!

 

We arrived on our destination Sunday night around 1am and crashed in a hotel parking lot.

 

Monday morning we woke up and drove to the campground. The drive….oh the drive.. lol despite 100 signs advising the road wasn’t good for trailers, too steep and winding, we decided to take it as our GPS was couldn’t find the campground and that was the shortest way according to the campground owner.

 

16A – Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway - Iron Mountain Rd – : Don’t do it if you have a big rig or you are pulling a trailer!!! But don’t miss it! Lol It is an amazing drive up and down a huge mountain, with one lane tunnels, narrow one lane/one way roads, no shoulder, wooden bridges….but very scary! Second gear most of the time!!!!!!!!!! Lol The road is such a great work of engineering, once you drive out of the tunnels you face Mt Rushmore framed by trees on the distance.

 

Once camp was set… all we wanted was a nap.

 

We woke up in the middle of the afternoon and headed to the closest grocery store: 25 MILES AWAY! Stopped on Keystone on our way, it was cold and rainy evening. Keystone is an interesting town with a modernized old western look and only 310 habitants. Hotels, shops and lots of touristic attractions, mines, caves, Mt Rushmore museum….

 

Back home – dinner and movie time.

 We woke up, did some basic internet research and after lots of phone calls, we found one campground that had vacancy! Wooo Hoooo! We drove about 7 miles to Carter Lake Campground.

 

We set up camp, took a quick shower and headed to the Rocky Mountains Nat’l Park. The way to the park was through National Forests and through , it was a magnificent drive. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! It was full of dramatic views and a winding road crossing high mountains and creeks. 

The is huge, we used our National Park Yearly Pass for the first time! We went to the Park both Friday and Saturday. We drove most of the time, stopping for pictures or wild animals. We saw LOTS of elks, big horn sheep (ram), deers, a couple of yellow-bellied marmots and lots of friendly chipmunks and squirrels (these little guys would actually put up a show to be fed! – Feeding the animals is completely against park rules but it is really hard to resist when you have chipmunks running on your lap or a bird starring at you and landing on your arm for food – it was too cute!).

The highest elevation during our drive was about 12000 feet (SO COLD!) and the highest mountain in the park is over 14000 feet – no air…no air!

 

We constantly ran out of breath during our short walks, I had some little nose bleeding problem and we both had big headaches. We did everything they recommend: drink a lot of water, take deep breaths, don’t hike long distances…but it didn’t work! We really felt the high altitude.

 

Just as a piece of information if you plan to travel to high altitudes - every person responds differently to such drastic changes. Some people (like me) will feel the difference right away: lack of oxygen when you are breathing, dry mouth, dehydration, headaches, nose bleeding… Other people (like Nick) will not feel the difference until the body completely collapses (this is probably a little more dangerous as you can push your self over your body limits. Nick was feeling good… he even mentioned at one point he could go for a jog (lol) at the top of the mountain!!!... but at the end of our day, when he did a little steep uphill hiking he crashed. He ran out of air and we thought he was going to pass out. It took him a long time to recover. Only when we got back to the bottom of the mountains he started to feel better.

 

So be careful. Drink plenty water and take it easy.

 
Saturday on the way back to the campground we stopped at a Barbecue place – Dave’s. It was my wish: Colorado Ribs! Hmmmm yummy yummy!  It was so delicious! The best part was actually the appetizer; we had sauted mushrooms with Parmesan and Swiss Cheese on top, served over some little garlic toast bread. I just can’t express how much we loved that.

Sunday morning was time to pack and go. Next destination: Keystone, South Dakota, home of Mount Rushmore.

We had a looooong stretch ahead of us. We had to cross and to get to . It was a very boring drive. We drove about 10hrs on Wednesday and 10hrs on Thursday. Driving straight without any stop would take around 17 hrs. The highway to get to was shut because Obama was giving a speech in … so we had to change plans and find a different campground. (Labor Day weekend… in – try to find a campground after business hours! Good luck!)

 

We stopped at a campground by the road but it was too scary for us. The owner was nice and actually gave us directions to another area: . He said we should be able to find a campground there. We found a Wal-Mart where we crashed.

 

We took Monday and Tuesday to visit the and the Brookfield Zoo. 

We went to the Museum on Monday, right after having lunch with Steve in the city. He took us to Gino’s to try the traditional Chicago Deep Dish (delicious!). The museum was very nice, home of Sue the largest, most complete, and best preserved T. Rex fossil yet discovered. Sue stands 13 feet high at the hips and 42 feet long from head to tail. One of the only pieces of Sue that is not mounted is her 5-foot-long skull, which is too heavy to be placed on the steel armature that holds together her more than 200 fossilized bones. In its place, the Museum has installed a cast replica. Sue’s real skull is on display in a different exhibit. The purchased Sue for nearly $8.4 million – the most money ever paid for a fossil.

 

Besides Sue…there were a couple of other interesting exhibits and we run out of time. The museum closed before we could finish looking around.

Monday night the Grammers’ (James, Jen & family) came over for dinner.

Tuesday we went to Brookfield Zoo. I’m not a zoo fan but the zoo was really beautiful and the animals seemed to be content (except for the elephant and rhinos). I really liked the way they built the monkeys’ areas… it was huge (for the size of those monkeys) with rainforests and every single detail to make them feel at home (including rain!). I didn’t like the size of the lion and tiger area, I think they deserve a bigger cage for their sizes….

 

At night we went out for dinner with Steve and Rebecca and said good bye as they would be working when we left on Wednesday.

God blessed us with a gorgeous sunny day to tour Downtown Chicago. Steven and Rebecca treated us to a water taxi ride that left from the famous Navy Pier and took us to the Sears Tower, also treating us to tickets to go up to the observation deck. Thank you so much guys!

 

Sears Tower stands 1,450 feet was considered the tallest in the world for 25 years and nowadays is considered third tallest building in the world, still the tallest in North America. The view from the top of the building was magnificent. The skies were clear and we could see everything around.

On our way out we tried some delicious “Chicago style Hot dogs” – oh those were SO GOOD! What makes the hot dog so special? Here it is: Poppy seed buns, hot dog, quarter pickle, onion, tomato, mustard, relish, hot pepper and celery salt. (PS. Do not attempt to order ketchup if you don’t want to be in trouble! They can give you a real hard time!).

 

Next on our list was the Millennium Park. We saw the famous Cloud Gate (which I was really excited about, also famous as the big silver bean) a huge metallic sculpture that reflects the city's famous skyline and the clouds above, then the Jay Pritzker Pavillion and the BP Bridge. After the park we followed on our walking tour to the area (a boardwalk) where we could actually take some great shots of the skyline and take our water taxi back to the Navy Pier.

 

Oh! I forgot to mention… we had traditional Chicago beef for lunch! It was delicious but so big that we were actually having trouble walking! Lol

 

After this full day of food and excitement we had planned that I would cook a Brazilian dish at James’ house for dinner. We drove back home and to a Latin store to buy the ingredients and headed to their house.
 

What a great night. James and his wife Jen left us speechless with some surprises they had for us. So many blessings, difficult to understand why at one point, but when we listened from them why they’re doing what they did it was like everything we’ve been learning was falling into place. All we had to do was to accept, thank them, thank God and wish them double the blessings.

It is just amazing that Nick got together with this cousin after 20 years and it was just so beautiful, such an amazing blessing to be able to be with them and their family (James, Jen and the kids) and being able to talk about our Faith openly and the things we believe, the things we’ve learned, and being ourselves without upsetting people around us or being judged. More than that, we heard and learned things we needed, and we shared testimonies that they wanted to hear.
 

It was just perfect and we thank the Lord for giving us this opportunity.

Saturday we slept in.....what a great night! Big and comfy bed after so many days in our camper was more than we could wish for!

Steven and Rebbecca planned a visit to the Cantigny Park, mostly the First Division Museum (a museum of American History, war museum).  The foundation itself it's a non-profit organization created by Robert McCormick (once President of the Chicago Tribune) so people could realize that there were and are soldiers out there giving their lives so people could enjoy freedom in this country. Check more of it's history at http://www.cantigny.org/.

Inside you walk through recreated war scenes and than outside you can walk through and relax by gorgeous gardens and paths.

On our way to the museum we dropped off our car so James (Rebecca's brother) could take a look. Steven mentioned he was a mechanic and was prompt to help. So on our way back we stopped by James' house for dinner. We met his wife Jen and their kids Jessica and Justin. We had an amazing time. It was just unbelievable how many things we had in common with them in terms of Faith and passion for traveling (he owns a big RV and loves camping), the way we see life and things like that.

More pieces of this big road trip puzzle were falling into place.

James actually did way more than looking at our car, he did an unbelievable job inspecting every inch of our car and putting back in shape (and extras) which left us speechless, then Jen gave us some nice winter jackets to prepare us for the upcoming fall in the North part of the country.

It was such a good time that we set to meet again on Sunday for dinner, and I would cook some Brazilian food, after we tour downtown Chicago with Steven and Rebbecca.

Thursday night was a stormy night. Friday looked a little better early in the day but the rain started as soon as we started loading up, Debi showed up to help and we quickly got everything done.

We were supposed to leave around noon and ended up late, very late...but: everything happens for a reason.

The first delay occurred when the car decided not to start due to a dead battery. Once Debi finished helping us out she said she had to run to Walmart to buy some stuff for her charity car wash.... so we called her and ask her to grab a battery for us being she was there (right timing).

She brought it... Nick waited till the rain stopped and put it in. Right after we finished (after 1pm) Debi got a call from her mechanic and needed a ride from us to follow her to the mechanic as she needed to drop her work truck off. It was supposed to be a quick drop off... when we got there the mechanic had the chance to actually fix her car at that moment...so we waited with her. He run into some complications... so we got back to the campsite around 3pm.

It was fine with us, as we said, everything happens for a reason.

Anyways.... back to the site... time to say byes (good byes are not always quick) and hit the road around 4pm. Well, try to. lol

We started driving and a mile and a half down the road to put some air in the tires and the car decided to act up again. We drove away from the gas the station...and right when we were crossing the road the car completely died (stalled he says)...- (do not panic... we actually made to the shoulder and were in a safe spot).

Nick open the hood and started checking our last vital signs...everything seemed fine, so he put his head down and prayed. The answer was fairly quick. The Lord answered him "You are out of gas Moron!" LOLOL.... The Lord was right. We added some gas and we were good to go! (that was around 5pm!!).

The best part was God tried to tell Nick that we needed gas IN THE GAS STATION but Nick drove away (just a little stubborn) and actually, tried to drive away quickly... he really didn't think we could possibly be out of gas. That is great! Now, can you picture Nick "Come on! Come on! Let's go! We're gonna get stuck in the gas station!!!!" I love him.

Anyways.... back on the road, we had to stop by Auto Zone to return the old battery for the core charge. Guess what?? The car died AGAIN!!! A very nice salesperson came out to help us and we decided to check alternator and battery. As a result the alternator was bad and our old battery was good. So time to work on the car a little more! God sent us some extra help one more time. Our friends from the campground Paula and Kerry saw us and stopped to help (sure enough God sent Kerry, who is a mechanic!).

Well... Nick had done this kind of job before but it great to have them with us, a professional angel supervising us.

After about 2.5hrs at that parking lot we finally left the area (about 8pm)!

It took us less than 2hrs to reach our destination, traveling against time (as we changed time zones)... we left at 8pm and got here in Bolingbrook at 8:45pm.

It was the longest 2hr drive ever! It took us almost 10hrs to drive 2! LOL!!!

When we got here, our hosts Steven and his wife Rebbecca were a little preoccupied with all our car problems but very welcoming! I finally met some of Nick's family on his dad's side.

Shower, little chatting - catching up - as it had been over 20 years since they have seen each other, delicious dinner, and a warm and huge, comfy bed! So good! Thank you guys.

I still want to take the time to sit with Nick and write about all the things we've been learning and realizing about our faith and blessings we've received during this journey. It is just amazing and I will soon edit the website and add somewhere the new name for our journey - "Road Trip 2008 - Changing Lives one city at the time". That means we are not only changing people's life with all we've been doing, but actually ours as well, little by little. Every person, every helping hand, every blessing..... it's all counted as joy.

BUT as I said... you will have to wait! We really want to take our time and write something that will translate what we have been feeling.

Love you all!

Last week was a very busy week and weekend for us!

On the 14th Nick and I had a special romantic day! He surprised me with a trip to a local water park to have some fun and later a super special romantic dinner by the sunset (I posted some pictures a few days ago). It was amazing! Even Chris and Tim helped him to plan everything and grilled our dinner while we had a glass of wine and took some pictures.

The weekend we had fun and helped our Chris with her "back to school" fun activities at the campground. There was a spidey appearance and face painting on Friday evening and games on Saturday. Nick was a game master for about 4 hrs.... we had a lot of fun.

At night, Chris and Tim surprised us with a beautiful "Thank you card" and a bonus. We really didn't expect that, it was a blessing, they've been such a true blessing to us.

We kept working and painting buildings during the week, and today - Thursday was our day off. Time to clean up... rest and organize everything to get back on the road tomorrow.

We didn't have the time to mention, but here we also met Debi. Debi is a very faithful servant (from Nashville, Tennessee) and taught us A LOT. Debi finds a way to share everyday the little she has. She shares the word, she has a beautiful testimony and she spreads blessings all around (like paying tolls for the car behind her on the highway....or leaving extra quarters on the laundry room). She also gave us beautiful gifts that we are forever thankful for so much kindness.

We are definitely crushed in having to leave. We made great friend and met awesome people. We learned a lot.

Our next destination is Chicago, IL where we will visit Nick's cousin Steven Souris.

Hi everyone!

We've been having a great time at the Caboose Lake Campground in Indiana! We basically finish our assignment (painting the bathroom - we only have some trims left to paint on Monday) and we were supposed to leave on Monday... but Chris (the owner) really enjoyed our work (and we enjoyed our stay)  that she offered some more work for us.

We accepted! So we will be staying one more week here. It's awesome. It is definitely not about attractions that we would like to visit in the area because we haven't seen much, to tell the truth today was the first time we left the campground BUT we are TRULY having a great time here.

Chris has provided us a great camping spot in trade for our services and also lends movies to us for free, and now is even feeding us lol. We are so thankful. Chris and her dad brought us tons of fresh veggies - sweet corn, green beans, tomatoes, cabbage, cucumber.... but tons! So delicious.... fed us dinner yesterday, lunch today... and besides all that, they are simply good people to be around.

Thank you Chris!! It's our pleasure to do a good work for them and the bible says: Whatever you do be great. We do it not only for you, but for God.

So today we left the campsite, we went to the Wolf Farm! Nick was pretty excited in seeing wolves for the first time.... it was really nice, but a little frustrating because the wolves were kept behind double fences, and they were all sleeping... not much interaction. Hopefully  we will be a little luckier at Yellowstone!

We left Anthony's house Monday at the end of the day. Nick order a pizza and we took with us for dinner (and breakfast, and lunch....lol). We drove for about 3 hours to Lafayette, IN and had a very stormy night.

Tuesday we kept our way heading to Chicago, but decided to stop by a campground still in Lafayette to check if they needed any help. When we got there we found out that the storm from the night before was actually pretty serious, with tornado threats around us and everything.

Thank you God for keeping us safe.

The campground owner didn't need any help but told us to stop by a different camp a few miles north. We did and surprise surprise! We found some work and changed our plans.

We are Caboose Lake Campground, Remington, IN. A very beautiful and well maintained campground around a lake. Chris, the owner said we could stay as she has about 5 days worth of work for us and we can stay here for 7 days. We are what campers call volunteer workers (we work to pay our stay). 

Yesterday we picked up some trash and today we started painting the outside of the bathroom building. It was a beautiful day, it was fun to work together. Around 2pm we were done for the day and had some fun in the lake! We went paddle boating, swimming and took a long nap.

This will be a great experience and we will spent more time on the same place, rest a little more and have some fun.

Friday we spent the morning at a Walmart parking lot changing the brakes. Early afternoon we went for a little tour in Columbus,OH but we got very lost, and I guess we were too tired for that. We went by Santa Maria - a perfect replica of Christopher Columbus wooden vessel Santa Maria - http://www.santamaria.org/index.php. Surprisingly the vessel was way smaller than we ever imagined out of our history classes. It was very interesting, but unfortunately the area was very dirty, so sad.

Right after seeing the Santa Maria replica we drove through the German Village. A nice neighborhood just south of Columbus. Brick streets and historic houses originally built by German immigrants throughout the 1800s. Very beautiful!

We heard about a approaching storm so we decided to run back to walmart, pack our stuff and head to Springboro.

I finally met Nick's cousin Anthony, Jamie and the cutest baby ever Emma. In the evening Anthony ordered a delicious pizza, and the cousins were catching up.

Saturday they took us to a park close by - Caesar Creek Park. A very beautiful park, dam and some hiking trails. We drove around many areas of the park and even chanced a short hike with Emma. We all had a good time.

After our outdoors activities we had dinner at a great Chinese place (yummy) and then movie session!

Today we spent the day at home, chatting, cleaning up the trailer and car, went to the store for some supplies and grilled some chicken and steak for dinner.

A little word about our website...

I've been trying to keep all the different areas of the website updated. On the front page you will find the headlines so you can quickly read about what's going on if you don't have much time or patience.

*The Journal has a more detailed description of our days, it is our diary - it is for those how like reading.
*Pictures section is actually my picture storage on my shutterfly account, so every picture I upload is safe if anything ever happen to my hard drive (so please forgive me for the huge amount of pictures).
*Maps is the area which I've been lacking... sorry! I will try to fix it asap!
*Videos... well... we will upload one, one day! lol We've been collecting some short videos that we took here and there, and one days we will put it together, add a music, and upload it. I will probably tell everyone when the first video is up.

If you have any suggestions to make this website better, let us know! You can also ask us questions! We are waiting on your feedback! Love, Cami & Nick

Today we woke up and said bye to our neighbors (the ones Nick was hanging out while I was in bed). We went to the beach on lake Erie, actually drove to two different spots.One small sandy beach and the other a one mile long pier that lead us to a small lighthouse, bird sanctuary.

It was a nice little morning, we saw lots of birds.

Back to the campground we got a little lost trying to find a grocery store on that small town - it wasn't a easy job. Finally back to the trailer we grilled a lot of chicken breasts so we could have it ready for a later meal at our next stop.

We are on the road right now, heading to Columbus where we plan to sleep at a Walmart and enjoy our day.

We woke up at 6am and headed to Sandusky.  It was a very easy drive due to the flat roads. We arrived at our destination just before 9am. We really didn’t have a place to stay, and God showed us the way. We found a huge campground right by the entrance of the city, Sandusky Bayshores. Set up, got dressed and headed to the famous Cedar Point Park.

It was a huge park with giant roller coasters that amazed us and kept us entertained for hours! You can check their website at www.cedarpoint.com to have a better idea of the rides. Our three favorites ones were: 1 – The Thrill Dragster (takes you from 0 to 120mph in 4secs than a goes straight up vertical to 420feet and followed by a vertical drop....all in only 17secs! AWESOME!), 2- Millennium Force – a gigantic coaster! 310 feet in the air that speeds up to 92mph! Huge! And 3- Magnum XL200 – very fast also, up to 72mph and 205feet high. The smaller rides were also fun, except for the wooden one that shook us like a blender would. It felt like my brain was still rattling in my head for another 30mins after the ride, and got Nick a little stomach sick.

We left the park after a whole day walking and riding. We had a blast! By the time we got back to the campground, I was dead! All I wanted was a good warm shower and my bed. Nick had the energy for fire and to hang out with the neighbors, I passed out!

We left the hotel in Niagara Falls early afternoon, stopped by a laundromat to do some laundry and also shopped for some supplies.

Following the suggestion of our Niagara tour guide, we stopped by Buffalo on the way out and went a place called ANCHOR BAR to try buffalo wings. What's so special about it? Well, that was the place where Buffalo wings were born! lol The original recipe! It was really delicious. Nick and I are not crazy about deep fried food, but we have to give them the credit, it was really good!

Buffalo was a very charming city, with lots of old churches. Sometimes we wish we had the time and budget to stop by every single city we drive by and stay a couple of days to do everything people tell us to do. It is amazing how many things and places are out there to see, the more we see the more we realize we haven't really seeing anything!!!

So after our buffalo wings delight, it was time to hit the road on our way to Ohio. After a little research, and talking to some friends that know the area, we found out that Ohio is way more than a "fly by state" (or should I say "drive by") as lot of people would say. Besides visiting Nick's cousin in Dayton, we will make a couple of stops.

Our first destination is Cedar Point - The Roller Coaster Capital of the World! Located on the North side of the state, Sandusky, by Lake Erie. Than we will head to Columbus where we will tour a little and than go to Dayton on the weekend.

First good thing about Ohio - CHEAP gas (average $3.60) and flat roads! As Bernie would say "THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!".

We spent the night at a Pilot Truck Stop in Avon, OH just outside of Cleveland. That was the first crowded parking lot we've stayed, over fifty 16 wheelers around our little Nissan and itty bitty trailer, they looked like monsters! 

Hi everyone,

First of all I would like to thank Veronica and Gus for the kind supporting message. It means a lot to us to know that you guys are actually following the website and our journey. We are always concerned in keeping it updated. But more important than that, we appreciate the kind and comforting words. It was a really sad moment, but we picked our heads up and kept going.
So Monday we woke up around 5am or 5:30am.after a very cold night at the gas station and hit the road towards Niagara Falls.

We arrived there around 11:30am, so we could enjoy our day. I found a hotel in one of those "room saver" magazines that you find at any information center/restaurants. I found a motel for only $27.99! We knew we would be staying at not so classy place (a roach motel).

The Motel was not that different from the city. We were very surprised on how old and "abandoned" Niagara Falls city was - very very strange. The motel was so slow that the owners let us park our trailer right at our front door. The decoration of the place was also very interesting. Outside our doorstep there was a very "welcoming" coach/bench or I should say - car seat! Yes, a car seat was used as patio furniture. I wasn't sure if I should mentioned this... but if we didn't care, we hope you guys don't mind that either and just have fun with the story like we did: there was a piece of dry lettuce aging and decorating the bedroom wall. LOL.

Our first move was to get all our cleaning supplies, sheets, blankets and towels and set up camp than we quickly jumped on the shower and headed to the world famous falls.

We opted for a guided trip instead of walking everywhere on our own. A little treat after our difficult night. The Niagara Falls Park is huge and you have to pay different parking fees in different areas if you decide to drive around different attractions. The guide said if you don't drive you are probably looking at about a 16 mile walk, which would take about 2 days to enjoy the attractions.

The guided tour cost us a lot of money for our tight budget trip, but it was SO WORTH IT! I'm glad we did it. It took us about 5-6hrs to see the main attractions. The first one - The lady of the mist. A boat ride to the bottom of the falls. AMAZING! The so called mist was more like a heavy rain - a storm! We got soaked but very excited with our waterproof camera! We recommend!

Right after the boat ride, we stopped at the top of the observation tower where we could have a beautiful view of the falls and the Canadian side of the park. We walked through the souvenir shop and took a ride to the hydro-power plants outside the park - a lot of information and scenic views, including a view of a real size turbine, used on the power plant - that was huge! (over 15' diameter). After we left the plant we went to the Whirlpool Park where we could see the huge whirlpool the Niagara river creates and also the rapids (class 6 rapids! - most severe class). It is against the law to attempt to ride any kind of water vessel along those rapids, it is extremely dangerous.

There is a ride that if your budget allows, it is probably the most exciting one in the park, it is called the Jetboats. The jetboats are super fast vessels that ride the river up to the whirlpool and spins around. Crazy but probably a lot of fun.

 On the way back to the main park we stopped at the Dare Devil Museum/convenience store where we learned about all the stories of people that attempted to go down the falls or accidents and saw the actually crazy vessels this crazy people created for this attempts. Some attempts were successful.... some were not.

Back to the main park, we went to the Cave of the winds. A walk to the bottom of the Bridal Veil (name of one of the falls). You can have a better idea of what I'm saying when you go through the pictures. It is not a nature trail, but actually a set of diverse man made stairs and decks that goes up to 15 feet away from the waterfall - the so called  "Hurricane Deck". They say the wind and water force you feel when you are standing on that deck is equal to a category 3 hurricane. WOW! Not sure if that information is true or not, I've never been outside during a hurricane cat 3...lol but it was really amazing, magnificent.

Our last stop was a quick walk to the top Horseshoe Falls, a very nice view of the Falls, from the top - where all the Dare Devils attempted to beat the Falls.

We got home very tired, cooked some spaghetti and meatballs... and passed out!

Sunday was another sunny morning after a rainy night. It was actually a perfect morning so we had the chance to dry up our equipment before packing and avoid all the muddy mess caused by the rain.

We had to check out around 1pm so we still enjoyed our morning in a weird way. I never thought I would visit a cemetery as part of a tourist attraction….but we followed the suggestion of the Granite quarry guide and went to the to check out the sculptures. Well, you have to remember we were in Graniteville….land of granite and granite artists so the cemetery was actually a showroom or exhibition of wonderful granite sculptures. I meant, wonderful. Check out the pictures.

Luckily enough, when we stopped to check out the famous soccer ball, the man the actually sculpted it was there. He was on his late 80s or early 90s. We had the pleasure to meet him and see some other artworks. One of his sculptures, the cube (see pics) was featured on the National Geographic. Nice.

Back to the campground, time to pack and say bye to our friends. They had to leave a little earlier as they had to go back to real life. Nick and I finish packing and hit the road – Next destination – CANADA !

 

Well… almost .

During our 4 hour drive, the road was amazing! We even took the Ferry to go across to get back to NY State. We drove by windmill farms and other breath taking sceneries!

So excited we were, we didn’t count on the not so nice Canadian border patrol – a very sad story after so many weeks of excitement that I would meet my family in Toronto after all these years. 

  

--- We strongly recommend you to read carefully this journal entry if you are planning to visit or you know someone that will. ---

We cross the bridge through the city of Massena, NY and stopped at the border. The immigration officer asked a couple of questions concerning length of our stay, reason, and other common questions. Following the advice of our friends at the Lazy Lions campground we listed the hunting gear we had on board. They said it could cause us a lot of trouble on the way if we did not mention. So we mentioned the bow and arrow, hatchet, machete and pocket knives. First flag was up. She questioned why we are carrying so many “weapons”…. so now she listed some other items that she wanted to know if we had in our possession, including PEPPER SPRAY – guess, one more weapon in our luggage! “Yes we do carry pepper spray mam.” Immediately she asked me where that spray was and quote on quote said: “Carrying pepper spray in is illegal. It is like carrying a fully loaded 9mm”. Things were getting worse. She told us to park the trailer, do not get close, not go back inside, not touch any of our belongings and see an immigration officer. It was so cold, and we were not allowed to get our jackets out of the trailer.

More questions…including – have you ever been previously arrested? Oh well. Yes sir, we both were. Nick had a trespassing charge when he was 18 and I had a very stupid DUI on my first year in the , about 4 or 5 years ago. I think we fit on everything single category of “non welcome”.

They cleared Nick, they didn’t clear me. According to the officer, I have to wait for 10 years passed the date of my DUI court to be accepted in . My world went down. All I could think of was my family being so close and yet, so far. So ironic how the immigration does not care about a DUI, but the Canadians, look at you as a dangerous threat.

 

However, the drama did not stop there. Treated like number one suspects we were escorted by three officers that equipped with gloves and flashlights demanded to inspect our trailer and car, than kindly show us the way back to the .

 

Those minutes they were inside our little home felt like an eternity. I was freezing outside, and I couldn’t help, I was crying a lot. Totally broken hearted, it hurt so much. I felt violated watching them moving everything around. Nick was very comforting the whole time, keeping me warm and calm.

 

I totally respect God’s plan for us and I understand we were just not supposed to go to a different country, different laws and it was a good thing they didn’t allow us in as we could go straight to jail if they found our pepper spray later when we were inside the country, or even finding out of my past DUI too late HOWEVER it is still so difficult to accept the man law, when God created the earth he did not create the borders and immigration laws. But, it’s in the bible - respect the man law. Everything happens for a reason and we know when God shuts one door he opens another.

Bottom line is: I'm crushed that I will not see my family but I do not regret telling the truth on the border. During the time we were there, we did not see anyone else having their vehicles searched. We know we were just not supposed to go and God knows the reason why. I would not have done it differently even if I had know the rules.

Oh well, no , we turned around and now faced American immigration officers. Thank God no problems here. It was 10pm on a Sunday in a small town and we had to change our route. We were starving and couldn’t find a place to eat – we were in the middle of nowhere, but McDonalds was there for us.

Yucky old Mcfood filled us up. We drove till 1am, got nowhere. Parked in front of an ice cream shop/gas station around and slept.

P.S.: Almost forgot to mention we had another prohibited item! FIREWOOD! DO NOT try to enter Canada with firewood! It's a no no! We had some left over wood from the campground that was against the law also. Wanna know another funny item you are not supposed to bring to Canada? NO SECOND HAND MATTRESSES! NO NO NO! Canadians are against American used mattresses, go figure.

We woke up early, ready to go have some fun and visit touristic attractions around the area. First stop – ROCK OF AGES. The biggest granite quarry in the world. We had the opportunity to visit the quarry on a guided tour for only $3 per person! Lots of information and good pics. At the end of the visit we had the chance to sandblast our own granite piece and take home as a souvenir. However, besides the view, and the opportunity, the most interesting thing for me was finding out that quarry manufactured the arches of the beautiful monument we saw in – the World War II memorial. That’s amazing! This little piece of information makes the trip even better. It’s like we are seeing things, and actually learning its roots…. History.

Second stop does not need too many comments, you probably have an idea on how delicious it was…. We visited the very first BEN & JERRY’S FACTORY!!! From cows to unlimited samples of Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream and a Flavors Graveyard (where they have a memorial for flavors they don’t produce any more…) we had a great time.

Third stop… CABOT cheese store. Cabot is a famous local cheese factory, the factory was out of our way, so we stopped by the store to check it out. Yummy samples of every kind of cheese and cheese spreads you can possibly imagine.

Fourth stop… Cold Hollow Cider Mill – after sampling ice cream and lots of cheese… nothing like free fresh cold apple cider. What a day! A beautiful place, we had the chance to learn about the apple cider production…. and drink lots of fresh squeezed apple cider. Not only that… but right across the street there was a wine tasting for only $1 and we had the chance to taste exquisite flavors like Hard cider, blueberry, peach wine….

Fifth stop – Glass blow studio. We didn’t plan this one, but it happened and it was great. It was a small store and studio. The studio had a glass wall and benches where we could seat and watch the artist creating a beautiful glass vase.

Sixth stop – The floating bridge. Suggested by Darrell (the campground’s owner) – this was another great stop. The bridge was built in 1820 and literally floats on top of the river and moves according to the water level – up and down. Crazy. The bridge was closed for cars as it is too old, but we could walk on it. They said when cars were allowed, you would actually drive on the water, as the bridge would sink below water level – it was about 100 yards long. 

What a long day! God blessed our day with all this activities and a beautiful day. We noticed the rain coming…rushed home, grilled some hamburgers and we got rained out. Good thing our trailer is cozy and huge! ;) We had a nice inside dinner and played some more music.

 

After all the rain, Friday morning was surprisingly gorgeous. A beautiful sun knocked at our door, woke us up and led our way to our destination – .

The drive on US2 from to was no doubt the most beautiful drive so far. Really hard to describe, not even the pictures could translate it. Images the will be in our hearts forever.

We got to the LAZY LIONS campground early afternoon. Nice area, lots of forestry, shaded sites and very friendly people. As soon as we finished setting up, our guests (Jorginho and Camila) arrived. How exciting! Friends and camping nights! It was like vacation of vacation!

We set up a little tent as our guest house, right next to the outside dining tent (that screen tent we have), and went to the store to buy the supplies for our barbecue and smores! Jorginho brought his acoustic bass and joined Nick and his acoustic guitar for our little jam session after dinner by the fire.

Friends+BBQ+Fire+Music....it doesn't get better than this.

Our only objective driving to Hanover, ME was to be closer to our next route, and stop by a cheap campground so we could shower and do some laundry after 2 Walmart nights.

It was raining when we left Brunswick - pouring some times... and the rained followed us the whole time... it was pouring when we got to Hanover at the Stony Brook Campground! Mud mud mud!

The drive was beautiful but it wasn't fun to set up in the rain. Nick didn't let me help, he did it all by himself and got soaked! First thing we did, HOT SHOWER! Delicious!!!!

I wasn't feeling good at all, I had cramps and I was feeling a little weak. Good thing it was raining, so I didn't feel bad about taking a long afternoon nap! Nick spent the day working on our next route and making phone calls. I didn't see a thing - passed out! Forget about laundry... I will try tomorrow at the next campground.

Tomorrow we should be heading to Vermont - Graniteville, close to the capital Montpelier for a weekend with our friends Jorginho and Camila. It will be fun to have company! =)

After a great night of cool temperature we left the trailer at Walmart and drove to Boothbay Harbor - a gorgeous little drive, with lots of coastal scenic roads. We had a great time, Nick tried a famous Lobster Roll, we had delicious home made ice cream, took lots of picture and enjoyed the cold weather!!!!  We couldn’t believe how the weather was today – it was in the high 60s, low 70s midday. Cold summer ahn?
 

We are now studying our next route, we should be heading NW Maine tomorrow where we are gonna stay at a real campground and shower (our last shower was yesterday morning!! Shhhhhh….lol). So Thursday Brunswick to Hanover, Friday Hanover to somewhere on the intersection of US-2 and US-89 in Vermont where Jorginho & Camila will meet us for a couple days of some camping fun! Our very first guests! Wooooo Hooooo! So exciting!

We will have company on the road! Nick will have a guy for his guy’s stuff and I will have a girlfriend for some girl talk and trips to the restroom (hahahaha!). Great! Hopefully everything will work out for them and this will actually happen, God Bless us. Now I have to do my first deep cleaning and fix the “entire” house for guests (haha).

 

After the weekend our plans are to head to Montreal, Quebec. What a great time we are having!  

We woke up on Tuesday and took our time. We had a lot of work to do on the computer, fax to send, Nick went out for breakfast with Jorginho and I stayed home chatting with my sister that is going through a hard time.

Camila's mom travels a lot around New England area so she gave us a few tips on good destinations. We picked Boothbay, ME out of her suggestions.We hit the road again, heading to to a Walmart close to Boothbay so we could spend night safely. The road to Boothbay was super green and beautiful. 
 

Camila was very sick so she had to go to the doctor instead of "touring" Boston with us. (Camila Jorginho's girlfriend, not me!) ;)

We had a special Brazilian breakfast. My friend took us to a Brazilian bakery where I had delicious Brazilian pastries and Nick had his favorite – an açaí bowl. We headed to town and walked around . We both liked a lot, it is beautiful – old/English architecture. On its busy streets reminded us of but cleaner and less busy, very nice.

We saw downtown, Harvard, “Fenway park”,…some other places that I don’t really remember the name but I will try to look up as soon as I have an internet connection.

Jorginho also drove us to , about half an hour from downtown a smaller city with an look.

Dinner was once again a Brazilian treat – we went back to the same restaurant but this time to a all you can eat buffet – mostly same dishes and the night before plus Angu (a seafood dish) and carne de panela (a Brazilian version of pot roast) and some different cuts of meat in our churrasco (maçã do peito, picanha, chicken sausage, cupim, pork, chicken hearts “coraçãozinho”,etc).

After dinner we all went to see THE DARK KNIGHT! Camila was feeling a little better, so she met us. Nick and I really liked, it was an awesome movie. I personally loved, mainly Heath Ledger acting as The Joker. I couldn't get over how real and bad he looked. It is a shame that he passed but we are sure the he is in a better place now, with God.

Saturday the boys worked with Tati (Mr. Barrows) cutting and pilling up some firewood. I cooked some Brazilian food for everyone and after the dinner we had A LOT of fun playing Mad Gab.
 

Sunday was church day! We went to church with Mrs. Barrows and Camellia – it was a beautiful message about stop worrying and start praying. We had a nice Romanian lunch after church and hit the road around 1pm. There was a lot of traffic on the road and we took double the time to get to.
 

We stayed at an old friend of mine’s house (Jorginho) and we met his girlfriend Camila. It was really good seeing him again. At night we went to a Brazilian restaurant and had a delicious and inexpensive meal. Nick had the chance to try churrasco (our barbecue), feijão tropeiro (a dish prepared with beans and some other ingredients), farofa (our seasoned and fried flour), salpicão (a salad prepared with pulled chicken), and salada de batata (potato salad but our recipe). After dinner Jorginho had to play in a Brazilian club. Jorginho is a musician, he plays bass guitar. We stayed just for a while as Nick was very tired.

We left Staten Island on Wednesday... a little after 1pm.

It wasn't really easy to leave everyone, after so many days I got very attached and I will sure miss everyone (by the way.... Terri, Nick brought me Coffee from Panera Bread this morning... it was pretty good, but not the same without you!).

After a loooooong trip (time wise as we were stuck in traffic all the way) we arrived at Eddie's and Jonathan's family house in West Springfield after 6pm.

We are having a great time here. I love the houses around here, all open in a very quiet neighborhood. Everyone is extremely nice and their sister Camelia and their brother Orpheus extremely funny.

Yesterday the boys spent the day on car projects and today we went to a lake about an hour from here. It has a very fun afternoon watching the guys playing on a rope swing that they built!

Camelia and I tried to enjoy the lake, but we couldn't hide... the lake was very slimy on the bottom... and quite scary because of the dark water and all the sea weed grabbing our legs. It was funny!

The phone doesn't really work well here, so we've been missing some calls or getting disconnected... just as a reminder, soon we are heading North to Maine then to Canada, so we may be completely out of touch (via phone and internet as it is the same carrier) for a couple of days.

We're still in Staten Island.

We were actually waiting for Nick's friend Matt to follow up with our plans to meet in Canada. It seems that things didn't work for him, so now is time for us to hit the road again and head North with no set plans. We are having some work done in the car, and it should be ready by the weekend. So we should be hitting the road again early next week.

We are trying to stretch our stay between NY-Canada so I can meet my family there. YES! I mean my family - my aunt (my dad's sister - my godmother) and my uncle will be arriving in Canada on July 28th so there is a chance we can meet them. I probably saw them about 3 times in the past 10 years and I miss them so so much. They are very important for me.

As for our last few days, we've been having a great time with Terri and the whole family (thank you so so much for everything), the boys went fishing, worked in projects (pressure washed and painted the garden table and chair set)....

We also went to the city again... took a few more pictures, I met my friend Laura (we worked together in Kauai, HI), took a "movie style nap" in Central Park...

Yesterday night, Lauren, Nick and I went to their aunt's house (Phyllis) in Brooklyn for dinner. I finally met Lori Ann. Phyllis cooked a loooooot of delicious food (when I say a lot I mean A LOT) - squash pie, meatballs, stuffed shells, pizza, desserts....and a WEDDING CAKE with champagne toast! What a surprise!

It was a really special and beautiful moment. We had a lot of fun and ate way more than we should...lol but it was delicious - thank you so much! We loved and you can check the pictures.

Ooooooooooooooops!

I completely forgot about the 4th of July posting. It was sitting on my drafts section. ;)

We went to a barbecue in New Jersey at Terri's friend's (Amy) house. We had a great time. Nick played a lot with tons of kids, and ended up hurting his thumb wrestling one of the big kids (a over 30 years old kid lol).

The big kids also spent a lot of time practicing their diving skills... and I got some great landing shots. Ouch!

I'm posting the pictures today!

Yesterday Nick and I went to the city.

We drove to New York to see Nick's cousin Stephen and meet my high school friend Danielle. We graduated in 1996 and I don't remember what was the last time I saw her.... probably around 2001 or 2002.

We met at Caliente Cab Co. It was so good and weird to meet someone after so long. Weird... I will explain. This was the first time I was meeting someone after so long. It's not that easy to catch up with all that went on over all this years. Where should we start?

During the few hours we were together we briefly spoke about carrier, relationship and living abroad. We had a great time and hopefully we will have the chance to meet again before we hit the road again.

After dinner we walked Danielle to the metro station and grabbed a slice of pizza at the famous Bleecker Street Pizza - The Best Pizza in NY according to the food channel. I have to confess it was good... but not my favorite. I still vote for Pizza Rustica in Florida. =) (I know you're probably thinking...pizza after dinner? Yes... pizza after dinner!!!)

Besides this special encounter with family and friends, we've been having a great time with Terri, Chris and the kids. We've been relaxing by the pool, Nick has been playing a lot with the kids, I've been reading my books, and still working a little over the phone, booking some parties and working on our new spidey suit.

I'm posting some pictures today.

Finally a chance to do what we were looking for.

Chris set up a visit with the Children Services in NY for us/ I'm not really sure if there is an specific name for that institution but it is the place where children and teenagers are placed right after they are taken from their families and are waiting to be placed in foster houses.

Very cruel reality. Children taken away from their families due to drugs, alcohol, abuse, death of their parents...

It was a blessing to realize we can bring smiles to kids that are going through such a difficult time.

We had a good time with them. Little children and the teenagers participated and had fun with spiderman and enjoyed having their faces painted. Check out some of the pictures!

I hope we can have the chance to keep doing this kind of work.

Hi everyone!

We got to Staten Island yesterday night.. a rainy night. It was awesome to see the Potenza Family again, always good. We had a good night of sleep and woke up late today.

We had the chance to watch the service through the internet and enjoyed the rest of father's day at home. Terri cooked a delicious dinner and Chris' family came over.

Everything is great and I'm sorry I still didn't figure out how to open the website for comments, and unfortunately shutterfly won't answer my emails. =( Emails us! We would love to hear your feedback about our journal and pictures!

Love,

Cami & Nick

I'm still not used to this Walmart thing. It's funny. How can I describe it to you?

It's like getting cozy, watching a movie, cooking, eating, brushing your teeth, sleeping in your house... but when the sun comes up and it's time to open your door... your are in a parking lot. It's just weird. But it works! We are never the only ones there. There are always other campers and truckers around what makes us feel normal and safe. But again, WEIRD!

After Walmarting (my new word) we headed to downtown DC to see what everybody sees in movies and pictures when you talk about the US.

Dizzy, not used to big cities anymore... we felt a little claustrophobic but we found a place to park. A hot summer day, melting day, HUNDREDS of people everywhere made us remember that is summer vacation in the US. Families taking their children to cultural activities.

The American Museum of Natural Art was so packed that was almost impossible to get close to the exhibits. The National Archives had a line outside and even bigger line inside to take a look at the Declaration of Independence and other important documents.

Don't take me wrong though, it was great to have the opportunity to see all this places, I'm just trying to describe what we had to deal with. Like going to Orlando during summer vacation... you would mention the lines! lol

We saw everything very quick - The State Capitol, White House, Washington Monument, World War II monument, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, etc - as we had to be out of our parking spot by 4pm.

We are on the road right now heading to Staten Island, NY... (it's raining a lot!!)

We arrived in DC at the end of the day after a short 2hr drive through historical farms and beautiful landscapes.

Nick had a very warm reception by a cop that pulled him over for running a red light. Not a Floridian red light, a weird little hidden corner on the other side of intersection that we were supposed to know that belonged to that corner!!! Anyways... while he spoke to the cop a second cop stood by my side the entire time, very interest on what I was doing with a lap top, where we were planning to go and our life story. Do we look like terrorists? That traffic light was in downtown but come on, our bright little trailer hooked to a beater doesn't really fit a terrorist profile... maybe Nick's beard through them off. They even looked inside the trailer!!!!

No tickets! Thank God!

No Walmart. Our GPS tricked us again and almost caused us a ticket.

Our final destination was a construction site this time, in the middle of heavy rush hour traffic - not a fun driving.

After getting this bitter taste of DC we Googled another Walmart and 20 minutes later we were setting up. It was still day light but we were ready for bed. We rented a movie at the red box... and got cozy inside our shell.

P.S.: For those that are not familiar with the "red box" it is a moving renting machine right next to the coke machines where you can rent a movie for $1 per night. It's convenient.

We stopped on the way to Luray to sleep as we were very tired. We stayed at a Walmart, woke up in the morning and headed to Luray.

Luray was a very small city, between Mountains again with an elevation of about 3400 feet but the roads were steeper than the roads to the Rocky Mountains. Again, we successfully made!

Looks are so deceiving and Luray is a great example of that. You would never imagine what was hidden under those beautiful pieces of land, farms, grass, trees and mountains. We followed the AAA suggestion and decided to visit the caverns thinking it would interesting and different.

We were SO surprised and amazed with what we saw.

The caverns were discovered in the 1800's by Mr. Campbell and his Nephew. They felt a cool breeze from underground and when they got closer it blew out a candle he was holding. They decided to investigate and after 4 hours of digging through loose rocks they sent the little boy down (as he would be the only one to fit through that hole) and discovered what you can see in our pictures.

AMAZING! The lowest point in that cave is 164 feet below the earth's surface and you can find more information and specifications at their website www.luraycaverns.com

It's a little difficult for me to explain in english how these caverns were formed but you research on the website.

Anyways, it was so worth it!

Right next to the cavern there was a maze where we played for about half an hour. It was very fun too. I actually got to see and do things I've never done before.

Right after our well spent time in Luray we headed to Washington DC to do some touristy things.

The day started early for Nick. He jumped out of the bed at 6:30am in a mission – his first trout fishing session at our backyard creek. I only noticed he was gone when he knocked at the door with his first catch – a 6 inch trout! He was jumping more than the trout on the hook!!! So good to see all the excitement on his face! Well, I couldn’t really understand what was going on as I was still half asleep. He caught his fish on his second cast!

 

I went back to bed and woke up a few hours later very sore from our stupid hike.

 

The plan for the day was another suggestion from Jeff. He went white water rafting in . Very very fun! The river water was icy cold. Refreshing for me, toe numbing for Nick. Unfortunately we didn’t take our camera as we heard it would be a little too rough. It wasn’t that rough but it was certainly a great experience!

 

It took us 3hrs from start to finish, about 2 hours actually raft ride, only the guide, Nick and me.

 

We got a little lost on the way back to the campground, Tom Tom’s fault AGAIN! The GPS took us through back roads, and it’s final destination was in the middle of nowhere. However this time, getting lost was very helpful! We found a laundry and we did our very first load of laundry on the road and it was a very nice place. Right across the street there was a snack bar by another creek. We had something to eat, and Nick felt his 6:30am fishing session catching up to him so he took a nap while I took care of our clothes.

 

Back to the campground, time to pack and hit the road again.

 

We are on the road right now heading to where we are planning to visit Luray Caverns and some historical sites.

 

 

Hiking Day! Boots, backpack and water, lots of water. The first part of our day tour took us along the up the mountains at the park. Beautiful, beautiful! When we reached the top of the new found gap road we parked and hiked a 0.5 mile paved trail to the observation tower or dome (how they call it). The dome is considered the highest part of the Smoky Mountains – elevation ? . We did not have a clear view, it was very hazy, but we got a very good idea of its beauty.

 

After that short but not so easy hike due to the lack of air on the top the mountain we took another hike to the belvedere trail. The hikes were not only difficult for us, it was even funny to see every single person breathing so heavy on the way up. Every couple 100 of yards you would find a family resting trying to catch their breath.

 

The belvedere trail was a 2.7 miles hike one way. We were simply eager to hike and forgot to study what or where the trail would lead us. All we wanted was to be in the wild and try to see some animals. After a little over one hour of hiking UPHILL, no air, no creatures (not even an itsy bitsy spider going up a water spout – actually let me be fair, we did see a dead salamander and one squirrel!), not even a nice sight of the mountains as the trees and forestry blocked our view – frustration got to us. We found a sign reading we still had another whole mile to reach the shelter, without saying a word we looked at each other and went back the other way. The best part of the hike was our lukewarm can of Progresso Chicken and corn chowder soup that we devoured.

 

Back to town we stopped at the local market food lion, where we bought a small piece of London broil and some baked beans for our special energy replacement meal.

 

Shower, dinner and bed (the little trailer bed never felt so good after the 4.4 no air miles hiked).

 

 

We left UNICOI early afternoon and got to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at the end of the day. The visitor center was closed but we met a local that was extremely helpful and friendly Mr. Jeff a.k.a outlaw that directed us to a good campground and other attractions.

 

The winding road to the took us 6000 feet above sea level. Amazingly enough the car and our old 1963 beachcomber made it! We got there happy and safe (the little engine that could).

 

Jeff suggested the Wolf campground, located by the Cherokee Indian Reserve - a small town, full of Indian figures, characters, bears sculptures and small craft stores. Very different from the UNICOI this one was very small in size, we set up without checking in as we couldn’t find the office people and we picked a nice location with a creek on our backyard!! The campground also had year-round or seasonal campers with their “RV-homes”. People actually transformed their trailers and RVs into permanent houses and became permanent residents.

 

The rest of the day was just rest, showers and dinner.

 

After a good night of sleep we woke up ready to go water tubing at the and hike to the Anna Ruby waterfalls.

 

Water tubing down the lazy river was one of the best things I have done in a long while. The adventure costs only $3.00 a tube at the pinkish Helen flea-market and grants you about 2 hours of fun down the river. The cold river water was the perfect match for the 98.C day.

 

After tubing, we walked around the flea market and headed to the falls. A very short hike (0.5 miles) through a paved road along a creek took us to the beautiful falls. Unfortunately no diving… no stepping out of the trails…lots of rules but we understand, it’s for everyone’s safety. On the way back we had the opportunity of seeing two right next to the trail.

 

Once our day adventures were over we went to the little German town of Helen to buy some food and try to make a copy of the car’s keys as one broke in the trunk today.

 

Back home… I cooked dinner while Nick set the fire and was shooting his arrows…

Tomorrow we will hit the road again.

 

We woke up at 9am and took our first cat bath! It felt so good! The church was very close by. A small Calvary Chapel, with the small town air. 

 

We tried to ask everyone about foster houses or places we could visit some children but no one knew. The Pastor introduced us to the children’s minister on that church, but she didn’t know either.

 

Right after the service we headed to Nick’s old house in Snellville, only 4 mins away from the church.  He would be the best one to write and describe the things he saw, memories it brought him, etc. All I can say is that he was amazed.

 

We called a couple of campgrounds to see if we could check in and stay that night around that area, but most of the offices were closed. We didn’t want to chance to waste a drive and not being able to camp so we decided to hit the road and head north to , to the the only campground that picked up the phone and took care of us.

 

The road to Helen was stunning, hills, creeks and magnificent sceneries. Our GPS tricked us, after lots of ups and downs, a long dirt road it took us to the middle of nowhere calling it final destination! The bad news was that the phones and the internet were not working… the only clue we had was a sign a couple of miles behind us, with a straight arrow, pointing to the park so we knew we were not that far off. After a couple of minutes a truck drove by and we asked information. We were about 7 mile away from the park, in the right direction.  

 

We arrived at the park late afternoon. The park was gorgeous with lots of activities, a lake and forestry. The smell…hmmmm…. the fresh air, mountain air brought me back home. Before we finished setting us we already knew we should stay more than one night. Nick went back to the office to extend our stay while I started to cook our first camping dinner! Finally!

 

After dinner, we went for a walk around the lake, learned about the Black Bears risk around the park, saw some fish, turtles and frogs and went back to the trailer to shower and have good night of sleep as we were planning to do activities on Monday.

 

 

Our second day in wasn’t anything special. Nick got hang out a little with his “little brother” and got beat him in a 40 yard dash race. Note to self: Joey is a college football player!

 

The day was hot and Joey headed to a pool party with his friends and we decided to hit the road again. Next destination: Helen, GA.

 

We had a good trip again, arriving at around 6 or 7pm. The visitor center was already closed, so we couldn’t really get too many information. Based on an internet search we found the Riverstreet. An historical street, of centennial architecture, water front and luckily for us it was a festival day, that occurs every first Saturday of the month. Lots of vendors, people, music and street performers, it was really fun. We took our bikes on our first bike tour.

 

Of course it could not be that easy, we got a flat tire (the tube popped) before we left the parking lot. Good thing I’m a very organized person, I bought a bike set (bag, pump and an extra tube) and Nick very handy fixed within a couple of minutes. What a team!

 

Check the picture session for this fun and beautiful pictures.

 

Once the sun went down, road again. Our destination was actually a Wal-Mart in so we could park the trailer and spend night. Wal-Marts are known among travelers as a safe spot to park and sleep. Truck drivers and rvers can count on their overnight security.

 

The plans for Sunday were Calvary Chapel by Stone Mountain and visit city where Nick lived when he was about 6 years old.

 

We arrived safely in at 3am. Nick old childhood friend Joey Rumph was awake waiting for us with some McDonalds. We didn’t even unhook the trailer, went straight to bed.

 

Friday we woke up late and went for a drive. Believe or not we still had some errands to run. The fun part of the day was when we went to a outside sports store () to have his bow (& arrow) strung up.

 

Once again we met some very helpful that did an excellent job and also gave Nick a short lesson in archery. There was an indoor shooting range where we shot our first arrows. Not a easy job but very fun. Those things are so powerful! He taught that bows have a maximum effective range of 40 yards.

 

After we left the store we found an open field where we could shoot a little more and also take some pictures and also stopped by an RV place to look at some brand new (beautiful!) ones and learn more about this RV world.

 

Joey could not hang out this because he had to work, so he got home and went straight to bed.

 

 

So the car was ready for our new day on the road. It looked a little too heavy... Sammy's neighbor was walking his dog and stopped by to share some towing knowledge with us.

Springs, struts....shot, not shot... we decided to delay our departure to try to replace the struts, for safety. Long story short, we could not find anyone to do it nor could we do it ourselves. After about 3hrs we decided to distribute all the excess weight to the back of the trailer.

Back on the road... we received a weird phone call from Sammy saying someone saw us at Auto Zone and wanted to contact us to give (yes, I said give, for free) a trailer! We called the person back to check and it was actually Mexican angel!!! We met him at Auto Zone parking lot. He was excited about our idea and checked out our trailer and wished the best of luck and may God bless us. He said, after we left God knocked on his heart and told him to try to contact us again. Well, it ended up that this ANGEL was a missionary and worked with children's ministry and churches all over the place - that's where we can definitely see God's hand as this is exactly what we set out to do during our travels. He wanted to contribute in anyway possible because he knew what we are doing is a blessing. The Angel has a name, his name is Roberto and we should be in touch with him during our trip.

But our blessings don't end here. We have more testimonies to share from today.

Shortly after we hung up the phone with this Angel, we had a tire blew out on the trailer. Nick worked hard to figure out what happened but we didn't have the right tools, that's when the second Angel arrived!!! Mr. *FHP saw us in trouble from the opposite side of I-75(...we don't know how.... if not God's eye because there was forestry diving the roads) and turned around. The FHP (Florida Highway Patrol) trucks are fully equipped, so he provided all the right tools and safety that we needed. Cones, flags, compressor, 4ton jack and impact socket! While the guys were working, my job was to flag the cars to the other lane! I felt pretty important!!!

Ok! Spare tire in, time to find the nearest tire store. We ran into some complications as 2 studs broke off the hub, and also a U clamp to the leaf spring broke of from grinding the asphalt. Well... there we were... in , a small town trying to find a 13" tire and parts for a 1963 trailer. What a mission!!! Thank God everyone in that city was extremely friendly and helpful.

The city looked brand new, but after talking to residents we found out the city was actually completely rebuilt after Hurricane Charlie.

At one point Nick left to go get parts while I held down the fort. We both in our own ways put our head down to thank for being safe but asked for guidance. Prayers are a powerful thing.

The Lord heard us and sent the last Angels of the day – Harry and his girlfriend Danielle. Harry overheard Nick’s conversation with a sales clerk, and identified himself as an RV MECHANIC eager to help us! He got here, teamed up with Nick and they saved the day. The trailer was back in action around 9:30pm! What a God’s send this young man was.

 

I love my husband! He dealt with every situation with a smile on his face and a lot of strength. Pushing himself to the limits!

 

After a brief stop at Waffle House for a BLT and coffee and quick “teeth brushing” we were on the road again.We could have stopped somewhere and waited until sunrise but we where pretty awake and decide to hit road.

It’s now 11pm, we are heading North on I -75, a few miles from .

 
Sorry about the long journal entry, but this is our diary and we really share every experience with everyone.
 

Good night – Boa noite!!! 

Today we had a very productive day.

Nick worked a lot on the car, sealed windshield because it was leaking (A LOT... it looked like a waterfall..lol), changed all the plugs and wires, topped off the brake fluid, installed the AC/DC inverter, tested the refrigerator (it's on! wooo hoooo!)... Went on a cheap gas hunt and we found a station selling regular for "ONLY" lol $3.87. Isn't that great? Isn't that funny that we are actually calling $3.87/gallon cheap?

Anyways, if you heard our plans last week, remember, we have no plans! We just changed our route. Pensacola is out for now.

Tomorrow we will leave Cape Coral and head towards Jacksonville, FL about 340 miles, to visit Nick's old friend Joey. This should be our last "house" stop, after this we should be finally heading to campgrounds in Georgia and have a real taste of trailer life. YAY!

Saturday we said good bye to Nick's mom side of the family, snacks, pizza, cake and emotions. Sunday we had a very fun time with our friends and family at Nick's dad's house. It was Sara's pre-graduation party and our farewell barbecue.

The sun was out, perfect for some fishing, food, guitar, a last minute water slide was the highlight of the day!

We had some last minute errands to run on Monday so we ended leaving at night. Around 9pm.

First destination: Cape Coral, FL - about 144 miles from Hollywood.

Quick and easy, our first trip counted with only one stop on the side of the road on the Alligator Alley. However the easy trip turned into a painful and not so fun arrival.

It was midnight when we arrived. Sammy's driveway was a steep incline...not making things easy for the first time campers. During the torturous 60 minutes that we were trying to maneuver and park the trailer in a safe spot we were attacked by a hundreds of starved red ants, Nick smashed his head on our killer bike rack, smashed his head again, then knees, elbows, legs...all you could hear was bang! ouch! bang! ouch!.

Trailer parked, when we finally had a content look in our faces.... the electric did not work. We are not sure why. Something about Sammy's house being to new, protected blah blah.. no electric. No AC, no lights, but no complaints. It was a cool night, so we made it.

So finally safe inside the trailer, we relaxed...and I completely forgot the heavy metal table pole was wrapped inside our blanket. I pushed the blanket, and of course, dropped the pole on Nick's toe, slicing it and almost chopping it off.

By the way, Nick managed to smash his head one more time on the top bed before we fell asleep. Everything sounds very funny now, good stories to tell.

Check out the pictures of the farewell party and first road day.

First time I've been to a junk yard!

We needed to fix some parts in the car.... esthetic surgery I would say. We needed a visor for the driver side, new gloves compartment and a speedometer. FUN! I was very excited on my car hunt, trying to find similar cars, searching for the parts and taking apart. I know.. not a girly task, but that reminded me of my early years. I would take everything I could apart - phones, alarm clocks, fans... just for fun - dolls were boring.

Nick treated those piles of car as a real Spidey playground. I wish I had my camera with me. He was climbing those cars as if that was nothing.

Anyways, we found everything we needed, cleaned, installed... and our SuperTramp - how we baptized our beater, is ready to go!

Roughly ten. It may be less, it may be more.

We got all the equipment we wanted - camping supplies, tents, tarps, ropes, lights, batteries, tools... now the only thing we have to do is to work on the car. Nick still has some things to adjust in our car to make sure we get to our first destination safely.

Our first destination is Fort Myers, FL. Only 2 hours away, it will be our test run.

We drove the trailer from Hollywood to Deerfield Beach yesterday, on the highway and it went pretty well. The car feels it, but it pulls good. It will be fine.