RV Adventure: Day 10

Intro: Today we went to the Tillamook factory where they make all kinds of goods. After we explored the new territory we continued our journey to Oregon.





Day 10: We woke up today sorta early, as early as you can when staying up till midnight. I was a reall good Overlord in Decent too even though we didn't have time to finish really. Well anyway we woke up and started to drive to Oregon, but along the way Mom and Dad started having an idea,(which is sometimes VERY dangerous) so they drove off one of the freeway's exits and about 15 minutes later we were parked in the parking lot of a huge building. It was the Tillamook factory! I made a joke then too, "Hey, Josh, cows go in, cheese comes out!" That made everyone giggle. My joke was continued by Dad who then said, "But when they stop making milk, cows go in, BEEF JERKEY comes out." Then everyone was laughing, except Josh who was angery because he is alway angery when someone kills an animal. Joshua doesn't want to kill animals, "Aw, 'boo hoo' why do people kill cows?" but he doesn't mind killing people, "I'M GOING TO KILL THOSE PEOPLE!!! HOW DARE THEY KILL COWS FOR FUN!!!" Josh is starting to scare me too. When we were done with the Tillamook factory, everyone got a scoop of fresh icecream, and then Dad also bought some extra sharp cheese, some caramal cream stuff, and (Of coarse) beef jerkey. I bought some fudge for Jon and me because Mom and Dad said they wern't fudge people. When I finished puchasing though, Mom and Dad saw that I bought their favourite flavors, Mint chocolate and Amaretto. When Mom and Dad asked, "Did you have to get our favorites?" So I just told the truth, " Hey, you taught me well, these are my favorites too." In the end Mom and Dad said that when I have the fudge, they have the fundge too. That was pretty much it though, I will post pictures when my Dad wants to let me use his photo shop program.

RV Adventure: Day 9

Intro: Today we spent the whole day driving to Oregon. It was real pretty too. There were bright colors everywhere!! I wonder why El Paso and Chaparral don’t take care of the town like these people do, there are flower pots on street corners, even on light posts! Like I said it was real pretty.

 

Day 9: We got up early, ate breakfast, got dressed and then got on the road. At first it was just a regular drive, but then we enterd a forest, and MAN IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL. Not the type of beautiful as in a girl, as in a girl will marry you within the first minutes of meeting you if you give her one of these flowers. They were all neon yellow in color. In the town we entered next had pink, purple, white, and all mixed together bushes all over the town. I don’t know why but it was a very pretty drive. This entry has now won the award, “SHORTEST ENTRY IN THE RV ADVENTURE” We reached Oregon at the time we wanted and then when we got all hooked up, we played DECENT: INTO THE DEEP until midnight. Goodnight sleep tight, really really tight.

RV Adventure: Day 8

Intro: Today we went whale watching and we saw two whales, several seals, lots of birds and plenty of fish. Then we planned our journey to Oregon. We planned to reach Oregon around 6:00 pm and play a real fun game. Let’s see how our plan worked out.

Day 8: Today we went whale watching, like the intro said. It was real cool and also kind of time consuming. So today is Saturday, June 6, 2009. We woke up this morning and the first thing we noticed was that the entire bay was GONE!! Not as in blocked by tree gone, as in ONLY SAND LEFT GONE. We then learned that you can’t even go swimming in the morning or afternoon because the ocean tide is gone then. That time is when people go shellfish collecting. You can’t eat them though. So far we are having a time of a lifetime!!! We drove to a fish shop and purchases six tickets to go aboard THE EXPLORER 3. Jon asked why the ship had a three on it so I told him, “It’s because #1 and #2 sank”. Ha ha, big sister humor, Jon TOTALLY freaked out, until he asked the captain of the ship about it, he said because there is a chain of ships like THE EXPLORER 3 that goes all the way up to about 6 ships with the same name for whale watching. It toke about fifteen minutes until we saw the first cool picture taking site. It was a jovial California Sea Lion, one of the ship ladies said that only jovial sea lions come here so they can mature with other male sea lions until they become interested into the ‘ladies’. He was laying on a buoy in the middle of the bay. It was a while until we saw the next wildlife, so until that Jon and I explored the ship, we found all the little benches and boxes that are warm but don’t have any wind, it was real loud in the back, but not windy, it wasn’t loud in the front, but windy, up top, if you sat in the middle you won’t get windblown, but you will still get nice warm sun. When the captain announced the next spotting we found out it was a Grey Whale, it was fortunate because Gray Whales were supposed to have left about a month ago. They called this specific whale, Joey, Mom even got a picture of Joey’s spray, Joey’s spray, like all other Gray Whales have a heart shape to it, so Dad was real happy when Mom got that picture, when I’m choosing pictures though, they are small, so I don’t know if I got the right photo that shows it. We didn’t see any other interesting movement for about another couple of hours or so, I don’t know because I fell asleep. When I fell asleep, Jonathan was having sea sickness problems. When I woke up though, Jonathan was cured, AND ALL THE GIRLS ON THE SHIP KNEW HIS NAME!!!!! Well I guess that’s just what Jonathan wants anyway, he likes having girls all over him and getting free food when he gets motion sickness. Sure you feel bad for him, but come on!! Getting in the car for about two minutes and he says he doesn’t feel good! Well anyway we then got to see a Minke Whale. It was my favorite sighting because it is so much easier to see a blackish whale against the blue-green murky water. Besides seeing whales we saw playful sea lions, annoying seagulls, and helpful dolphins. I could tell that Mom was having a time of her life, she has been wanting to do this her entire life. About ten minutes from the dock we saw a bald eagle with a fish. It was soooo cool seeing the U.S. bird. Of course we did other things on the boat too, like eat snacks, watch Jon get smothered by girls, and make up a song to eat fish crackers with. When we got back to the RV we went to an RV park, hooked up and played PIRATES’ COVE. Jonathan was Third, Mom and Dad tied at Second, and I won in First Place. The reason I’m gloating is because Jonathan said that girls weren’t meant to be pirates. Well that was my day with Whale watching.

RV Adventure: Day 7

Intro: We actually had a change of plans last night, we decided to go to mammoth springs to spend the night instead of going back to our other campsite. I was real cool. Today we just drove to Seattle and it was real pretty. We got some amazing pictures too.

Day 7: Today is Thursday, June 4, 2009. We have awoken from our beds in the RV in Mammoth Springs. We are preparing to leave Yellowstone so we can go to Seattle, Washington. We did the usual stuff like eat breakfast and get dressed, and then we did the unusual stuff as well, like cleaning up breakfast, and brushing our teeth. Then we were on our way. About 10:00 am we made it to the Main Gate at Yellowstone, it was cool as well as big. When we took a few pictures we continued on our way. On the way we saw an amazing site!! We saw a mountain goat on the side of the road, it was a she, she was also bleeding, then when we saw a hairball like figure next to her we understood she just gave birth to a baby!!! It was SO CUTE!!! We got plenty of pictures. So we were on our way to Seattle, it was nice and green the entire way. Nice pretty horses and black with white cows. I am not writing as much because sometimes we don’t have very interesting days and sometimes we do. We made it to Seattle about 6:00 pm and went to a near RV station.

RV Adventure: Day 5-6

Intro: Yellowstone is amazing! Geysers, mud pots, rivers, waterfalls, forests, animals, everything is beautiful in Yellowstone. Not all smells are wonderful but the sites are cool. I am going to put day 5 and day 6 together so I can talk about it all at once instead of separating the two. The dates are Tuesday, June 2, 2009 and Wednesday, June 03, 2009. Today hasn’t ended but I can pretty much sum it all up. Let’s summarize by saying that you haven’t seen anything until you have seen Yellowstone for at least two days.

Days 5-6: In the morning I woke up to start peeling potatoes. I said that if I peeled potatoes, we could have fried potatoes, eggs, and bacon for breakfast. So I kept my part of the deal, and Mom and Dad kept theirs. So that was the beginning of the first day at Yellowstone campground. When we got ready to go to the first stop, the first thing we saw was a beautiful pool. We later learning that the bluer the water, the hotter the temperature. The only fault with the pools is that they have sulfur in the water, so the steam smells like rotten eggs! They smell horrible! It is beautiful though, if you can get past the horrible smell, and the cold rain that rains all the time, then you can enjoy Yellowstone pretty good. Some of the first wildlife that we saw in Yellowstone was Bison. Huge herds of Bison. Bison that were crossing the street, bison that were nursing their young, Daddy bison, mommy bison, and even baby bison. Another animal we saw a lot of were ravens, these ravens were huge! As in, three of them could pick Josh up and carry him away huge. We saw lots of other turn offs before we got to Old Faithful. And when we did see it, and all the other geysers, it wasn’t my favorite geyser. My favorite geyser was something that started with an ‘A’. What this geyser did was it was empty, then it fills up, overflows, then erupts to about six feet, then stops, empties and makes a gurgling sound, then it repeats itself every seven to fifteen minutes. We even got to experience an unpredictable geyser that not many people get to see. We walked for about two hours in the rain and saw almost all of the geysers and pools in the main area. They were all very beautiful and distinguished. When we got back to camp, we had a campfire and grilled steaks, and corn. For desert we had smores, not the cheesy type with cardboard and fake cotton balls. The REAL kind, the kind with original gram crackers, puffy marshmallows, and Hershey’s chocolate. We had a marshmallow roasting contest too. Mom won, Dad was second, Joshua was third, I was fourth, Daniel was fifth, and Jonathan was sixth. Dad said that Jonathan was the only one who had to surrender his marshmallow stick to another person, and his marshmallows to be sacrificed to the fire. I wouldn’t blame Dad’s judgment either, Jon’s marshmallows went aflame for about one minute because he couldn’t reach the flame to blow it out. After that it was a very crunchy marshmallow, so crunchy even Dan said, “I’s gwos!”. After that we took showers again then went to bed.

This morning when we woke up, it was one of the lazy mornings that everyone got up at their own pace. As usual, I was the last one up because I had the most comfy kid bed. I eventually had to get up because my bed is also known as the table. When we got up it was about 9:00am, I was awake then too, but lazed around in bed till about 10:00am. Ever since this morning we’ve been driving to view points along the road and then stopping to look at them. They mainly involve rivers and waterfalls. So far we’ve been following the Yellowstone river that is about 24 miles long. We’ve seen the Upper Falls, and the Lower Falls in several different viewpoints. The whole family walked on several of the paths for a while, but now it’s just Dad, Mom, and I. Josh, Dan, and Jon stay in the RV because they are still, ‘pooped’ from the walk of the Lower Falls, we walked only about ¾ of a mile, but it was down and back up again a 600 ft drop! I wouldn’t blame them but come on, Mom and Dad are in better shape than Jonathan? OK, that I can believe, Josh and Dan just got bored of the same things over and over again. At this very moment Jonathan is asleep because he was too tired. Josh and Dan are having a blast being delivery boys for Mom and Dad. I know I’ve been behind on my posts but up at Yellowstone there is very little internet connection, or even cell-phone signals. The pictures are recently taken too. When we heard that Yellowstone Canyon is similar to the Grand Canyon, Mom just laughed at the thought. When we saw it though, I believe it is even better than the Grand Canyon because you can actually see the river in the canyon. Well that is my post for Yellowstone, It is about 5:00 pm at this moment so we will continue up the road and look at some more views, then off to the campsite once more to then leave tomorrow to continue our journey. When I asked where we are going next, Dad said, “We don’t know where we are going, we are just following the road, ready to stop to gaze on God’s Art Tablet.” So that is where we are going next.

RV Adventure: Day 4

Intro: Today we spent half the day at the mall, and the other half driving to Yellowstone. It was really cool at the mall because we saw the movie ‘UP’. The drive up to Yellowstone was pretty too. We saw some geese and a lone elk. We haven’t seen much else though. We just got to Yellowstone, went to our reservation, and then went to sleep. It was one of those freezing nights too. Good thing I remembered to close the windows.

Day 4: As soon as we woke up on Monday, June 1, 2009, we dropped Mom off at a car rental place and then the five of us, Dad, Jon, Josh, Dan, and I went to Joe’s house to repair our engine. Let’s just say Joe’s neighbors were SO happy to see a VERY LOUD RV pull up into a driveway. One motorcycle dude came up and asked Joe, “What ya do’n there, man?”. When we dropped the RV off, we saw Mom pull up in a blue car and she looked like she wanted one of these cars for her entire life. When I asked her if she liked it, she kept using the excuse, “They picked it out, not me.” I still don’t believe her. Mom and Dad were able to sit in the front of the car while the four kids squished together in the back of the car. I could tell Dad liked driving the little blue car more than the humongous RV. While we drove around, Dad would drive into parking lots and do 180s and a couple 360s. Dad said he would do it with the RV too if it wasn’t so hard to control. We took a spin down to the mall. We started walking around looking in game stores waiting for the movies to open. At one of the stores, Dad said, “This is the best group of games in one store I’ve ever seen!” The attendant said they had several complements like Dad’s too. “Even some people from New York and Washington said that they have never seen a game store like this one.” We then went to the movie to see ‘UP’. ‘Up’ was a very emotional movie, on some parts you will be crying your heart out, and in other parts you will be laughing so hard that you can’t stop. I recommend the movie to anyone with an adventurous heart. After the movie, we found out the Joe was able to fix the spark plug in only two hours! So that meant that we could go pick it up at that very moment. God did answer our prayers, very fast too. We were soon on our way after paying and thanking Joe, and returning the rental car. Out of everyone else’s view, I saw Mom say her last good-byes to the blue car. Of course she still says she didn’t do it. We made it to Yellowstone about 8:00pm. One hour earlier than we expected too. We hooked up, had dinner, then hopped into bed. We were going to see some beautiful scenery in the morning at Yellowstone.

RV Adventure: Day 3

Intro: We are having some technical difficulties that started soon after my last post. Five minutes after last post, bloody nose. One hour after last post, old fashioned splinter removing. Morning after last post, bed broke. Afternoon after last post RV engine blew up. Get the picture? At least we were able to stay another day and night at Utah.

Day 3: As the intro said, five minutes after my last post I got a bloody nose. That was very annoying, as you can imagine a bloody nose in an RV that Dad doesn’t want to get dirty. After I got my nose cleaned up we all had to take showers, want to know why that is not welcome? Because we had to get ourselves wet, turn off the water, put soap all over body, hair, face, try to turn on water with soap covered eyes, then turn off water, get out and dry. That is why I will never enjoy RV showers like I do at home. Before I went to bed I asked my parents to get a splinter out of my finger, that went kind of good, and kind of bad. We didn’t have a needle or tweezers, so Dad suggested the hatchet under the RV. Mom then came to the rescue and walked over to the store in the gas station we were staying at. She came back with some tweezers… and one of the etch-knives. With a lot of pain and time, mostly pain, they got the splinter that was only about 1/100 inch long. After that long exhausting night I went to bed and slept good, very good. In the morning on Sunday, May 31, 2009 Dad started driving and took turns with Mom. The ride was more or less uneventful lunchtime when two things happened at once, Josh and Dan were playing tackle in the back and we heard a terrible snapping sound, turns out, they snapped the aluminum bed frame in half. Dad thought that we could repair it at Yellowstone, but we got some extra time when at a stoplight we heard a pop, then our RV started sounding like my Grandpa Steele’s old truck. The spark plug popped out and tore all the little wires with it. The man that helped us said that his Uncle Joe worked on engines of RVs. So Dad called him up and he said he would work on it on Monday morning. We found a RV park that sounded pretty cool. It was called RIVER SIDE RV PARK, it had a tennis court, horse shoe field, playground, dog walk, and a pool. We went to the pool and had a great time while Dad fixed the broken bed frame. It was fun to spend some time watching Enchanted on my laptop too. Well that was my day, then I went to bed and slept in a very warm bed, not just a ok type bed, a type of bed that makes you feel like you were in a cloud.