Cape Kennedy KOA, Mims, Florida

Hey y'all. Sorry for the long delay from my last post, we have been loving Florida weather. Were been here for just over a month, and have only had about 4days where it was cooler than 70degrees.

We've gotten to see my family a few times and been to the beach to surf a few times as well, though not as much as we would like, but that's because we are about a 40min drive to them and the beach.

We went to a Church in Titusville (about 5 miles away) for the first 2 Sundays, but we didn't come away feeling we learned anything, so we found another church in Titusville that does that for us. It's called The Pentecostals, and is a great church. The Lord moves freely in that church, and the Pastor isn't one to feel forced to follow a schedule. As in, he won't stop praise and worship of the Lord so he can try and teach about the Lord. When the Lord moves in your heart, you need to stop and listen. When the Lord moves in the church, you have to stop and praise and worship Him.

So the surf here hasn't been to awesome, the swell is out until after Christmas, according to magicseaweed.com, surf-forecast.com, and Surfline.com. so we are only getting 1-1 1/2ft waves that break in about 3ft of water, but it's still tons of fun!

We picked up a 12ft epoxy surfboard for $75, and Lucas and I can surf together on that. Either he stays laying down while I stand up, or I stay on hands/knees while he stands up.

He was so excited he was hooting and hollaring when he gets up, he does it all by himself! TJ has a 9'4" Surf Core board that he is working on getting up, but his shorts were to tight on his thighs last time we went out, and that prevented him from having the flexibility he needed, otherwise he would have probably gotten up too! Shanesta definitely loves the warmer water! Going from 52degree water on the west coast to 70degree water on the east coast had definitely been a good thing! No need for wet suits with hoods and wishing you had gloves and boots the whole time! Instead of getting out because you can't feel your hands/toes, now you get out because your exhausted!

Here's how we've been getting around lately, we've gotten it to work ok enough to travel the 30miles or so, but we are limited to 45-50mph max because of a death wobble we have to fix after the first.

Well I gotta run for now, God Bless, and Merry Christmas!

Goose Bay Marina and Campground, Maryland

Hey y'all!
So we made it to the east coast! We are in Welcome, Maryland at Goose Bay Marina and Campground. It's a decent place with water and power, a well as free toilets and showers. There is a large section of permanent RVers that have all kinds of trailers, RVs, and large motorhomes with a huge variety of porches and decks. There is a large section of "dry-dock" where boats of all shapes and sizes are stored out of the water. We plan on walking through there and checking them all out the next nice day we have.... It had been raining allot lately, but that's November in MD!

Anyway, my best friend passed away two days ago, but he's a Christian so I know I will see him again one day, so we took a trip over to Calvert Cliffs State Park to try and clear our heads.

When I was about 12-14yrs old my school took us out there and I found some shark teeth, so being this close (only about an hour drive from the campground), naturally we had to go check it out! Here's what it looks like.... That's the southern Chesapeake Bay, and while it is salt water, it's just not quite the "Atlantic Ocean" as we are wanting to be at. Ya know.... sandy beach, waves, surfing, boogie boarding.... Ocean!

We used a few of the state-provided sieves and collanders to "mine" for shark teeth and after an hour or so we had all found at least one! Here's a picture of what we found.

The biggest tooth is slightly smaller than a Quarter. We all had allot of fun and enjoyed the 1.8mile hike to the water and then back. It definitely helped clear our heads as we had time to relax and remember.

We will be heading to my parents house next week (an hour or so North of us) for Thanksgiving, then after the first, Cocoa Beach, Florida here we come!

Happy Halloween 2017

So hey y'all, It's Halloween day, 2017 and we are leaving Dickson Tennessee to head to Westmoreland Tenn for three night and then off to West Virginia. We were planning on staying in WV for most of the month of Nov, but that will depend on night time temps. We didn't design the bus for "cold" weather. Below 50degrees at night is kinda uncomfortable. Heaters going full blast is fine if electric is included, but when its separate, you can see the dial speed up hahaha!

So anyway, God had shown us the great hospitality of the South, along with letting us meet some great people. While we can't wait to move on, it was great being here.

West Virginia (and then back to the ocean for more surfing) here we come!

God Bless y'all!

Deer Lodge........ NOT! 10/7/17

Sooooo, prayers have been answered, the fuel filter was the problem! 5 minute fix and we are running like new! God put the people in our path who had the knowledge and the part we needed.

If you're in Missoula, MT and have any issues or questions, stop by Inland Truck Parts & Service and talk to either Mark or Randy. Both guys know their stuff. (406-728-7413) They didn't have the filter we needed, but called around, found one and reserved it for us. Then gave us exact directions on how to get there (Napa)

When we got to Napa, God helped us again. They were having their 1 week only filter sale, 50% off! So less than $8.00 and 5 minutes and we are rolling!

So now we are at Billings MT KOA, which is the very first KOA ever made. We played some mini golf after dinner, had a long, hot, and Free shower, and now we are using free wifi to update! $35 forthe night includes the showers and toilets which are open 24/7 and heated, pull through sites which easily fit our 32ft bus with our Jeep Wrangler attached, a nice picnic table, fire pit, and metal swing. In the summer they open the pool and jacuzzi, but it's kinda cool and raining, so it's closed.

So after an almost 300 mile drive its good to sit and relax being warm, and clean, and comfy. Tomorrow we plan to try a long day, 400+ miles, because we don't want to be forced to rush to get to where we are going (Tenn) by the 14th.

So I'll sign off for now, but don't forget to praise the Lord for His mercy and grace.

Deer Lodge, MT

Hey y'all. It's Oct 7th and we are in a truck stop in Deer Lodge Montana. We pulled in last night while on the way to Butte because we were losing power. 45mph in a 65mph zone (80mph for cars) is not good. The bus was blowing gray-ish-blue smoke when trying to "push it" to get up to 50/55mph. Let off, smoke stops. After some research, we've found the smoke is from incomplete combustion..... To much fuel in the cylinders (throttle to the floor - no change in rpms - extra fuel that isn't burnt right - smoke). So no worries there.
As for the loss of power, we are finding that we might have a partially plugged fuel filter. For one at Napa, will install it shortly.

Please pray everything works out.... 2000 miles at 45mph would take forever!

God bless!

August 28,2017

Hey y'all. So we are back to the surface of the sun. Opps, I mean back in Kooskia, ID.... Sorry for the confusion!

Man, other than seeing friends and family, I no longer enjoy being here. I have developed a wicked dry throat, feel like I can't drink enough water to even wet my lips, I feel as though I am being broiled alive, and I look like I have Aboriginal feet by the amount of dust they get covered with, within 3 steps outside! Our 2 AC units (a window one and a large portable one) wouldn't cool a lunchbox, nevertheless our bus, so that doesn't help.

Yes I am complaining. But that's ok, it is miserable here, so complaining is ok. Hahaha! We have to be here for Doctors Appts, otherwise we would have already headed back to the coast! Don't get me wrong, Idaho is beautiful. The people are great. If you liked hot weather,it's got that too. I'm over hot and I'm over snow, so Idaho isn't for me anymore.

But any way, we are here. The bus did great on the trip back from Crescent City, CA. We stopped at Jessie M Honeymoon State Park outside of the Newport,OR area (don't remember exactly where, the heat has ruined my memory haha!) for one of the nights. Great park, easy access and great showers! Would have liked to have arrived in the daylight to do some exploring, but maybe on the next trip through.

The next night we stayed at Kampers-West RV Park just outside of Astoria,OR. Very nice park, easy access, paved parking pads and decent showers/toilets. They do have a Rec Room with a pool table, air hockey table, and foosball table. (It was closed when we pulled in....dark again). We definitely would stay there again!

So now we are in River Junction RV Park in Kooskia, ID. Small park. Odd prices, $28/night, $125/week, $175(plus elec)/month...... Doesn't make sense, but cheaper than 3 miles down the road at a KOA... $375/month! There are downfalls here, probably more than need be, but it's cheap and the coin-op shower (not showerS, shower, as in only one) is hot, and the single male and the single female toilets flush, so you can't really complain...

Well, gotta run, stuff to do before we hit 90,
God Bless y'all!

Sorry its been a while..... Aug 20, 2017

Hey y'all, sorry for taking so long to update, but nothing has really happened lately. We have changed a few things, though....

Annnnndddddd I would load pictures, buuutttttt my awesome phone is to smart for me.... It won't load the pictures because of low memory, but I have 9 gigs of free memory on the phone. So, ya....

But I can tell you!

We lifted the master bed higher, so our genset can fit under it now instead of being in the closet! It definitely gives us more storage room!

We are in the process of giving the bus a face-lift, in other words we are painting it! The green was cool and we got allot of compliments on it, but when the sun peaks through the fog, it gets pretty warm inside.....and that's when is only 65-68 outside! We can only imagine a sunny 80 degree day! So it is now partially white. It will be totally white when We are done.

We had to paint over all our signatures that we had on the sides, and that's a major bummer so we will have to have all y'all re-sign the bus when we see ya!

Well that's all I have to say right now. Once I figure this stinking phone out, if that's even possible, I'll post some pictures.

God bless y'all!

4th of July!

Hey y'all, so here we are, the 4th of July. We are still in Crescent City, Ca but that's ok. The biggest fireworks display on this past of the coast is suppossed to be right here, so we'll see!

If your in the area, stop by! We are selling a bunch of knick knacks that we made from drift wood, shells, and rocks.

So come on by, if you can't that's alright, we will do this again and again as we travel around.

We'll that's all for now, God Bless!

6/17/17 Crescent City......still....

Hey y'all,

So it's been a while since I've posted on here, but that's simply because we haven't traveled anywhere new with the bus. While we have traveled 2hrs both east and south in our car, we haven't found any other place that we want to stay, so on the first we are loading everything up and headed north again to find an RV Park in Oregon, possibly in or around Seaside because of the awesome beaches and things to doing and around town.

Our boys are really taking to surfing, and ask almost everyday if they can surf. We picked up 3 more surf boards for $60 (total, not each); two of which we will have to do a little bit of fiberglassing/resin work, the other surfboard needs to be completely re-glassed..... and will be a first time for me..... we had to take it completely down to the foam, because the fiberglass was so bad. Once they are fixed, we will probably sell/trade them for a long board since they are all "pro" sized, at under 6ft tall, and would only frustrate the boys when they try to stand up. I know I did when I was younger.

We had the chance to borrow a neighbors surf board, a 10'2" long board, and wow! Talk about a difference from TJ's 8' foam board, that board catches waves great! We definitely gotta get one of them! Our neighbor also took TJ and I out and showed us how to Stand Up Paddle board the other day. That was great too! He also showed us some Aikido they other night, and we will keep working on those moves! (Thanks John for giving us those opportunities!! You've helped give our boys some great memories)

So while we can't wait to head out to new experiences, we made good friends here, and will miss them when we leave. We can only hope that our next spot is as cool as this one (with less crime preferably) with the beach just as close, if not closer.

God has definitely blessed us with great experiences so far, and we can't wait to see what else He has in store for us.

5/9/17 update

Hey y'all, so we left South Beach State Park on the 9th of May exactly 1 month from when we started this adventure. We have had a lot of fun so far, as well as some boring rainy days too. 

We rolled into Umpqua Lighthouse State Park the afternoon of the 9th with the plan to stay one night and then head towards Brookings, OR or Cresent City, CA to hang out until the end of the month..... State Park staying is just spending to much money per night. We are going to RV Park it here on the west coast for the summer, where it's a good bit cooler than inland, then head for the Texas coast come Sept/Oct so we can make central Florida by Christmas. 

As far as a review of this Park, Umpqua Lighthouse State Park, it's very small with only 54 spots total half of them being tent or yurts. There is a 1 mile hiking trail around a small lake that borders one side of the park, and a 2-3 mile drive to the fee-parking lot ($4/day or $30/yr). The biggest bonus is that the Oregon Dune Recreation Area is right here with 100's of acres of sand dune riding with ATV/UTV rental places very close. It's pretty nice with clean bathrooms and showers, paved spaces and trails to the bathrooms. Lots of 'skeeters though.....

Tomorrow we head south, I will load this when we have internet.

May 10, 2017

So we are here. 150 or so miles later and we are here. Harbor RV Anchorage in Cresent City, CA. Yup......after 10 YEARS of saying I would never return to Commie-forn-i-stan, I am in the state..... and it's still a messed up state. We were stopped at the border to be asked if we had fruit, veggies, or firewood. Every vehicle is asked this. Shanesta was asked the same thing behind me, and she was in the car. Then we had to show our receipt for chicken and chips when leaving Walmart.... but that was probably because we were just carrying them vs having them in a bag.... we didn't want to pay for the plastic bag...... state law is now that you have to buy the bags. What a jacked up law! But then it is cali.....a jacked up state.

On a different note, the RV Park we are in is right on the beach. We are going to stay here for the summer, space rent is $500/month but that includes electric, water, and sewer, as well as showers and toilets. That's less than half of what state parks run for a month ( and you have to change parks every two weeks) and should let us save up some decent money for the trip East. Oh, and the perks include only a road separates us from the beach. We will be spending a lot of time out there! We are going to stay here until the beginning of Sept., so to my buddies down in Yuba City/Marysville, this is as close as I am gonna get, so if you want to visit, come on up! I hear it's only a 6hr drive, or so. That means you too Battle! 

Oh, we saw 2 skoolies today while driving. Both were short buses and while one was just painted white, the other was all painted up and had "Alaska or Bust" in front where it used to say School Bus. They were both heading North while we were headed south, so we didn't have the chance to meet them, but we both beeped and waved at each other! It was the first official sighting of another Skoolie since we talked with a couple who had just started their travels in Manzanita, Wa. Very cool!

May 12th update, we found a really cool surf shop here in town, and the owners let us borrow a few surfing dvd's, so the boys are dying to go surfing tomorrow, and are non-stop watching them! They have a board that would be perfect for Lucas, it would be a perfect belly board for him, as well as a good board for TJ once he can stand up regularly on his board, but we gotta sell some stuff that we don't use so we can buy it. $250 isn't cheap for us!

As always, I will load this when we have wifi access. ( none to speak of here in the RV Park, might have to get a signal booster, to snag some free wifi from somewhere.....there's a McD's just down the road a bit.......) God Bless!

Nehalem Bay, Beverly Beach and South Beach State Parks

Hey y'all, sorry for the long time between posts, but we ran out of Internet really quickly, so we had to wait. Since we are new to this lifestyle, we aren't completely sure of our budget quite yet, so we had to make sure we didn't "blow" money we needed! Anyways, we are at McD's in South Beach, Oregon. Here's whats been going on.....

On May 1st, we left Nehalem Bay State Park. We had stayed the max of 2 consecutive weeks, and had to move. So we packed up and headed farther south. The good/bad news (99% good) is we have our car now. Shanesta's brother Sam and our Brother Jacob brought it to us on the 29th. Thanks again guys!

So now the dirty......the 1% bad news is we now have to pay a stupid $7/night extra car fee if we park the car by the bus.... and only because we can't tow the car..... if it was towed by the bus, it would be free. I think we need to have our Jeep fixed pretty quickly then we can ditch the car and save $200/month in extra vehicle fees! The 99% good news is we can now get into many more places to visit/see that we wouldn't be able to in just the bus. (like this McD's parking lot). We can also drive out of the beach towns to grocery stores that don't charge $17 for a whole (and tiny) chicken that you still have to cook! Example, last week while we were in the area, we took the car to Cannon Beach,OR ( a cool little town about 20 or so miles away from the Park we were in with tiny little streets with what seemed to hold the entire west coasts worth of people and cars) to see Haystack Rock which was used in the awesome movie Goonies. It was pretty cool to see it and all the tide pools full of life in front of it. I would have ran over someone or something trying to get the bus through there!!!

So anyways I want to do a quick final review of that park, having had 2 weeks there. Once again it's a great park. The bathrooms and showers are cleaned daily (which is a good thing with all the people that use them). The roads are kept debris-free. The 2.5mile mostly flat bike path isn't nearly as long after two weeks of bike riding back and forth to Manzanita! The staff, both the Park Rangers and Volunteers are really nice, though I think I would like the free "rent" the volunteers get for the 3 days per week that they are actually on duty versus completely gone in their pickup, or "tossing back cold ones"... I might find someone to talk to about doing that in the near future.... I can use a leaf blower for a while to get free space rent (basically).... not the drinking part!

Sorry I digress, anyways after 2weeks there, we would definitely recommend the Park to anyone, but would suggest that during the off season, don't make a reservation and just come on out. I say don't make a reservation because while we have neighbors 3-4spaces away right now, but most of the time people are 5+ spaces away (in the non-reservation D,E, and F Loops), the Reservation Only A,B, and C Loops are packed full of people. We don't hear any parties over hear, where as when on a night walk the other day, there was a big party going on over there. I can't imagine trying to sleep through that one!

Anyways, we know we are going to spend a lot of time in  state parks, but the free water, sewer, electric, and hot showers are kind of spoiling us! 

After a Nehalem Bay, we went to Beverly Beach State Park, and while it's decent, I wasn't to impressed, it was a 3/4mile car drive for the boys to go surf, it had a rain forest theme..... The road is paved, but the parking pads and bathroom paths are just gravel, and we had a small pond directly behind our site, so we "enjoyed" a free frog concert each evening for a few hours. The bathrooms and showers were clean and well lit, and the trails were easy to follow, even if you have to kick out a handful of gravel from your sandals/shower shoes during each trip. So just a few days later we moved (on Thursday) to South Beach State Park. 

South Beach State Park is very similar to Nehalem Bay State Park, with paved pads and roads, it does have gravel paths to the restrooms/showers, but the gravel is large enough it doesn't get in your shoes (which is a good thing since even though I have been trying to do as much bare footing as possible to toughen up my feet, I still have wussy feet!) The only downer about here is they seem to have a mosquito problem..... might just be our area in the park, we will have to see about that.

Ok, so that's all for now. Not sure when we will be able to post this, we ran out of Internet a while ago, so hopefully we can find a place to update everyone and everything today, since it's raining again.

God Bless y'all, and please keep praying for us!

P.S. sorry no pictures yet, we are still trying to figure out this laptop....seems to be an internet only laptop.... kinda weird....

4/21/17 Surfin USA

Hey y'all! So yesterday morning brought rain showers again, but the State Park we are in has got to be the best one yet. It's Nehalem Bay State Park just outside of Manzanita, OR. We got here the afternoon of the 19th, and it's been great since!

Here are the details:

Every site has power and water, all sites are back-in, paved and have a 10ft x 30+ft grassy area with a picnic table and multiple Manzanita (I'm guessing) trees for good shade coverage/wind blockage. There are 2 bathrooms in the "non-reservation" part of the park and they also have free hot water showers (separated male/female). Now granted you can't see the ocean from any campsite, and there are only 2-3 trails through the huge sand dunes to the ocean, but the view from atop the dunes is amazing! The ocean in front and a completely hidden by the trees State Park behind you. Other than distant houses, you'd think you're miles from civilization.

We forgot the camera, but were able to watch an awesome sunset last night. There are 2 bike trails as well as horse trails and even a horse camp and a small craft landing strip. The only thing it doesn't have is wifi, but cell phones have the 4G LTE service. (Not really sure what that means other than reception is great......)

There are around 250 or so sites in the park, but they aren't crowded like some of the parks we have seen/been in. Half of the sites are reservation only, and the other half is first come - first serve. The crazy part of it all is that you get all this for $29/night. The cheapest we have paid so far is $22/night, but that is no power, water, or showers! We are going to stay here until the 1st, so if you're in the area, we are in E40. The only thing else we need is a surf board and a wetsuit for TJ and a boogie board and wetsuit for Lucas. We are gonna see about doing some bartering for those, we will let you know.

God Bless y'all and have a great day!

P.S. Update: yesterday we rode our bike about 2 miles into town and found a surf shop that  rents boards by the day, but won't sell any of his old rental boards until he gets his shipment of new boards in a month or so. What a bummer.... but maybe I can convince him to trade us a board for this set of Leupold Binos we never use. It might sweet'n the idea of being a board short for a few weeks.....BUT, he does sell boogie boards so we "took the plunge" and picked up two for the boys. Surprisingly the "my legs hurt" complaining didn't happen once on the 2 mile ride back to the park! We had some lunch and put on some dirty clothes (no sense soaking clean ones) and went to the beach.

So if you've never swam in the Pacific Ocean, it is not warm like the Atlantic Ocean. Not at all! It hovers at somewhere around the mid 50's. So, ya.....it was cold. The boys however LOVED IT and weren't cold at all. They didn't want to get out of the water! Both boys caught multiple waves and they both even got rolled a few times, but loved that too. I'm positive they will be begging to go again today, maybe after a double school day, so I can soak up as much sun as possible before freezing again!

I can't wait to get them to Cocoa Beach, Fl for some warm surfing, and maybe a few lessons for them from my cousin Cheyne whom they look up to as "my cool surfer cousin", this cold water stuff isn't gonna be fun for long.....well, probably for them it will be, but not for "dear 'ol dad"! I must say that I like this State Park even better now because it didn't cost me $10 in quarters to warm back up in the hot shower!!! I have a song that comes to mind, here's part of the chorus.... "Nobody else was surfin..... surfin Or-e-gon".... after the Beach Boys' song : Surfin USA.

Have a great day y'all! God Bless, and remember, if your in the Manzanita, OR area, stop by! We are in Nehalem Bay State Park site D40.... big green bus, you can't miss it!

4/20/17

Hey y'all! So this morning brings rain showers again, but the State Park we are in has got to be the best one yet. It's Nehalem Bay State Park just outside of Manzanita, OR. 

Here are the details: 

Every site has power and water, all sites are back-in, paved and have a 10ft x 30+ft grassy area with a picnic table and multiple Manzanita (I'm guessing) trees for good shade coverage/wind blockage. There are 2 bathrooms in the "non-reservation" part of the park and they also have free hot water showers (separated male/female). Now granted you can't see the ocean from any campsite, and there are only 2-3 trails through the huge sand dunes to the ocean, but the view from atop the dunes is amazing! The ocean in front and a completely hidden by the trees State Park behind you. Other than distant houses, you'd think you're miles from civilization. 

We forgot the camera, but were able to watch an awesome sunset last night. There are 2 bike trails as well as horse trails and even a horse camp and a small craft landing strip. The only thing it doesn't have is wifi, but cell phones have the 4G LTE service. (Not really sure what that means other than reception is great......)

There are around 250 or so sites in the park, but they aren't crowded like some of the parks we have seen/been in. Half of the sites are reservation only, and the other half is first come - first serve. The crazy part of it all is that you get all this for $29/night. The cheapest we have paid so far is $22/night, but that is no power, water, or showers! We might stay here for a bit! The only thing else we need is a surf board and a wetsuit for TJ and a boogie board and wetsuit for Lucas. We are gonna see about doing some bartering for those, we will let you know.

Well I'm off to the shower, then breakfast. God Bless y'all and have a great day!

several days in one

So we just got our mobile hotspot set up so here's what has gone one the last few days:

4/17/17

This morning we awake to ocean front RV spot in Kalaloch State Park on Hwy 101 north of Aberdeen, Wa. It's a beautiful Park with 2 bathroom location, 2 fresh water locations, and an RV dump. It's set up as a "pick your own spot" Park during the off season, and is only $22/night. No electric available.

Yesterday We walked a few miles along a gentle sloping sandy beach while the boys played in the shallow surf. There are tons of shells and we even found a complete Sand Dollar! Burgers while sitting in front of the ocean....pretty awesome! God gave us a beautiful sunset, and Shanesta took a bunch of pictures. 

We would love to stay here longer, but we need to be heading to Aberdeen today, they have a Walmart (meds), and a hospital (depending on how Lucas feels when he wakes up.... he bashed his shin pretty hard yesterday, and was limping pretty good last night before bed). Once that's squared away, we need to pickup a cheap laptop so we can load pictures from the camera on the line, I'm sure y'all would like to see where we are!

Well that's all for right now, I think I will try and find something to chew on, I've been up for almost 2 hours, and I'm starting to get hungry. God bless y'all, please continue with your prayers that God will send people to talk to us, especially those who need to know Him.

4/18/17

Well yesterday was an interesting one, that's for sure... we got to the hospital in Aberdeen, Wa at around 12:30 or so, checked in ( as some guy was barfing in a pan in the waiting room) and we sat there for about 20 minutes when we overheard  a lady talking to someone about that she had been there waiting since 9:00am for her son who sliced his hand open. We realized that the other 10+ people were in front of us, so we "checked out" and decided to see if his pain goes away.

Oh, and if you are in a bus, don't go to that hospital anyways, you have to back out of the parking lot, and go back up a one-way street after you destroy a fog light and scrape the snot out of your bumper trying to leave the teeny little parking lot they decided would look good on the side of a mountain...... just sayin.....

So after those escapades, it just got better. We sat in Aberdeen ,Wa Walmart for just over 3hrs waiting for Shanesta's meds to be filled.... they said it would only take an hour....... but we did find a small Acer laptop for pretty cheap, now we just have to find wifi so we can set it up, and use it!

But really it did get better, we ended up in a small town called Pacific Beach, Wa. It's absolutely beautiful here, and the beach is nothing but sand! We found a small "State Park" ( looks more like a really nice RV Park) right on the ocean, but at $35/night, we are leaving today. We have to go back to walmart and get some wifi thingy that will let us get online when we are somewhere that has no wifi. Mainly so we can post on here, as well as talk to family easier/more often. 

We do have a noticeable change in the boys' life, they no longer wake up and want to watch a movie, they want to go to the beach, or ride their bikes, or go for a walk (mostly it's go play in the surf) so that a definite praise for the Praise Report of the day!

God bless y'all, and talk to you later!

4/19/17

So we left Pacific Beach and headed further south. Astoria, Or (where they filmed Goonies) was crazy with people so we didn't even try it, though it would have been cool to see the Goonies house and also Haystack Rock where One Eyed Willies ship was. 

So we had to pass that by. But we ended up at Nehalem Bay State Park, and so far it's the cheapest place at only $29.night with full hookups. We can't see the beach (sand dunes in the way) but we can hear it an dwe are right next to the trail to it, so tomorrow if it's not pouring down rain, we will check it out. 

Conversions are not welcome in Long Beach, Ocean City, or Cannon Beach, unless you want to pay $50+ a night for a getto park! Don't even bother pulling into those towns.

Oh by the way Seaside, Or has a wicked cool surf shop with a bunch of old school and new school surf boards for sale. If we had $200 for a board and $100 for the wetsuit, TJ would do his best at being a surfin fool. Hopefully we can find a cheaper board for him and just have him wear a wool suit for warmth! hahaha!!!!!

Well gotta run, don't want to waste all our internet on one post, 5 minutes after setting it up!!!

God Bless!

Week 1 coming to a close

Blog update 4/15/17
Hey y'all, I hope this update finds you well. Right now We are in Forks, WA, and for the last 4 days we have been camping at the Quileute Indian Resort/RV Park on the Pacific Ocean. As I write this it is pouring down rain, and has been off and on for the last 4 days. Not really surprising though, we are just right down the road from the Hoh Rainforest. We packed everything up at the resort this morning and moved down the road to Forks,Wa for a night or two since they have a church here in town.

So here's how things have gone on our adventure so far..... day 1 (Sunday the 9th) we boondocked in Clarkston,Wa Walmart. No problems, and we even got to visit with some family that lives there. Amber did 2 wicked awesome murals on the bus, they are so awesome! Thanks again Amber, we LOVE them! We had a Good night with no issues.

The next day we drove about 400 or so miles to Auburn and boondocked at the Walmart there (with the managers "don't tell me your doing it, because we don't allow that here" approval) needless to say less than 30minutes later some high-speed rent-a-cop told us to leave. It was around 10:30pm when we had to leave. We were bummed because we were supposed to meet some family there the next morning, and we haven't seen them in over 2yrs. But God will get us together when we are supposed to be together.

Now wouldn't you know it but I was wicked tired (we all were, but I'm the driver) and my back was killing me from bottoming out on several huge pot-holes ( sometimes ya just gotta love air-ride seats) and there was not a single RV park, rest stop, or truck stop that was accessible from Hwy 5 in Auburn, all the way through Tacoma, and 30 some-odd miles further West on Hwy 16 ( the way we were headed anyway ) until we happened to see a Winco sign in Bremerton, Wa at about midnight! Now normally they would not allow overnight parking, but I guess TJ and I looked wicked tired, because the manager said ok, but we had to be gone in the morning. Praise the Lord for His provisions! The next morning at exactly 8am, he came out and said that it was time to head out. No worries, I was rested and ready to drive!

We fired up and headed out, destination: "Port Angeles, Wa and then we will see". When we got to Port Angeles, it was still only around 1pm, and La Push is only a 2hr or so drive away, so we got some supplies from Walmart and headed out.

So the local Indian tribe out here in La Push set up a wicked nice resort right on the beach. They have a regular hotel/motel building, as well as detached cabins, tent spots and full hook-up RV spaces. The RV spots are $27/night plus 13%tax until the end of May when tourist season starts, then they sky-rocket to around $70/night! Needless to say, we won't be here then! Now $27/night isn't bad if you think of hotel room rates..... it's actually quite cheap. But..... do some math and $27/night for 30 night is HORRIBLE!!!!! So once we find a spot to hang out for a while, it will not be at over $800/month space rent! Ya it's beautiful here, but not that beautiful! They have showers ($3/6minutes) and flush toilets, as well as porta-pots scattered here and there. The store that they have is pretty well stocked, and the prices aren't bad compared to other resort-type places.... a 1 liter Brisk tea is 99cents just like in Kooskia, Lewiston, and Auburn, though I imagine a price hike around May or so.... but that's just smart business.

Well, that's all for now, I'm not sure when I'll be able to put this update on the line, there's zero wifi here, and we don't know about the next place yet, but other than posting updates about our lives/travels, no internet is perfectly acceptable to me. I do imagine some people don't stay here simply because of that reason, which is a shame, because it's beautiful here.

God Bless y'all, please keep us in your prayers.

P.S.   We have our first major bummer/downer.....the humidity and rain here is affecting our paint job (like some of you said) and the paint is starting to "slip", meaning we are going to loose all the signatures and the wicked cool murals Amber drew.... Major bummer! I will load this update and pictures once we have a way to do it..... we have to buy a laptop for that, and Walmart has some decent deals right now, but we just have to get to one! So pictures have to wait.... Sorry!

Name!!!!!

Since we are heading down the road on Sunday after church, we thought we might-should have a name painted on the bus. So we spent the day painting. Here it is on the front of the bus!

Here's the back of the bus.

Now in case your wondering what's with the "F.R.O.G." It stands for Fully Rely On God, and is a great conversation starter!
And here's one of the sides too!

There's really not much else we need to do before heading out on Sunday, so we will post "departure" pictures when we can either Monday or Tuesday depending one where we are!

God Bless y'all and please pray that God will use us for His purpose! 

PAINT!!!!

Hey y'all, 

LONG day today, we had a beautiful day, Praise God, and we decided to paint the bus again. This time we had sun, so the paint dried pretty quickly, especially on the roof!

Now don't get me wrong, it got warm on the roof, and I actually got a slight sun burn, but the roof is done nice and thick.

On the sides we had to do 3 coats (some spots need 4) to cover the yellow, and in a few spots we will still have to touch up on another day. 6hrs of 3 people painting makes those 3 people tired! But the end results are worth it. We no longer have a yellow bus!!!

Like I said a few touch ups and the paint will be completely done. It took right at about 4 1/2 gallons to do it, and with the touch ups probably take the full 5 gallons. Here's my favorite picture of the bus out of all the pictures so far.

Well I'm pooped. Good night y'all, have a good night and God Bless!

Finishing touches and the start of paint!

Hey y'all!

Today we took more stuff up to the bus and finished up a few things. Shanesta made the boys curtains so they can have some privacy as well as block out some light. Needless to say, they like their little "caves" alot!

I got a shelf for our bedroom built and, with Shanesta's help, we got it squared away and level. Now it might not look fancy, but it will hold an alarm clock (for Sunday morning Church) and whatever else we might need to hold. It will also make for a future safe for a shotgun or a 22 rifle.

So after almost all day of doing these projects as well as others, we heard that it is supposed to rain tomorrow. Well, we were planning on painting the outside of the bus tomorrow and even though it was wicked cloudy, it hadn't dropped a drip, so we decided to start painting. We had 5gallons of Exterior Acrylic Latex Paint in a light Olive Drab green color that we had stored away for a while and since we don't have tons of money to spend on the start up of this entire project, we decided to use that. We can put a different color paint on the bus in the future if we feel that we don't like the OD.

Shanesta and TJ did the side of the bus while I painted the top. We definitely need to put on a 2nd coat and Lord willing it won't rain tomorrow and we can put down some more paint. We will have to do multiple coats to make sure everything gets covered good and thick, but we got the roof and the starboard (passenger) side's 1st coat pretty much done.

The blue on the windows is on the inside of the windows inside of the shower stall (and the toilet room on the other side), and is the same color as our ceiling. We will be painting those windows as well as the ones that are white with lettering on them, since they are behind the closets and the pantry/fridge. Eventually we would like to completely remove those windows, but that's a pretty big project (6 windows on the starboard side and 5 on the port side), and we need steady warm/dry weather for a while before we tackle that!

We even got the bus out of the yard, and parked on the side of the road so that the bus won't completely sink in to the ground, and the grass doesn't completely die......

Well that's about all for today, stay tuned for more another day (tomorrow if it doesn't rain!)

P.S. We were talking with the neighbor today who also goes to our church (Thanks Leta!) and she suggested that we call the bus "F.R.O.G." (Forever Rely On God) since it will be green, so we talked about it and we will be putting F.R.O.G. on the front and rear of the bus along with the definition and along the sides we will put God's Grace, along with this blog's web address. Whatcha think???

The beginnings of loading the bus

Hey y'all, so we went up to the bus again today to work on getting it ready to roll. We took more of our stuff that needs to go, our house would probably be empty if we still had our truck, but since we don't, it gives us more time to sort out the keeps and the donates.

I worked on putting locks on the storage doors as well as the front and rear doors. (I forgot to take pictures....sorry!) But Shanesta put away all of the stuff we brought up.  With the food and plates/bowls/cups all we need is water and hooking up the propane tank and we can cook/eat!

Here's a "getting full" pantry, still more food to load up, but it's looking good!

I also finished scraping all the stickers off of the outside of the bus. It wasn't difficult until I got to the reflective stickers.... man those act like they are super-glued down!!! I'll have to get a heat gun to get that sticky stuff off the paint. Here's our "naked" bus!

Well that's about it for tonight. We are hoping for some clear weather for a day or two so we can paint. We have 5 gallons of Exterior Enamel paint that is OD Green, so we will be painting the bus that color, unless we find another color that was tinted wrong. Those normally sell for $20-30 for 5gallons versus the $150-180 that it would cost if it was correctly tinted! We just have to find a color we like that is either Exterior Enamel or Acrylic Enamel so stand up to the elements for 4-5years.

Well good night and God Bless.

Finishing up small projects

Hey y'all!

Shanesta and I headed up today to finish up some small projects since her back and my leg are still bugging us. But we did get a few things done before it started raining and the outdoor cutting had to stop. We worked a bit on the lower kitchen cabinets while the weather was nice.

Once it started raining we had to stop cutting the wood outside, so we finished the carpet completely. It's done! (except the "mud" carpet that we have to figure out for the stairwell, but that's later anyways...)

Well, the bus looks livable huh?!?! Ya, that's what we are thinking, so we have put a tentative date of departure at about 2 weeks from today, or approximately the 10th of April. That should give us plenty of time to heal, do a final downsize of stuff we are taking, and figure out where to put it all!

On another note, we added our first official bumper sticker today. It's from my cousin Cheyne's store, Island Surf and Skate, in the Merritt Square Mall in Merritt Island, Florida. I think it looks great!

Well talk to y'all later!

God Bless!