The First Weeks on the Road...

we left BR on Wednesday 5.21. packed up all of our belongings either into storage or into our 27 foot motorhome. two girls and a cat, pumpkin... traveling together for a year. this is our journey.

the first couple of weeks after leaving BR didn't even feel like we had left home. in fact, Heather and Sunny even started the journey with us on our way to Opelousas.

we stayed with friends and family along the way for first two weeks. it was nice for us (and Pumpkin, the amazing traveling cat) to get used to life on the road SLOWLY!!) we practiced living in the rv, but also had "real" bathrooms and kitchens. we still had lots to do around the rv to get organized and all checked out... and along the way, we realized just how much we still need to learn about this rig!

what all could have gone wrong in just two weeks, you ask?? well, we have had a tire blow out (but luckily it was one of the dualie tires in the back and we barely felt it), we found a leak in the front window... and where water sits, what do you get?? MOLD and MILDEW. then our battery nearly blew up. when we opened the case, it was smokin. and not in the good way.

none of those problems were too terrible though. definitely could've been worse. and we were still @ wendy's brother's house when we discovered them all, so we had plenty of time and help to get it all done.

after leaving dallas we had a couple of nights on our own camping in Oklahoma. found this great state park - Natural Falls - with a 77 ft waterfall right in the park. we spent an entire afternoon exploring and loved it... until we found TICKS on us. eewww.

after leaving Oklahoma, we headed on up through AR and MO on our way to Kansas for Wakarusa (music festival) where Debbie, Sheri, Brett and Bethany met up with us. amazingly enough... six of us in ol' bessie was NOT too overcrowded!!! except when we needed a midnite snack and debbie's bed was our table... few crumbs, but nothin too serious!!!

the rest of the drive thru KS was pretty uneventful - lots of farm land on rolling hills. jen says "uneventful" but the driver had something else to say: there were 50 mile an hour winds blowing Ol' Bessie all over the road, but Wendy knows how to keep her in line.

up until this point, Pumpkin had been handling this whole trip EXTREMELY well for a cat in a "housetruck" but was boarded at the vet for the four days we were at Wakarusa... and by the time we picked her up, she had forgotten all about those two weeks. It took a couple of days for it to all come back to her, but she's enjoying life in her jacket once again. (her "jacket" is really a harness and leash, but don't let her hear you call it that)

made it in to CO by Tuesday 6.12. drove down I-24... right up to a great view of pike's peak. it is abso-friggin-lutley gorgeous out here. we met Bruce in the Wal-Mart parking lot, and after two and half hours of talking to him, he told us about this little town - manitou springs that has great rock formations and natural springs throughout... so we've decided to spend a couple of days here. we're in pike's peak rv park -- parked right next to a creek that makes incredible music.

we spent today riding around on our vespa... checkin out some of the natural springs around town. we were expecting them to be some geyser-like spouting spring... but really, they were bronze statues that offered water to you. we found four of the seven, and each of them had their own distinct flavor. one of 'em even had traces of lithium in it. we filled up a whole jug of THAT one!!!

this afternoon, we drove up to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. saw real indian dancers performing, then climbed our way through the dwelling. those anasazi indians must've been little people, cuz wendy could scoot in and out of all the little holes and crevices, where jen of course had a harder time getting those legs through!

to end out the day, we took a hike along on of the trails in the garden of the gods that we hadn't gotten to yesterday... then drove through the mountain to catch the sunset. i don't know how we could have had a more beautiful day than we did today, but we've still got eleven months to keep tryin'!

we don't wanna leave, but pagosa is calling our names next. until then...