We are in the "real" world

PHewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!! We made it down the Alaska Highway! That is a brutally LOOOONNGGGGG drive but we finally arrived around 3:00 pm yesterday! We had great roads and were able to cruise at a relatively good speed. We had a few run-ins with some deer that almost didn't make it but we were able to miss them all. Merle and Lois drove with us as far as Quinell and then we went our own ways. I called Lois after we crossed the border and we were surprised to find out that they were just a few cars behind us!! It was really nice to have the company and it felt safer too. We are going to meet back up with them at Lois' sisters house, in Milwaukee, the early part of next week.

We are staying at an RV Park in Ferndale, WA, just above Bellingham. I am here visiting an old highschool friend, Crystal (Pike) Johnson, for a day before we head down to Arlington to visit one of Martins highschool friends. We have a few more people to visit in the Washington/Oregon area and then we will head to California for a few weeks. We will be with family (Grandma Sally's sister Pat and all her kids, grandkids, and great grandkids) for Christmas Eve and I am sure it will feel just like home with all the kids running around and the chatter.

We got in yesterday and went straight to the RV park to get our motorhome de-winterized, and organized a little, and then headed over to Crystals house for a great pizza dinner and visit. We had a great time playing with her three young boys, cute as can be!! This morning I woke up and went back to Crystals for a Bible study with her moms club that she is a part of. It has been great to see her again and get to know her a little, amazing how much we've changed since highschool yet are still the same.

Tristan woke up this morning and said "Are we going to start driving pretty soon?" I thought he would be relieved to be parked for a little bit but he expressed that he wants to keep moving until we are in warm weather!! I think he is going to be just fine living in heat, if that is where we end up!

I am feeling quite giddy right now!! It is a really good feeling to see us realize our dreams. We have talked about it for so long and it is hard to believe we are right in the middle of it now! We are looking forward to an incredible year!

The next phase of our adventure!

Well, we are officially out of the duplex, that we were renting, as of yesterday. It has been a very exhausting week, with getting everything organized, boxed up, and cleaned with the addition of making MANY trips out to the motorhome to get our things loaded up!! I slept 10 hours last night so I guess my body is trying to play catch-up! We have the motorhome parked at Martin's parents house until pull-out day on Dec. 17 (5:00 am). We are going through a tank of propane every 2 1/2 days as the temperatures are below zero right now. Martin has started to count down in days, rather than weeks, since we only have two weeks left!! I am starting to feel like I did, as a child, when it was Christmas Eve and I couldn't sleep because of being so excited for morning to come! It is hard to believe that we are making our dreams come true!!!! Even the kids are excited, after being a little unsure how they were going to feel about it, which makes me even more thrilled!!

One of our biggest concerns was the cat, since we decided to take him with us. We just didn't have the heart to part ways with him since we got him the same time that I gave birth to Tristan and he is just part of our family. We were concerned because when he is reallly ticked off he will pee (just once). Since we are in a motorhome that costs a lot of money and has carpet that cannot be easily replaced, we were very nervous. He didn't eat or go to the bathroom for three days but finally ate last night and went to the bathroom in the litterbox!!! We know we are home free now and he seems to be quite happy. I think the thing that has made the difference is that we put our own bedding in the motorhome along with a lot of other things that are familiar to him so I guess he has just accepted it as home. Hopefully the rest of the trip will be just as smooth for him!