After being sick for 3 days before our planned departure we managed to still leave within 1 hour of our estimated time. Not too bad if I don't say so myself!
We were packed and loaded and ready to go by 2:30pm on Sunday April 17th. My mom (Susan) and my daughter Meadow came by to see us off but since we were running slightly late they ended up having to leave before us so Meadow could get to work. Thank you both for coming by...we will all miss you and hope you enjoy reading about our travels until we return :) XOXOXO to all our friends and family behind!
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| Sissy Meadow gets big hugs from little sissy's Sierra and Aayla |
But there's no looking back...we've done it! Our journey has begun!!!
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| All set to begin our journey! I can't believe it's really happening :) |
On first day our main objective was just to basically get over the border. We did so with only a little speed bump. At the booth they asked us how long we were going for and when we told her the trip was over 4 months, her eyes nearly jumped out of her head! She then asked us where we work...well since selling the business we don't work...not something most people understand. SoooOooo off we went for an inspection. Luckily enough we were only held up for less then 10 minutes. The two guards who did the actual search basically just checked to make sure we had no citrus or fire wood and we were on our way.
We headed down the I-5 until Tulalip and stopped at the Walmart for food and stayed the night in their parking lot. This Walmart has NO restrictions except you can only stay 3 days! Park where ever you want, no ticket needed and no one will bug you about moving spaces etc. This Walmart is right by a casino and outlet shopping but we were good...we got basically only food supplies ;) We can't be perfect! We bought a water filter that attached to the water hook up hose so we can drink the supplied water instead of always relying on bottled water, a lock for the bike rack, a snake for the sewer hose and that's basically it. Not too bad but certainly a prime example of why most Walmarts allow overnight parking...you spend a fortune in their store! We could have stayed longer and spent more but the girls had enough and it was time for dinner.
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Parked in front of Walmart but out of the way.
We were a bit too close to I-5 though. We assumed traffic
would slow down during the night but no...
it kept pretty busy all night. FREE comes with it's own price! |
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| Us in front and 3 other RVer's behind us. |
We woke up Monday morning, had breakfast and were on our way. We decided to take a bit of a detour and headed towards Leavenworth
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The clouds were basically right beside us and were so
pretty to see in the trees |
We passed through some cold weather
and then had a scare. For those of you who know us...you know we are Toyota people and trading in our Tundra for a Ford so we would be within all towing limits 100% was hard to do. We did it though and now after only about a month we love our F350. However not being used to this truck and how they operate, we got a scare. As we were driving over Stevens Pass elevation of about 4000, the truck began to make an awful noise and we thought for sure we had transmission problems. We pulled over, let the truck cool off and had no other choice but to plug on to Leavenworth. Luckily it was all down hill. We decided to take our tour of Leavenworth and then head to the Ford dealership in Wenatachee afterwards.
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| Sierra standing by the snowbank as we wait for the truck to cool down. |
We arrived in Leavenworth with no more truck troubles,
got gas at $4.39 gallon (still cheaper then our $1.30 a litre in Canada),
parked and took a walk around town.
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| Sierra found the Gingerbread factory... |
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| We bought 4 mini cookies for $1.60. |
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| Hey mom...I wanted to go on that! |
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| Tourist Sierra watches a Trolley go by |
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Both girls purchased 4 polished rocks each for $1.00
I am sure they are all lost by now! |
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| Sierra making her own monkey bars since we couldn't find the playground |
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Aayla thinks she is a big girl...
everything Sierra does...Aayla does too |
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| Smell the pretty flowers |
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| The library and City Hall |
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The statues outside of the library...doesn't it make you want to join in???
I LOVE story time! |
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| Time to head out...bye bye Leavenworth! |
Finally the girls get to eat their gingerbread cookies...do you think Aayla was excited???
Off we go to Wenatachee and to see Town Ford. They were really nice and came for a test drive over a mountain to try to get it to make the same noises again...and it did...
Luckily we found out that our truck has a very LOUD fan and it was cooling the engine. We were amazed! Thankful and we felt a bit silly to waste their time, yet still unsure so we asked them to do a diagnostic test and check the transmission fluid just in case...(3 hours later, a Costco pizza and a long walk to and from a park, and just over $300) we had peace of mind that yes in fact...it was just the fan!
So we headed out on our way as far as we could with the little bit of sunshine we had remaining, enjoying the views along the way...
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| Statues of wild horses up on a hill |
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| Windmills dotted the hillsides |
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A morning picture of where we stayed the night at a
rest stop outside Yakima. |
Another slightly loud night as one trucker kept his rig on ALL night long but we survived, woke up early and were ready for another day! With only travelling about 120km's (sorry to all you US readers...our truck is in Kilometers) the first day and only about 270km's the second day we have some ground to cover tomorrow in order to get to Vegas on time!
