Snake Pit

I fell off the quarantine bandwagon and into the snake pit.

Broken Arrow

It's the perfect place for me. Broken Arrow Lodge. I am broken. This world is breaking me. A broken arrow can't fly straight, but it can fly.

When I have something to do, I can focus on it. This road trip, the planning and building, the packing and sorting, the buying and arranging... it all gives me a purpose. I'm needing purpose in this purposeless world. When you used to go to work, to reap some sort of rewards instead of being caged in your own home. If I keep moving, I don't have to think about it. I don't have to stop and remember how terrible people are being to one another, when at the beginning of this, I was impressed with humanity's kindness and empathy. I don't have to look at the news, at my FB feed, and read about the horribleness as peoples health is turned into a political battle. I don't have to fret about my kids' emotional needs, what they are missing, how I am I missing all the people in our lives. 

Moving. Just keep moving. "Just do the next right thing." (sorry, throwing in a Frozen 2 line). But sometimes that's all you can do, is just put your next foot forward and try not to be a dick. Try not to resent the world, and the people in it, and try not to let hate and disgust grow in my heart. It's hard. It's easy to forget if you are on the road, entertaining your kids and keeping them from killing each other in the back seat.

I lost it on day 1, and again the next day. I had dragged the girls in 100 degree weather to Arches NP. I wanted to see the sunset, and we'd had a full day of driving and crankiness. They sure as hell didn't want to be outside, let alone exploring a park. We went to The Windows arches, and found ourselves nearly deserted at the second arch. We climbed up and had a lovely, precarious perch all to ourselves. Of course, the kids didn't want to wait the 15 minutes until sunset and were bickering. I asked what they would do if they could do one, pre-covid previous life thing. Evey said, "I would go back to school. I miss learning stuff." Then she said, "What do you miss mommy?" I burst into tears. I told them that I missed them being happy, and going to school, and seeing their friends. And everything. But if I could fix their happiness, their lives, I would do it. I had a good cry and they cuddled me, as we watched the sunset.

Sometimes a good cry is justified.

I think this world is cry-worthy, for sure. 

Eggs and Rain

We made it through our days at Yellowstone, and dropped off Eric at the airport in Bozeman, Montana for his lengthy journey back to Burbank.

Yellowstone.

Quite a place. I have never been anywhere like it, and wonder if there's any similar place on Earth. To be sure, the geothermal features and oodles and oodles of forest/lakes/streams/rivers/waterfalls/hikes is simply amazing. The animal experience is incredible.

But man, I wish we had better weather and perhaps a little planning foresight. The weather for the first few days was incredibly cold and wet. High of 42, and the first two days was rainy and wet. We didn't let it dampen our adventure, but it did dampen our enthusiasm a bit to have frozen wet fingers and toes. Definitely reminded me of my childhood a bit. It even flurried on the second day.

By the third day, the rain had mostly stopped but the cold gray weather continued. It definitely brightened our moods a bit to be dry. We had a lovely hike along Yellowstone River Picnic Trail. Both kids had their meltdowns at different times, as expected, but overall it was amazing through meadows and above the Tower canyon.

It was great spending time with Eric. We booked hotel rooms since we all couldn't fit in The Daisy Dodger. And learned the Yellowstone reminds me of rotten eggs and rain.

The Tetons

I've had zero internet other than my drives through town, so this will be brief. But DEAR GAWD this place is lovely.

And like, no one wears masks.

Bathrooms were an issue right off the bat. I had planned much of the first few days of driving around Starbucks stops, but quickly realized that nearly all had closed their restrooms. McDonalds, on the other hand, had not. While you can't eat in, most McD's you can saunter in and use their restrooms fairly easily. The odd teenager working there certainly isn't keeping tabs on you, and prolly doesn't give AF even if they were.

So those became our regular stops, and as a result, my kids have consumed an extraordinary amount of chicken nuggets. My kids are SoCal kids. They don't eat a ton of fast food. We are damn snooty with our diets, usually, but that goes out the window when you are on the road for 8 hours with cranky small humans.

The girls asked me how to make a perfect marshmallow. I was so happy to show them (Eric is the light-her-on-fire type and I'm happy to see the girls coming to their sense early in life, that quality is better than quantity). We ate s'mores, melting the chocolate next to the flame first, as is the perfect method.

We never found a moose, which was our ultimate goal, but saw some amazing sights in the Tetons. GORGEOUS area. Perfect weather. Amazing mountains and wildflowers. It was hard at first, taking them on hikes by myself. Scary, because if an animal came at us then "I" was the protector. I had my bear spray but still, I certainly don't want to have to use it (especially on a moose! Who knows what that would do). Anyhow, we picked a few low-impact hikes and survived. Took lots of lovely pictures, saw crazy antelope and barns and deer and bison.

On the Road

It turns out I am extraordinarily busy getting ready for a 4-week roadtrip, so blogging has been pretty sparse. BUT! But. We are on the road. Today is day 3, Wednesday, and we left on Monday very early in the morning to head to Grand Canyon.

I imagine I won't have too much to say, as being an only parent on a roadtrip is very mentally, emotionally, and physically consuming. I am very much missing having my partner on this trip. For so many reasons! The ability to tap out is big, along with him missing the fun of course. He would have loved some of the sights we have seen.

I had a moment, on the drive within the first few hours, where I felt anxiety and panic swirling. I was alone, what if some creeper decided to follow us, really what could I do? I mean, pepper spray and bear spray will only get you so far. I felt, for a moment, like a stray animal that was caged and looking for a way out. Poking and prodding at the edges, holding it together but just barely, while sheer terror lingered below the surface.

Eventually, about halfway to the Grand Canyon, it quieted a bit. I knew I just had to get past the hump of making a possibly huge, dangerous, irrational vacation plan on a whim... but since then, I've been perhaps too tired to concern myself too much with my anxiety.

We made it to Grand Canyon in great time, about 7 hours and were able to drive straight to Mather's Point. I did a reveal with the girls, closing their eyes and filming their reaction. Impressed, perhaps, but also rather Meh. Aaaahhhh kids.

I mean, I did only plan one night here as really, it is Summer and I sure as heck am not going to drag them below the rim on a hike. We checked into our hotel, did a quick dip in the pool that angered my oldest and soured her mood for the rest of the evening (pool was too crowded, so I pulled them away to their dismay) and I did a little less than stellar parenting in the forest near sunset. Got some pics, watched the sunset Yaki Point, and headed back to the hotel. There were a bunch of elk on the drive in which we got some pictures of, and thankfully the park was not collecting fees. I did have a National Park 4th graders pass that should have worked, if needed, but I had yet to try it out.

We left early the next morning. As we pulled out of the hotel, we saw a huge elk stag 20 feet away in the parking lot. We watched him pee, and then lick it. Nature at its finest.

We drove much of yesterday but made it to Moab early enough. Sunset in Arches at the Windows.

Windows!

I have so much more to write, but for now, I will leave you with the window progress! I bought some heavy duty spray adhesive and made the inside much more fancy for sleeping. Huzzah!

Itinerary

Eeeeeeek! We leave in 6 days!!

Devil cat!

Monday, June 22
Drive to Grand Canyon 8 hours
STAY Grand Canyon Plaza Hotel

Tues June 23
Explore GC in morning

Drive to Arches 6-7 hours

STAY Moab Valley RV Resort & Camp

Wed June 24
Explore Arches
Explore Canyonlands?

STAY Moab Valley RV...

Thur June 25
Drive to Jackson Hole WY 8 hours

STAY Snake River KOA

Fri June 26
Explore Grand Teton

STAY Snake River KOA

Sat June 27
Explore Grand Teton
Pickup Eric Airport

STAY Lexington in Jackson Hole

Sun June 28
Explore Yellowstone

Drive to West Yellowstone 1-2 hours

STAY in Hibernation Station

Mon June 29
Explore Yellowstone

STAY in Lake Cottages

Tues June 30
Explore Yellowstone

STAY in Lake Cottages

Wed July 1
Explore Yellowstone in morning

Drive to Bozeman MT Airport 2 hours

Drive to Alder MT Ranch 2.5 hours

STAY at Broken Arrow Ranch

July 1-July 5
STAY at Broken Arrow Ranch

Sun July 5
Drive to East Glacier 6 hours

STAY East Glacier /St Mary KOA

Mon July 6
Explore Many Glacier

Drive GTSR

STAY West Glacier KOA

Tues July 7
Explore Going to the Sun Road

STAY West Glacier KOA

Wed July 8
Drive to Coeur d’Alene (Crotty Family?) 3 hours???

Drive to Wenatchee/Leavenworth 6.5 hours???

STAY ???

Thurs July 9
Drive to Snohomish, WA

July 9-13/14
Hang at Grandpa’s (4 nights)

July 14
Drive to Uncle Andy or Aunt Nelda 

July 15-17
Stay at Aunt Nelda (2-3 nights)

Fri July 17
Drive to Crescent City 5.5 hours

Stay Westward Inn Crescent City

Sat July 18
Explore Lady Bird Johnson

Drive Redding+ 4 hours

Stay _____________

Sunday July 19
Drive to .... HOME???

Space Mobile

It's been a tiring couple of days! Work, run, build, kids, cook, move. Why did we decide to move all of our bedrooms at this time?! It is exhausting. I remember when we bought our house, thinking, "I will never have to move again." Well, switching bedrooms (us to the master, girls each their own room, office to our old room) was just like moving. We still have the "dump" room as the office where anything weird is residing. But I have to admit, I love how it feels. Very airy and open.

But, back to the CoVan20. I realized that the curved boards for under the mattress were just not going to cut it. A bummer, since they were free. I found some more on marketplace, which fit much better and gave a good solid overlap in the middle to help stabilize it all. I stapled some straps on the boards, and even overlapped the ties which helps really keep the boards in place.

2 sets of overlapping bunkie boards

The sleeping platform & storage bins

My new mattress arrived, and it is so comfy. I am pretty excited that it seems my back won't be entirely ruined after this trip. Also, I was most excited to get my bins, actually. They fit perfectly and make my heart happy. Something about the crisp new plastic smell of potential organization really gets my heart pumping. I think, honestly, we won't have any suitcases or bags. When we do stay in a hotel, we'll be lugging up tupperware bins. That won't look weird, right?

Cozy mattress

The mattress flips back easily to put the seats up

I started the window covers. I used painters plastic to line the windows perfectly, and trace and outline. Then I cut it out about a centimeter bigger onto Reflectix, labeling each window as I went (haha! She thinks ahead). It was a pain for sure, and required bending and twisting to get these big pieces of paper to trace the windows. But thankfully cutting through the Reflectix was easy enough, it is basically bubble wrap with shiny stuff on the outside.

Tediousness

Space mobile

Overall, though, I think it came out pretty amazing. I ran out and need to buy another roll for the front windshield. The plan was to fancy up the shiny sides. I'm going to cover the interior sides with fabric, and the exterior I was thinking of spray painting black. Someone mentioned the lingering smell of spray paint fumes though, and as awesome as that would be while I'm trying to sleep I think I'd rather suffer the ugliness of a 70's antenna vibe. We shall see. The tinted window section doesn't look too bad though?

Layin' Pipe

Next, the frame. Bottom line, measure, cut, size, remeasure, rebuild, and eventually it all came together pretty nicely. I found some free bed slats on marketplace, and tossed an old camp mat on top to give it a whirl. Overall I'm pretty pleased, and there's LOTS of head space when laying down. The seats can be folded up for driving, and we are getting there. A few more tweaks, perhaps some longer bed slats, and waiting for my new mattress in the mail. 17 days until departure.

So here's the thing about PVC pipe. It's some weird shit. And it's strong as hell, pretty easily accessible, and slight bendy. I knew that hardware stores carried in, in basically any thickness. My main tutorial I am following used 1.5" pipe but I figured we could get away with 1.25" pipe. I mean, they are basically legos, with all sorts of different sizes and pieces. But I soon found that corner "fittings" were not easily found past basic T or L shape. A trip to DIY, Lowes and Home Depot definitely left me wanting.

Enter the Internet.

I had to get fittings from Amazon, Ebay, Lowes and Home Depot. The center 5-end piece was the most expensive, at $13 each! I mean, what do people make with these other than bitchin' minivans? I could definitely picture some incredible cosplay creations, and I love a good complicated Halloween set-up (actually, I already have a PVC pipe creation who lives on my house during October. His name is Ichabod, and my dad helped me build him. He's a giant black spider with a yoga-ball butt). He's actually in my yard for our Covid-season advising mask-wearing and hating on narcissists.

My PVC fittings sprinkled in through the mail, and finally I got my last piece this week. I needed to measure INSIDE each pipe to determine what the appropriate measurement should be for the pipes. Most fittings mostly allowed a pipe in 1.25"-1.5", so I wanted to be accurate before I started cutting.

My first test run was the hammock. At this point, I don't think I will suspend it from the doors as there is a lovely armrest that is level on each side of the front of the van. I can snug a frame in there, and no need to have a dangling kid. This was great news, since I wasn't sure that I wanted to mess with the door lining by jamming something into it.

Adapted hammock design

First order of business, what cuts PVC? A quick google search brought up that any ordinary wood blade would do the trick. We have a little jigsaw, and then the bone-cutting miter saw. I figured it would be more dangerous to use the flimsy blade on a jigsaw, wobbling and holding a huge PVC pipe steady, so I brought out the big boy.

In our early days of home-ownership, having watched enough home demo shows and pinned enough DIY projects, we bought a miter saw. In the 5 years since then, its only been taken out of its dusty home in the shed a handful of times. We put in on a glass patio table (limited options, here) and I did the first cut. That sucker is powerful, but I made it through alive. I made my cuts and assembled by rectangle-shape of PVC, then brought it to the van for testing. Definitely off by a couple inches. I shaved some little rounds off the pipes and eventually, got to the right dimensions.

All the fingers

I grabbed the tiny 7 year old and held the frame around her. Plenty of room! On to the next projects.

I had doodled, calculated, and tried to account for all the measurements I would have to make my perfect sleeping platform, but honestly I just had to cut, bring to van, then recut to get the correct size. It wasn't too bad, once I got the initial pieces remeasured, but my favorite part of course was assembly. It is coming along nicely!

Need longer slats, methinks

For a rough draft? Not too shabby

PVC pipes and things

The first order of business is building the campervan, right? I mean, its a minivan, so things are pretty much already built for space and comfort. I started to measure and pin different designs. I found I had 2 options for travel for my 2006 Toyota Sienna.

1) I could simply lay the mattress on the floor of the minivan, and remove the inner row. The back row folds flat into the van, leaving a perfectly level surface to throw a mat on. The pros? This was super easy, and the seats would be a snap every night. The cons? This would essentially mean most of our things would have to be stored in the middle area of the van. They would need netted-down or something to be safe in case of a sudden break check. Plus, the kids would be sitting WAY BACK away from me, and possibly miss much of the scenery.

2) I could leave in the middle row, and lay the back seats flat into the floor. Then, I would have to build a sleeping platform so our bed could extend across the platform, and the middle row folded flat. The platform has to be 18" high to match the height of the folded middle row. Pros: the under area of the sleeping platform meant glorious storage space, and the kids would be close to me to see the action. Cons? I have to build the damn thing. But that's less of a con, then a very fun challenge.

BEHOLD:



So, the first sketches of The Daisy Dodger came to light. I started measuring, calculating, shopping for weird shaped PVC pipes, mattresses, and curtain options. Stay tuned!

GOALS: 

First inklings

I first started getting an inkling of this blog a month ago. Being stuck in Los Angeles while the world paused, I was dying to break out of town. Trip after trip had been canceled, and I just couldn't tell my daughters about one more event that they would not be attending. This, also, would be the appropriate time to check my privilege, as I know that there are far worse things than having a few vacations planned. But, at this moment and time, this is what was most on my mind.

Now, I'm a nurse. I know full well the hazards of any type of travel during a pandemic. In my arrogance, I also consider myself a notch above most people at keeping deadly germs out of my mouth & face. Until you've had the joy of keeping a gloved C-Diff hand way from your face, you probably won't agree, but I digress. Germs bad, cleanliness good, and my mental health was tanking. My kids' mental health was shot, and the dismal end to the school year brought no joy to their world. My husband was becoming creature-like and hadn't seen daylight in a spell.

I discovered through a nurse at my work that Zion National Park would be opening soon, and that campgrounds were beginning to open. I started to consider the technicalities of leaving town with my husband, two daughters, and myself.

So a few concerns came up.
1. Safety
2. Bathrooms
3. Food

Safety:
It would be a 7 hour drive, and camping would mean sharing bathroom facilities with others. Not ideal. I started to search more, and found a fair amount of steeply discounted resorts, cabins, and AirBnB options. This sounded much safer, as I could mask up & go wipe down surfaces before my family entered. This would also mean we could bring frozen food and we could cook meals ourselves, further limiting exposure.

Bathrooms:
I had read about these little devices that essentially allows females to pee while standing up. More research, and I discovered FUDs; Female Urination Device. Oooh the snappy names that exist! PeeBuddy, GoGirl, SheWee, TinkleBelle! In a pinch, if restrooms on the road were closed, we could essentially whip-it-out a la man-style and go on the side of the road. Of course, it would need daughter approval first. My enthusiastic 9 year old tried it out back, while my somewhat more contained 7 year old opted for the shower. Success! And while it might not solve any #2 problems on the road, I felt safer having a FUD in our arsenal.

Food:
The drive was 7+ hours, which we planned to do in one day. I filled extra bags of ice from our fridge up over the week leading up to our trip, so we had nearly enough to fill the cooler. I packed some frozen meals (spaghetti sauce, turkey burgers, mac n cheese) and filled the cooler full of enough food for 3 days. I also made sure our rental had the means to cook things and store food. A fridge, microwave and hotplate meant that we could stay in even more. I knew that we would be ordering out as well, and a quick search of restaurants close to my rental showed nearly all of them doing takeout. So at the very least, we would not starve.

That said, after all the planning and concerns, our trip went off relatively uneventfully. We did discover that enough rest areas were open that we didn't have to bust out the FUD, and we definitely ate more fast food than I would have preferred (mostly due to pure exhaustion after barely moving the past 2 months, and vacation-me is incredibly energetic and go-go-go).

BUT. It also set my next plan in motion. A road trip with my girls. Since it looks like travel will be nil, our summer camps will be canceled and I sure as hell don't want to get on a plane any time soon, it is time to get creative. Disappointment after disappointment has been their life the past couple months. Our trip to Zion invigorated me, and we all sorely needed it.

I don't see this virus disappearing any time soon. In all honesty? I can't imagine life returning anywhere close to its former glory for at least the next year or two. I am not willing to give up travel for 2 years. I am aware (more than most) of the devastation of this virus, but I'm also going to find a way to live my life, look forward to travel and trips, and protect my family. Stay tuned...