WE HAVE MOVED ON DOWN THE ROAD

Visit us at our new website at www.theroadscholarz.com. Hope to see you there!

RV trip with kids

We've been back from our road trip now for a year. Many people have asked for a "how to" guide. Anyone interested?
There are lots of tips on packing, homeschooling, cooking, driving, camping, sight-seeing, reservations, quick repairs etc.

Home schooling with kids in an RV was tons of fun. I would recommend it to anyone!

Home

Some people have asked that I do my "last entry" on the blog. So here it is...

We've been home now just two weeks. The arrival home even included crossing a bonafide finish line--TP strung across the street by welcoming family and friends. It was the perfect homecoming.

The original plan was that the kids would start back to school in January, giving us some time to finish up our homeschool work etc. But when I went to re-register the kids, the teachers said to come back early since the 4th and 5th grades had these GREAT week-long field trips to Old Town and Balboa Park starting the week of December 15th. Jackson and Lilly were chomping at the bit, and Sammy was very eager to start in her kindergarten class. Today is their first full-day back at Hearst, and they are absolutely thrilled and happy to see all their friends and tell them a little about our adventure. I am happy to have this week before Christmas to get my head above water. There still some RV unloading to do.

It's great to be home. Not surprisingly we've all had some adjusting to do. The big thing is boredom. We all got very used to having so much going on, as far as always being in new places etc., that the kids started to go a little stir crazy just being here. School only took up so much time before they were ready to do something else. That's why it was so nice to have them be able to return early to Hearst.

I think about the trip every day, finding it hard to believe it's come and gone. I learned so much, not just about our country, but all that other stuff that comes to your mind when you allow it to. Time on the road is a great chance to think. The kids made a book while on the trip, and I uploaded it online. We should receive it this week, and I can hardly wait. They did all the illustrations and wrote about the places they'd been. Now if only it could be on Oprah's best seller, or Border's best seller, we'd earn back some of our trip expenses.

We've taken the RV out a few times since we've been home. It kinda feels funny to drive it around town, like we're supposed to head off somewhere again. But the best part is I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING WHEN I'M DRIVING IT AND DON'T HAVE TO TRY AND READ SIGNS, LISTEN TO THE GPS, LOOK AT MAPS ALL AT THE SAME TIME! It's parked out in front of our house, and will be our mobil guest room should anyone come and visit us. I'm sure the neighbors love us.

I'll be looking for work come January. Wouldn't it be great if my new job required some USA travel-with-kids suggestions?! I have some great advise for those looking to replicate this trip!

In the mean time, if anyone knows of P/T work that changes the world in some positive way, has great flexibillity and pays well, just let me know. I'm sure there are a lot of those jobs, eveywhere.

That's it from the RoadScholarz. It was such a great trip, in so many ways. I think we'd all do it again in a NY minute, but we'd have to bring Daddy and the dogs.

Keep on truckin,
10-4
RoadMom

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Well, we've made it. We did what we set out to do. I am so proud of the kids. They did an awesome job. Yesterday was one of our best days yet-depsite a day of rain. One might think what do you do in an RV all day long with three kids??? Between school, art, reading, writing, showers, laundry and taking breaks when the rain stopped, the day flew by. The kids (and I) listened to Sound of Music and Christmas songs all day long. I was a big fan of the Sound of Music choice, no big surprise there. It was 10pm by the time we all went to bed.

Last night we had the storms of all storms. At 3am thunder and lightening lit up our sky. It felt like it was right overhead. Jack and I were upstairs and woke right up. When rain hits the RV, it sounds like little pebbles are falling on us. The lightening illuminated the entire campground. It was very exciting. I got down to cover up Lilly who had also awakened. She looked at me and said smiling, "when the dog bites, when the bee stings..." I thought that was pretty clever for 3am.

Mike (and the dogs) left San Diego early this morning and are headed our way. We'll have a memorable Thanksgiving in the RV. On Friday (Jana's birthday!), we'll caravan down to Phoenix where Mike, the kids and the dogs will camp for the night. Jackson has scouted out his last Cabela's and will go there tomorrow. I, on the otherhand, will go to the airport and pick up Heidi and Bertie who will spend a girls weekend with me back in Sedona!! I have a massage booked for Saturday. Boy, does my back need that. MIke and kids will get home Saturday, and Bertie and I will drive home in the MDX on Sunday night.

And that's the end. We are ending on Thanksgiving which is pretty fitting. I think it's safe to say that we are all very grateful for not only doing the trip, but also that we had a safe return. I also think we have a deeper appreciation for all that we have in our country, and we have an enormous amount of respect for those who died not only for our freedom but for theirs. We live in a pretty amazing place. It's a big sense of accomplishment, and if anything, I hope we've learned that YES, WE CAN.

Happy Thanksgiving to all-


Sammy
It's not the end for us three kids because my Mom is not doing it anymore, but my Dad and us three are going to still camp. I liked the trip in genereal because of the hooking up part. I think that may be kinda fun, how you hook up the RV. The trip also has made me think like we got to see a lot of sutff compared to other people. And they don't get to see Mt. Rushmore and the Grand Tetons and White Sands. I am happy we did this trip.

Lilly
I can't beleive we made it to the end, and about the trip, I really liked all of it except Hoover Dam. I really like seeing Mt. Rushmore, Grand Tetons and White Sands. I liked having mornings when we just listened to music and I got to lie in bed.
I think, "Wow, we made it."

Jackson
It was really nice to be able to be mellow in the morning, and not rush, and maybe just go out and play in the rain. It was just a really amazing trip. I am very glad we did this.

Winslow-Sedona

Standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona... we left the Wigwam this morning and drove *through* Winslow, AZ. I"m not sure if any of us would want to be stuck on that corner for long. But it was fun to see "the corner." The drive from Flagstaff to Sedona was amazing. Flagstaff is like Truckee, a little mountain feeling town, and it smelled just like Tahoe.

Sedona is fabulous. It's great timing that this really is our last stop before home, not counting Phoenix since we've been there. All of us love it here and it's top on the list of favorite places. I found myself consistently saying on this trip, "Wow, it's pretty here," and then the next stop saying the same thing. But Sedona really is spectacular. Our campground is covered with fall, leaves and the mountains shoot up behind us.

We're supposed to get heavy rain Wednesday and Thursday night, so tonight we're walking from our campground around the corner to some resort. There, they will light over 1 millions Christmas tree lights. Just looked at the time-have to run to the lights!

Back in Arizona

We crossed our last state line (Arizona) before getting home to California. We hit 19 states in all. Tonight we are staying in a wigwam! I thought the kids would get a kick out of staying in a tee-pee. It's pretty classic. Because the walls are slanted, you actually have to look UP into the bathroom mirror. Our "room" is about 15 feet in diameter. Tomorrow is Sedona where we'll be through Thanksgiving, the day Mike meets us. I'm having a hard time believing that this adventure is truly almost over. Anyone else find this hard to believe?

Back to Albuquerque

From Lilly:
Today we went to see some petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are indian writings on rocks. It was a long hike. I took a lot of pictures. We also went on the longest tram in the world, 2.7 miles. It was a beautiful view. From the top to the bottom is about 15 minutes. After both activities, Jackson, Sammy and I washed the RV. That was fun because we kind of squirted each other with the hose. We played at the park at our campground. We ate dinner and then we had to drop off my grandparents at the airport. I said good-bye and then we left. Now I am going to leave my journal, good-bye.

Jackson
The elevation from the upper terminal is 10,378 feet. At the top it was 32 degrees, and at the bottom it warmed up to 72 degrees. The average number of people per year is 250,000. The distance btwn tower 2 and the summit is 7,720 ft or just over a mile. The petroglyph hike was about 3 miles. It felt good to run around. We had a lot of conversations on the way. It was hard to leave Nana and Poppy.

Sammy
Today we went to a drug store. We got scrunchies and clips from Nana. We had to use a cardboard box cutter to cut them (the packages) in half. I have for the clips red, yellow and green. My scrunchies colors are blue, purple, pink and green. I liked the tram a lot. I really liked the petroglyphs. I walked with Poppy most of the way. Then that's when we went to the drugstore. The tram was really, really fun. I liked it really good. Then we went to the carwash. My Mom and the kids kinda got sprayed. I sprayed my sister and my brother. The End.