Fair warning: We’re having a difficult time getting any actual photos of riders while on route. Pulling the trailer makes it dangerous to pull off on some of these roads where there is little or no shoulder. Honestly, what the girls and I do all day isn’t very exciting. We break camp, meet Mike at […]
One more day until the ride! Time to run a bunch or errands and make sure we are ready to roll. Julia stayed with Mike to work on the bike while Elizabeth dragged a bag of laundry and a shopping list into my truck. Of course, laundry and shopping is boring, so we added a […]
Time to get downtown! After some logistical planning, we figured out a way to leave Mike home with the truck while the rest of us spent a day in town. We wanted to take our time, but Mike had plans to work (his job) for a better part of the day and then work on […]
What to do on a beautiful summer day in Portland? The sky was blue, the sun was shining . . . and from our current home along the Columbia River there was a beautiful bike path with views of the river, Mt. Hood, and several other mountain peaks. The girls and I planned to do […]
We were on the road again today: A slow drive south. It’s just over four hours from Kalaloch, Wa, to Cannon Beach, OR, but it took a little more than five because traffic essentially stopped once we left the lonelier roads of Washington and made our way through a lot of tiny little towns along […]
The tide charts told us we could sleep in today! Low tide didn’t arrive until after 10 am, so we actually started our day with bacon and eggs before driving the 10 miles north from our campground in Kalaloch. Kalaloch is a beautiful place, and it’s the only one in Olympic NP that can be […]
Rialto Beach was just the start of our day. Returning to Mora Campground, we quickly packed up, drove into Forks, and headed south on hwy 101. Our destination was the Kalaloch Campground about an hour away, but a slight detour east to see the Hoh Rainforest would break the trip into two 40 minute legs. […]
Today’s post is split because we have too many pictures! For our first stop, we followed the park ranger’s advice and timed our morning visit to Rialto Beach about an hour before low tide. This gave us time to hike down to “Hole in the Wall” – a rock formation that looks just like it […]
After leaving Port Angeles, we followed Highway 101 to the west side of the Olympic Peninsula. We made some last-minute phone calls home because we knew our campsites would have limited or no Verizon signal. As it turned out, we spent 3 days with only occasional phone service, no internet, and (as the girls like […]
Three miles. Three hours. The Hurricane Hill hike in Olympic National Park is absolutely unbelievable. Driving in from Port Angeles, there is only one road to the Hurricane Ridge Visitor’s Center. It winds uphill for 15 miles. Driving up to Hurricane Ridge This is where most people stop, watch the deer roam the parking lot, […]
It has been raining or cloudy since we reached Mt. Rainier several days ago. Today we moved camp from Poulsbo (on the Kitsap Peninsula) to the Sequim/Port Angeles area (on the Olympic Peninsula). Traffic was ridiculous because it is Sequim’s biggest tourist weekend of the year: the annual lavender festival. The girls gave me the […]
The long drive to Washington has us all feeling sluggish. We’re finally out of the car, but all we want to do is rest. We did spend Thursday morning sleeping and reading, so that helped. We’re also feeling a little sad because my parents were planning to join us for a few days this weekend, […]
Today we moved camp from the Rainier area north to the Kitsap Peninsula. Our only scheduled stop was at Wolf Haven International – Julia’s only requested stop on this trip. She’d read about the place at school and often checks the web site to see the wolves. She loves wolves right now, so is a […]
Mt. Rainier National Park – in the daylight – is absolutely fantastic. We drove along the southern road. We came in through the Steven’s Canyon entrance and went west. There is only one road, and it didn’t look like it would take long to do. I told the girls we’d do one hike, stop at […]
Another long day begins with sleepy kids. Have I mentioned I love driving through Montana? It’s like being on a roller coaster for hours and hours. For much of today’s drive, the road followed the Clark Fork River. There were giant hills on both sides and a river running along the highway. Sometimes a […]
Today is part one of a two-day long drive. We need to put in 8 hours today. We were up by 6:30 and on the road before 8:00. We didn’t take time to make breakfast, so I promised McDonald’s if we could get moving on time. I sort of take for granted that some sort […]
After yesterday’s tire blowout, we had some time to make up. I was anxious to take off across North Dakota, but we first had to make a morning of phone calls and stops in order to track down a tire so we would have a useable spare. Everyone was sure they had one – “Just […]
OK, so I was expecting to get a week or two out before things fell apart. Today looked good when we started out. The girls ate leftover cold pizza and almost-ripe bananas for breakfast as we broke camp and packed up just after 6 am. I had planned to meet a friend in Minneapolis for […]
Before starting the trip, everyone should know I am excited about it, and traveling alone with the girls off and on for a month was my idea. However, I do have slight panic moments when I wonder what I’ll do if something mechanical goes wrong with the truck, camper, or bike. I’m not incapable of […]
The girls have been bugging me to start this year’s trip journal. Mostly, I think they need something to do in the car . . . so here we go. Our 2010 summer road trip was fantastic. We knew we wanted to do another, but where did we want to go? There were a lot […]
