A descriptive look at traveling and full-timing with our second RV, a fifth wheel toyhauler.
Laura and Sasha started this adventure in April of 2005
for a two week vacation in a truck camper.
Laura & Sasha's Excellent Adventure!
Again, we have changes - lots of pages done and also some back end stuff done too. Even though there were no pictures, there were lots of words. The creativity is flowing through these veins and the information is on the pages below.
Sasha has been reading some good books: Al Gore's New one: The Future, and Pat Benatar: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Now if only I could do the same. :)
Oh so many updates and new pages for you to check out. I had tons of fun making them as well. I hope you enjoy. I have more about Becoming a Forest Service Ranger, the Season of the School Groups, Sasha's Amazing Photography (with more pictures up), Yearly Expenses, Our Year So Far, and Frugal Fresh Fruits (Laura's Stories). Plus Cheap May Expenses and Expensive Traveling April.
Made some new pages and there will be more pictures up soon as I get them from Sasha. Sasha's Amazing Photography and the Season of the School Groups are up now. These will be continuations of pictures and text of what we are doing in the next couple of months. I also put more info on the Becoming a Forest Service Ranger. The last couple of weeks having been exciting!
More updates on Forest Service Ranger including I did my first program of the season. Went really well. So well in fact, that I feel the audience really cared for the people who died at Mount St. Helens. I felt their emotion. It was a tough subject, people dying on the mountain, but I feel it needs to be told.
Updates on the Expenses of 2013, April Expenses, and Forest Service Ranger. I am learning a ton, and trying to make interesting programs in 20 minutes. Oy Vey!
May 7th - May 11th: Becoming a Forest Service Ranger - my thoughts on how we make programs for the public.
New video from Sasha of the water falls that you can hike to. There is a trail leading away from it that he did not go to, as his feet would have been wet.
We are going to head back to the wilderness in just a bit, have to go to FedEx and also have to get a mailbox for six months, but that should be it. Tomorrow is back to work!
May - Really starting to become a Forest Service Ranger - with more training and checking out the area. Check it out!
Last day of April - Such a great day - we are still here at Vancouver but not for long, and I managed t
o get the Expensive Month of Traveling in April done so you can enjoy. Over a thousand for diesel, over a thousand for food, taxes (not too bad), motel stay, and regular and extras cost us. But we are now living is a beautiful place. So I'd say, well worth it. Coming down the mountain here =========>
April 29th - stayed in and relaxed, with some high speed internet. Worked on the Boondocking Days page and got the pictures up. Tomorrow I will do the expenses for April and get them up for all to see. I am hoping that it will be somewhat a cheaper month. Check back tomorrow.
April 28th: We are back in the land of the internet! Or will be in a few hours. We woke up late and are having our coffee and tea, doing laundry, and trying to get ready.
OK, we are now at our second motel. First one was La Quinta Inn and Suites - the internet was too slow. Now we are at Choice Inn and Suites, great high speed internet, closer to stuff, and a desk for me to boot. We are enjoying the speed and might even enjoy the rest of the motel later. But first, we really had a great dinner at Planet Thai, in Vancouver, WA.
Check out April for Becoming a Forest Service Ranger and what we did during the week.
Remote living at its finest. We will probably be away from internet services for at least 5 days, almost unheard of for us. What to do, What to do...maybe revamp the website to make it more searchable and easier to use. That was a suggestion from someone on a Facebook group who said this is more like a diary than a website. And I guess that is what it is, a diary of our lives. We would like to make it a little more than that though, so I will be playing with the website with no internet.
This picture is an ecologist holding a tree frog - who is telling the ecologist to get his big paws off of him.
Of course, I will also be learning about Mount St. Helens and trying to make the best programs possible while living with an apartment mate and just living in an apartment. I also hope to grow some more stuff, whether it is sprouts, veggies, or just some herbs. It is hard to be unsure and not really knowing what to expect. Even though I have worked for the government as a NPS Ranger, this is different. I will be a Forest Service Ranger working for the Department of Agriculture! They do things differently and so it is a whole new ballgame.
You know how life is at a crossroads, and you have no idea where to go? Well, that is me right now. Obviously we are going north some more, and I will be the best Ranger I can be, but there is so much more that I want to do...I guess I need to organize myself and set up a schedule. Sometimes I need to be more regimented to get things done.
I am thankful that people come onto this site and check out our adventures. There will be many more adventures to be had, we just have to figure out how to show them to you. Thanks for looking and if you want to email us, the email is at the bottom; or sign the guestbook. Thanks!
April 20th: Have not moved very far, we went to the truck stop here at Wildhorse Travel Plaza, found they had a dump, fresh water and cheaper diesel, so we will be here for a bit. We only have about 270 miles to Castle Rock, WA and we want to make sure we have enough food and other stuff before headed out.
April 19th: Ugh, rain. So we did not move. Instead, worked on website and spent $10 on Gambling at the Wildfire Resort and Casino near Pendleton, OR. For two nights of boondocking, not bad. You might notice a few things like a few ads more than usual (became an affiliate of Skimlinks, we will see how it goes. They seem less obtrusive than other affiliate programs. And so, I made some updates on the pages including the expenses of January, February and April (although not yet over, I wanted to show how we are not spending a dime for camping; the entire time is spent boondocking and not paying for hookups).
April 18th. We did not get very far, two hour drive down a huge hill and to another Casino for the night. Lots of other folks here too. We heard the generators going for a while but now it is late, and they are not going anymore. We are going to watch a show in bed.
April 17th: Where are we, moving slowly through Idaho and now Oregon.
April 16th: We are in Idaho! Some pictures and books are up: Laura-n-Sasha's April. Also a new video from Sasha on the April page!
April 15th: Happy Tax Day! We are in Utah, headed towards Provo and Heber City to meet up with Todd and Kimmy.
We had dinner with Alice and Jenn in Moab last night. I had a Gluten Free pizza and Sasha had fish and chips. Very tasty but the conversation was the best.
April 14th: We will be heading back to civilization soon, but the weekend was great, relaxing, reading, hiking, photography and talking. Loved been at Canyonlands National Park, Needles District for the weekend.
New Article! Blogging vs Facebook vs Website is now up in the Articles page. We are headed to Canyonlands NP, Needles district to hike some of the trails this weekend. You might remember, they do not have internet nor phone service, so we might be off for a few days.
April 11th: more pictures of our boondocking places. Sasha hopefully will put the logs of where we have been on the website in the next couple of days. But we are going to be out of internet connection ~ evening so I wanted to give warning now. We are headed to Canyonlands NP Needles District for the weekend. No internet, no cell phones. Don't worry - we will be fine. Headed for the Squaw Canyon Trail tomorrow morning.
April 10th See Below April pictures too.
You Will Never Believe THIS - GOT Call from Forest Service
We Are Turning Around & Heading for Washington State!
The Mountains are Calling - Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument!
April 8th/April 9th: Left late on April 8th to get into New Mexico. We continually are hit by snow and are glad that we are not at much higher elevations. I just keep thinking of the flowers I will be growing and can't wait for winter to lose its hold upon the earth.
April 7th: Lots of pictures on the Laura-n-Sasha Facebook page, but also a few on April. We will be spending two nights at our boondocking spot. Today we will be taking lots of pictures of Petrified Forest National Park. We plan on taking out the motos to check out the park.
So we took the motos for 63.5 miles round trip. Can I say sore backside? It has been a while since I have ridden that far.
A few pictures for April 6th, Second day of the trip. Two boondocking spots with pictures. Plus shots of the supplies we bought, all on the April page.
April 5th: Hitching up today! To parts unknown until later today. Isn't that exciting?
April 3rd: The day of the semi-annual shopping for dried goods and other stuff. List of what we bought when we return on April page.
April 2nd: Did a bunch of stuff yesterday but not enough if we are leaving on Wed/Thursday. It is going to get hot in the next couple of days and we want to start heading north.
Expenses of March are up. Expensive month for sure. Mostly health related - trying to stay healthy without dental insurance. How bad could it be? Find out with the March Expenses.
April 1st: NO joke - we will be leaving in a couple of days! First have to get rig in order.
March 31st: On our Facebook page, we got up the Last Hike at Lake Mead. Happy Easter to those that celebrate it. We went for a hike and took even more pictures.
And I finally got the Cholla Forest pictures up. Lots of flowers on that one.
Thankfully before March goes completely, I may actually have some of the expenses up. It is always very expensive for some reason when we live in Lake Mead and Las Vegas. Probably because we are getting health stuff done, and that is always expensive.
March is almost gone, and with it most of the folks here in the Volunteer village are gone too. Learning how to use Flipboard an great aggregate for news.
March 23rd: Hiking Liberty Bell Arch today! Check out the pictures in March.
March 21st: Cooler days ahead, great for hiking! Not so great for dental work :(
March 20th: New Article - Do You Have Enough Truck? This came up when there were a bunch of questions asked online, so I made it into an article. But it is in Sasha's words only.
March 19th: More pictures are up here and on our page in Facebook: Very happy to finally have figured out the Facebook link which you see to the right. Could not for the life of me figure it out, and thankfully, finally did.
Went grocery shopping today, mostly for provisions for next month and beyond, but got lots of fruits, veggies, plus some meat and cheese, but also lots of nuts and seeds.
March 18th: Talked to my Mom today, nice to catch up with her. The day is cooler, sky bluer, and no wind. Love!
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March 17th: Happy St. Patrick's Day! Got new pictures in of March for the Spring cleaning. Will have other pictures as soon as I get the internet speeds up higher.
March 16th: Cholla Hike - we really like this hike, but it will be interesting. We will be doing it slightly easier path, however, it is going up to 84 degrees! Anyway, pictures will be up on Facebook, and here as well.
March 15th: Started playing around with the website again. Hope to have some major changes in the next couple of weeks. Please check the home page for more information. Thanks! January is starting to come up, just waiting on a bunch of pictures from Sasha and trying to use the facebook pages to make the pictures seamless. We will be playing with it this week.
March 1st, WOW - a full two months later, I have finished the Expenses for 2012. Sad but true. It was an expensive year. I still have not started the pages for 2013, but will do so soon. I have been working on trying to get a job for the summer season, and have not pulled any time on making the pages. But it will happen.
However, if you are on Facebook, please click on the link ==> Laura-n-Sasha and like the page. I have put lots of pictures on there, and will continue to do so. Plus there will be other things on there, that I can not really get on here. I plan to do more playing around with some cool stuff that you can do on the web, here on the home page; like the JibJab below and the audio file right below this sentence.
Trying to see if we can do an audio recording, like a podcast. So here is the audio <<=== Just click on the link.
Who knows, we might be able to someday do a podcast. Maybe that would be the next step since having the website for six years.
February 12, 2013 - new pages for 2013 coming soon but right now: NEW Article about The Truck! In Sasha's Words.
February: Ditto
January Lots of time spent applying for jobs with NPS.