God Bless Hawaii

This was our scenery for 3 days - cool for the first 6 hours...

I think I can now add KOA critic to my list of jobs of the future. Another night in another KOA. This one is really great, Bismarck ND. I’m sitting outside in the setting sun, drinking some Target wine and enjoying my time completely. Funny enough after years of twist cap wines, I bought the cheapest wine imaginable and it had a cork! After purchasing probably my 10^th corkscrew of my lifetime, I invited the owner of the KOA to join me as I was the last customer and must’ve looked a little panicked as I scoured the little store. Kudos Bismarck KOA, for looking out for the lonely mothers who need a little pick me up at the end of a long day on the road.

Oh let me be home, where the buffalo don't roam...

As mentioned previously, my mother has joined the crew of Maje for the trip home to Ontario. Let’s discuss the grown-daughter-now a mother herself/mother-grandmother dynamic. Again, as I mentioned before there is no one on this planet who thinks more of her daughter than Jojo. Add to that, she lives for her grandkids. Like, lives for them. However, we are SO similar, it makes for some interesting days when you are cohabitating in 30 ft of luxurious RV splendor. We are 2 of the best grudge holders you’ll meet. We are stubborn and think we know everything. Spend a few days with us and get ready for some serious entertainment.

my.poor.kids

Last night we all went to bed after a lovely night of board games and jovial fellowship. Read: everyone was mad at everyone. We started the morning a little quiet but we all came around when we continued on with our fiercely intensive game of license plate ‘bingo’. Now I never really knew how fun this could be until I started driving on the interstates for days on end. We are convinced that we are going to get them ALL. There’s more than a little pleasure that courses through my body as I scream out ‘OAKLAHOMA’ and wake Jojo from a little nap next to me in the passenger seat. Parker or Abby scurry to write it down on our growing list. So this afternoon, long after the revelry of last night was forgotten a non-distinct red truck passed me

‘Bloody HAWAII !!!!!!!!!!!’I yell out and the kids are excited and hooting and hollering. I tell them Hawaii’s plate has a rainbow! Isn’t that cool? Ya, so cool, mommy.

Jojo – No way, I don’t believe it. You must’ve read it wrong.

Now the truck wasn’t going superfast. What do you think I did?

Conceded?

Never!

Maje hasn’t gone over 105 while I’ve been driving her but she instantly started to rattle and hum as I had her up over 125km/hr. I was catching that truck and I was going to prove that I SAW HAWAII.

Jojo kept it up. ‘How fast are you going? What if there’s a state trooper waiting for you? I still don’t believe it. You need glasses to read and you saw that? I bet you anything it wasn’t Hawaii.

All the while the pedal is going down harder and harder and Maje keeps shaking and rumbling. The bikes are swinging, the dishes are rattling and we might’ve lost a window.

Just as I was going to lose Hawaii and/or get pulled over, Hawaii truck decided to make a rest stop.  It was like he knew I needed him to pull over. Divine intervention. I swung her into the rest stop and screeched to a park behind the red truck.

Hawaii

Maje is back in D and we are off again.  I’m sure red Hawaii truck was wondering what rattletrap Maje was doing stopped behind him, so we just left. Nuff said. The kids rubbed it in real good so I didn’t pursue it. I’m sure Jojo will have the last laugh before the day is done. That’s how we roll. Love it, hate it, don’t understand it – sorry for your luck.

More of the same-ish scenery

Cool steel sculpture. I think it's the biggest, bestest, ever in the history of steel sculptures

Does My RV Make Butte Look Big?

Butte totally doesn't look big, but it is!

This sunset is a Butte!

I'm so tired, I can't even type in full coherent sentences #sorrynotsorry

Today saw the end to the Canadian portion of the Desormeaux’s travel extravaganza. Don’t worry though, there’s still so much fun to be had. We are excited for cheap gas, cheap wine and TARGET!

Driving from Calgary to Butte, Montana is a titch too much for this lone driver

I’m out of wine

I’m out of Radlers

I’m eyeing up Keith’s Bud light

My kids rock at being in a hot tin can for 11hrs

If you want someone to oh and ah over the landscape, invite your mom on your road trip

If you want to meet your daily water intake, have dinner at an American diner

Nana will never forget today’s views

I want to erase today from my memory

If Nana-Jojo squeals thinking she’s seen a wild animal, don’t worry, it’s just a log

If you want to avoid Northern Ontario, you have to go South to go East

I may have lied to the border man when I told him I wasn’t carrying any meat – there’s enough bugs on Maje to feed a hungry, hungry hippo

I definitely lied to the border guy about bringing alcohol into Montana.

I don’t give a fig about Mt Rushmore – we aren’t going there (hello – adding 9.5hrs to the drive? Suck it Rushmore)

I’m starting to forget the drive the longer I sit here with my friend, Radler

We reconnected with the playgrounds of my childhood

This is so fast, mommy! I know.

Is this a kids pool on a wheel? Not dangerous at all!

And finally, 

You’ll never have a better cheerleader in your life than your mom.  She thinks I’m superwoman and that her grandkids are the best behaved children ever to have walked the planet. AND the only crazy thing she said today was, 'I can send a message while you're driving right?' 'No, mom, haven't you heard the latest campaign? Don't text and passenger?' teehee!

Mid Summer Night's Dream!?

I couldn’t write yesterday. It was such a blah day. We left Tofino in the rain. The rain did help having to leave the beach, but it was feeling very much like the end of a vacation. We caught the ferry and then spent 3 hours in Friday Vancouver traffic. In the middle of the traffic, I had to figure out why my mom’s iPhone is not messaging me. Oh, and also convince her that we weren’t dead, we just weren’t getting her messages and couldn’t respond. We were all spent. I kinda felt like crawling in a ditch and giving up, but the Walmart in Kelowna beckoned. Sleeping in a Walmart parking lot doesn’t do much for your mood when you’ve had a nothing day but we didn’t have a lot of options.

This morning I was feeling a little guilty about my foul mood yesterday so I was determined to show the kids a great time on the drive back to Calgary. We needed a good attraction to get us all jacked up again. Kelowna is beautiful and the drive from Kelowna to Revelstoke is a great one. There were lots of exciting places where we could’ve spent the afternoon. All Parker wanted to do was power through and get to Calgary. One suggestion was the Enchanted Forest which looked really great but everyone said no to that especially when Keith saw the parking lot. I thought the roller ride down Mount Revelstoke would be awesome for everyone. Again, no. Not even a zip line enticed Parker.

In the meantime, I saw a fruit market called the Log Barn just north of Kelowna and pulled in. It was an interesting stop. We saw everything you would imagine at a roadside fruit market, fruit, baking, souvenirs, dragons, dinosaurs, gorillas... That stop didn’t do much to convince the kids I knew where the fun was.

WTH?

If you didn't like it, why so many pictures?

The thing that DID have the 2 of them motivated was free Root Beer day at A&W. We passed about 3 A&W’s, each time they are wailing for their free warm Root Beer (it would be so much better with ice IMO). We finally stopped in Revelstoke because at least then it was close to appropriate Root Beer drinking time. Yet again, Keith and I couldn’t handle the crowds so we ended up at Nomads in Revelstoke which turned out to be a great lunch place. Mushroom panini for me – so yummy. After lunch they still thought we were going for free Root Beer even though we had just paid (quite well) for cold Root Beer at lunch…

The winning stop of the day goes to The Last Spike just outside of Revelstoke. It was already a win for the adults because Keith is a history buff and I love anything with a plaque. The kids were thrilled with the gift shop. Win all around! The best part of the stop was the lovely people who run the place. I was trying to figure out if they are volunteers but you could clearly tell they love what they do. The ladies in the gift shop have a prop center set up, complete with beards that the one lady made. If I ever need to make a beard, I’ll be using her tips. It’s funny how someone’s enthusiasm can be infectious. I’m not a ‘dresser up’ person and you can imagine how much Keith enjoys it. Soon we were all dressing up for a photo. So much fun! Who needs a zip line? Oh and the ladies even chased us out to the parking lot with our keys because in all the excitement, guess who forgot them behind???

There's the plaque!

Seriously, they said no to the ride down the mountain, but yes to this...

Feel free to zoom in and look at the beard!

Tonight we have renewed and refreshed ourselves. We are all showered and laundered and hanging out in Calgary so that Keith can catch his plane home. We will be sad to see Keith leave but fret not, Nana is joining the circus. She will fit in for sure. I have high hopes that she will be the star of a few blog entries.

The West Coast Has the Sunshine

Tofino Marina

Mackenzie Beach

We are in blissful Tofino at Bella Pacifica Campground. The name alone sounds dreamy, don’t you think? Our campsite overlooks the ocean and we’ve spent 2 days now soaking up the sun. One more day to go until we start the trek home. I know we should be learning to surf and going whale watching or sea kayaking or doing some SUP’ing at least. I thought about all that briefly today and then I decided to do more of this:

The kids are still enjoying their bikes. We went to a café/bakery called the Tofitian this morning. The kids biked but Keith and I walked because remember someone stole our brakes? I had high hopes for some cinnamon buns but it was not that kind of bakery. $28 later we had 2 coffees, 2 ok-ish chocolate croissants, one drink and some apricot loaf. I felt sorry for Keith as he painfully paid for it all. Next, we had promised Abby chips for the beach so she went into a little grocery store with $5 and she came out for more money. I know these establishments need to make money in the small tourist season, but I’m pretty sure Keith is not going to survive. He did mention to me that he was sure he never had to come back here ever.

Tonight we were talking about our trip and Parker wondered how long we’ve been travelling. We’ve spent 20 days now in the motorhome and have about 10 more to go. Abby said she’s loving the togetherness but Parker is so ready to be home. He is our homebody. If he didn’t feel the need to help me out on the way home, he would jump on the plane with Keith in Calgary. Don’t feel so bad for him though, he admitted that he really just needs some wifi. He begged me to get a hotel room for a night so we can have a nice shower and he can get caught up on his Roman Attwood videos. Parker thought the shower would convince me, he actually doesn’t care about being clean at all. He is suffering from some major fomo.

Don’t think we’re totally unplugged. I’m not living in a dreamworld. In fact, right now the 3 of them are huddled around a game that Keith has become addicted to and the kids are schooling him.  I’m totally throwing him under the bus but I need some entertainment so whatevs. It’s a game within an app. Abby has this app called ‘My Angela’ where you have a pet that you get to name. Abby has named her pet, Daniella. She feeds her, washes her and brushes her teeth. You can press the tablet in the ‘game room’ and there are a bunch of games. Abby has raised her for a while now but we’ve just discovered this balloon splash game in her ‘game room’ I’m sorry if this is boring and not funny but I think it’s hilarious. Keith is obsessed and keeps asking Abby to get him on the game. This afternoon, Daniella was sleeping so he couldn’t play. I thought Keith was going to lose his mind. He kept asking her if we could wake her up. Abby explained that when she’s tired she needs to rest and you have to wait. ‘Girls don’t play for the mini games you know Daddy, they take care of their pets’.

I really shouldn’t tease Keith so much. I have to redeem myself so here’s reason #472 why I’m glad Keith met us out here. We had just pulled into this campsite and Abby was ready for the beach. Keith was hooking up the water, electricity and sewer. I heard the water running. I assumed Keith was washing the RV because all the bugs we’ve collected on our travels were driving him nuts.  I went around to the other side of the RV to ask him if he needed to wash the motorhome RIGHT NOW. I stopped in shock when I saw SH!T everywhere. The water was necessary to wash IT all away. The sewer connection was plugged and Keith found out the hard way. I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done if he wasn’t here. I was no help at all so Abby, Parker and I escaped to the beach as Keith went looking for the guy to help him out. When he finally made it to the beach he filled us in. The connection was definitely plugged and when he found the guy he was not too impressed. I guess it had happened a couple of times that day already. Keith had to practically hold his hand as he gagged, trying to clean it all up. That’s just the kind of guy he is, my Keith.

Back to the beach tomorrow and then early Friday morning we turn the bus around and start home!

View from the campsite