Since we returned from our 5 week loop around the Southwest, we’ve gotten to reconnect with friends and family and get some work done around the Farmlet, all of which has been great. It’s actually interesting how you tend to spend more quality time with people and enjoy simple tasks out in the garden that much more when you’ve been away for a bit. But of course, you can’t just go away so you’ll appreciate your life at home more, can you? I’ve actually commented before on this blog that travel for us is not about escaping anything we don’t like at home; It’s about expanding our exposure to new things and bringing a different perspective home with us. It’s also something we we think will serve Wynne well as she grows up. We don’t want her just sitting around all the time…
But this time we’ve only been home about two months and need to consider an offer we received from Brian and Leigh of Aluminarium (remember meeting them on the east side of the Sierras?) to join a group of seven or so Airstreams heading up to Banff at the end of the summer. As soon as we heard about the trip, we wanted to go, but Banff is a long way from San Francisco with an 18 month old in the backseat, and we didn’t know if any of us would be ready for another road trip so soon. We responded that the odds of us making it were exactly 50/50 but secretly reserved spaces at each planned campground, figuring we could always get something back if we cancelled. Leigh ignored our waffling and considered us confirmed from the start.
Back on the Farmlet, we enjoyed our month of July…
But didn’t forget the possibility of heading back out…
A visit from John and Laura from The Democratic Travelers in their 34’, triple axle Airstream didn’t help us forget about the freedom of travel. We really liked these guys, and as we were trying to convince them to meet the group in Banff, we realized we were convincing ourselves…
See all the pics from their visit on our Facebook page.
Honestly, the fact that a random peacock was in our pasture perving out on our chickens for couple days didn’t really affect things one way or another.
Seriously you guys! There’s a PEACOCK IN HERE!
But there really was a lot for us to consider before committing to the trip. First, the distance. The way we typically translate distance into days is to take the number of hours Google maps tells us a drive will take, divide that into 4 hour days and then double that number of days. That way, we can do some combination of shorter days and two night stays and actually enjoy the trip a little. By that count, we’d need something like 14 days to get to northern Washington to meet the other Airstreams. But, the meet up was in the third week of August, and we were expecting a visit from Ann’s sisters around the 13th. If we wanted to make it happen, we’d have to leave at the beginning of August and fly home at some point to meet them.
Second, the logistics of the Farmlet. Having been there a couple years now, we’ve figured out that you have to plan ahead; If you want canned tomatoes for soups in February, you have to plant them in May and pick them the second they’re ripe in August. I’d also been toying with the idea of getting a ram to breed with our Blackbelly ewes, so we could having some lamb in the freezer with our porkers. But unless I was there to control when he was in with the girls, I wouldn’t know when to expect lambs (often you really can’t tell if they’re pregnant until you see a foot coming out!).
Plus, we figured that if we were going to drive all the way up to Banff, it’d be silly not to take some time to explore while we’re up there and on the way back. Remember the math? Two weeks up to Washington, a week road trip around Banff with the group, a couple weeks to explore and a couple more to get home and we needed to commit to almost 8 weeks in the trailer!
I mean, that’s a small space!
And it’s not always as glamorous as we make it sound on the blog…
So what were the options? We could stay home, can tomatoes, run a sheep escort service, enroll Wynne in an expensive toddler pre-school program and drool over seven simultaneous streams of pictures of silver trailers in front of majestic Canadian peaks …OR… we could pack up the little trailer to spend a couple months exploring huge redwood forests, dramatic coastlines, vineyards, farms and breweries, visiting friends all over the Pacific Northwest, hooking up with travelers visiting from far away or packing up to leave, caravanning with seven trailers full of people (a couple with kids) who have chosen to do the same thing, and of course, taking drool-worthy pictures of our silver trailer in front of majestic Canadian peaks.
Long story short?
Stay tuned for updates from the road!
