Adventure is out there! (Day 1)

Three words.

American Road Trip

A dream come true for our little family of four. 

We keep praising God for opening all the right doors to make this happen. It's an amazing story to have gotten to where we are today. But here we are, embarking upon the adventure of a lifetime! Traveling the states in a beefy diesel Excursion hauling a 27ft travel trailer that we now call home. Let's not get too ahead now though, let me introduce the excited adventurers, the Pederpods. 

First up, is my amazing husband, Caleb.

He's the brain and muscle behind this operation and he's doing all the driving. He's also super Dad to our girls, and Mr. Fix It for anything we accidentally destroy. 

    

    Second is our eldest, Elaina (or Ellie as we call her) our sweet 2 1/2 year old. She's the talker, making sure we notice all the parks, horses and cows we pass. 

Next is our youngest, Juliet. 

Our darling 1 year old. 

She's got the energy this trip needs. 

We're just still trying to figure out how to harness it. 

If we succeed, forget trailer hookups, we'll be good for days. 

Lastly, there's me, April. I am the mom. 

My job is to keep the fam alive and happy. Enough said right?

Together, we make a great team, ready to explore this beautiful country we have been blessed to call home.

Day 1

Friday morning, July 12th, 2013. 

We started out in a little ole town called Battle Ground, Washington. The kids were in the car, trailer locked down and prepped, snack bag full. We started the car... more like, tried to start the car ... battery was dead. We scrambled to acquire another vehicle. Got a jump start for our car and then

WE WERE OFF!

We headed out to find a weighing station to make sure we weren't packing too much.

 We found a place off the highway. Weighing in with the giants made our car/trailer suddenly look very small. But we got the numbers. Total weight for the trailer and car was a little over 15,000 lbs! A seemingly huge amount but under the limit for the powerful Excursion. 

Gotta have a wind turbine pic

Feeling good now that we knew our trailer or car wasn't going to fall apart under all the stuff we packed into it, we set off to the East. Of course, what's a good road trip without lots of bathroom trips? And also stopping at the parks Ellie made sure to point out.

I give a  C+ for creativity in this gas station's bathroom

Us girls at the park in Hood River

The Walmart parking lot was hot real estate

We decided upon a Northward heading to make a clockwise pattern for our road trip. The hours passed too quickly and we ended up doing a last minute park at a Walmart in Walla Walla, Washington. Turned out it was the place to be as there were already about 3 RVs there and they were still coming.  

Not too shabby for our first day.