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Zion RV Park, Springdale, Utah. Tachometer – 1140 miles

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Today we drove 0 miles. The RV stayed in the campground as we ventured into Zion Park for 2 fun hikes. The weather was nice and sunny. Even Paola was warm.

We had a bothersome night though. Orr sometimes wakes up screaming as if the world is coming to an end. Her lungs work so hard that we are afraid she will wake up the entire campground, not to mention Shir and Ron that share her bed. The funny thing is that the screaming starts and ends abruptly without any visible reason that we can think of. In the morning she awakes all smiles and joviality. (more…)

Zion RV Park, Springdale, Utah. Tachometer – 1140 miles

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Finally the weather is with us! We woke up to a nice and sunny morning today. Shir had a bit of a fever last night but it wore off during the day. The kids were overjoyed to spill out of the RV right after breakfast and run around the gravel around the motorhome. Not that they don’t like their current home. In fact, both Shir and Orr can now say RV! We crossed the border into Utah and drove for 2 hours in what seemed to be very similar to the past 2 days in Nevada, only without the snow. (more…)

Border Inn RV Park, Route 50, Nevada / Utah Border. Tachometer – 930 miles.

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It was snowing a bit at night but by morning only 2 or 3 inches accumulated on grassy patches, and the road was clear. It was very cold outside, probably -5 Celsius. Outside the RV the cold and wind were bone chilling, but inside it was nice and cozy, except right next to the windows.

The kids woke us up at 6am after several episodes during the night. Ron puked twice for some unknown reason. (more…)

Silver Sky RV Park, Eureka, Nevada. Tachometer – 762 miles

Today was a long day on the road. That road is called Route 50. It starts in California and continues across Nevada to central Utah.

 

We woke up to a cold rainy day. I went to the campground office to check road conditions and although it was snowing in the Lake Tahoe area, roads were clear and open, no chains required. We drove through to South Lake Tahoe, the rain changing to snow as we climbed over 5000 feet. The snow was light, and when it stopped the views were spectacular. (more…)

Yosemite Valley – Upper Pines Campground, Site 35 – Tachometer 245 miles

We woke up to a cloudy day that promised to be cooler and wetter than we would like. After getting ourselves organized we set off from the campground to Yosemite, about an hour drive. It started to rain as we left, and rained on and off for most of the day. We did the Yosemite valley loop several times stopping at interesting viewpoints along the way, praying for a break in the rain. The most we managed was 10 minutes at Bridalvail Falls. In the afternoon we headed to Discovery Viewpoint and played with the kids in the RV. We then prepared supper as I set my camera on a tripod outside to try and catch some good light. The pictures came out nice but the clouds are hiding halfdome.

We drove to our campground for tonight which is in Yosemite Valley. Shir and Orr fell asleep before we even got here. As usual in national parks, no hookups. We hope the battery will last the whole night heating the RV…

Sweet dreams

Hemi

Yosemite Pines RV Park, tachometer – 192 miles.

Today finally arrived! The moment most people dream of, is happening to us. We are at the end of our first day of our Big Trip, which will last until early next year. Paola and I still can’t believe we are doing this.

The last 2 weeks have been very hectic for us. We had to pack up our house for storage, prepare stuff for our North America RV tour, prepare additional stuff for the rest of our vacation afterwards, and prepare stuff that will go with us to Israel when we end our world tour. Tonight, all those worries are behind us, and we are settling in to our home for the next 3 and a half months.

On Friday the movers came and emptied our house, or so we thought. The amount of junk we still had to either pack, donate, or throw out was immense. If anything, moving is an exercise in cleaning out all the stuff you don’t really need.  It took us most of the weekend to tidy up. Yesterday (Monday morning) Ron had a farewell at his preschool and then Paola and I went to pick up our RV.

Our RV is a newer model than what we had last month during our Pesach Trip, and there are some minor changes compared to the older one. Some are for the better, some are a little disadvantageous for our 3 tots configuration. Since we had the luxury of loading the RV from our house, we have about 3 times more stuff on this vehicle than we did last month. It took us 4 hours to load, and ever since yesterday we are working on fitting everything into the cupboards, closets and other nooks and crannies in the RV.

On Sunday and Monday night we stayed with Gal and Adi, as we no longer had enough furniture at home. It was fun for Ron to have a sleepover with his friend Roy. Although Roy is 2.5 years older, they got along very well and looked very cute sleeping together on a huge inflatable bed. Last  night Dan and Yael also came over to say goodbye and we had a long evening of laughs.

Benny really helped us out over the weekend, serving as primary entertainment for the kids, while Paola and I were packing up. Thanks Bro!

This morning we loaded the last of our stuff onto the RV, ran some final errands and by noon were on our way. Our first stop is Yosemite National Park. We are now 22 miles west of the park in an RV campground that has full hookup. This means that we are connected to running water, sewage, and electricity. Unfortunately, these luxuries do not exist at the campgrounds within the National Parks (monopoly by NPS?) . So everywhere you go there is always the dilema of living in comfort or living where the action is.

That’s it for now, I am pooped after several weeks of poor sleep. Time to hit the sack…

Hemi