From Desert to Green Forest

Went to the supermarket got the kids a couple of balls to play with, found a watch I could give Matt for his B-Day and loaded the camper with all the food and utilities one needs to make a BBQ, clean floors and sinks..., this is like moving into a new house, it is actually just that except for the size and the wheels.

We arrived at Lander into a mini campground the Twin Pines, nothing special about that apart the fact that after hours of desert getting somewhere with water green clean and immaculate bathrooms is a nice break. The kids are happy on the lawn and the play ground. They get along so well, i just whished they would listen after the first time we say something but hey I suppose kids are kids ..... still.

I made an attempt at BBQ to find out after beating myself on the head, that the coal I bought was really bad so instead of eating at 6:30 we ate at 9:00PM, the chicken was excellent and the Marshmallows was a brand new experience for the kids, one we will repeat often.. The slow coal did give nature time to darken and reveal what we in Belgium forget ever existed, the magnificent star show up above. Amazement struck us all as thousands of stars lit the skies.

Driving this 32fter turns out to be easier then i thought, U turns are a piece of cake as long as you have enough space and Parking will be hell as soon as we hit a big city but meanwhile space space space is what you get in Wyoming.

There is nothing around us but mountains and sand and dunes and sand and mountains. T he yellow sandy hills turn to yellow once in a while. I am driving looking into this nothingness and could perfectly see John Wayne and Clint Eastwood riding up.

The Indians where given a tough place to live, the biggest Indian Reserve is here, River Mountain, not a place I’d like to live, remote and dry, but I guess at the time it was better then getting killed.

We past Dubois after more desert and a few ghost towns, (imagine 8 streets empty houses maybe 20 habitants) a little Village set in a green scenery, all wooden chalets a mixture between the wild west and the little house on the Swiss prairie with red and green roofs. The Bank instantly made me feel like Jesse James but I abstained from getting in and robbing it.

Shoshone Falls Campground welcomed us by having a deer run away as we arrived. A short walk to the top of the falls and through the forest with sky high conifers to get back to the camper and find Matt and Djudju eatin in there neck by some kind of bug no one seems to be able to define.

Mosquito’s are everywhere thank God a 45 second drip drop of rain made them disappear. The new impregnated charcoal gets to cooking temp in no time we had some steak and salads and chucked the carefully selected found firewood on in the pit to get meter high flames, the kids where delighted using their wooden sticks to pin a Marshmallow and eating them half melted, with the occasional c’est chaud.

A few Games and a few Scary stories around the fire pit and of to bed after what felt like our first real camp out.

Did I mention the first thing we saw as we pulled into our parking spot.

Words are to little here is a picture, Val didn't like thisone at all.

The plan was to drive to Grand Teton National Park as soon as we would wake up and since we went to bed at 8 we would surely wake up around 6ish.

At 8:30am we left to Teton after a night of silence rarely experienced.

Grand Teton is amazing and we’ve seen nothing of it yet, the size of our Camper limits us to commercial parking’s which is a bit of a downer down here but the scenery as soon as you walk 250mt is fantastic. They also have full hook up, plug in the electricity, the water and the sewer allowing us to use air conditioning shower and toilet limitless with no worries of filling up the tanks.

Matthews’ Bday is tomorrow so Val and I decided to split up to treat him with a 3 hour white water rafting, while I’ll take care of Julian taking a slow float down a scenic river.

The walk around the lake was filled with beautiful scenery, close encounters with mummy deer(not dear) and two bambi’s, and cutting devices to stop the mosquito’s from sucking us dry. There is a reason why rangers wear shirts seemingly to thick for the outside temperature...mosquito’s don’t care weather you wear a T-shirt or not they’ll go right through it.

Sitting here having some quiet time writing, Djudju sleeps in the back, Val reads Shantaram, Matthew takled me into letting him play a memory game, cause it’s educational, on the iPad and I’m going to head to a wifi spot trying to post this.

Life is good when the only thing you need to worry about is nothing!

Camper Day 2 & Pics

Woke up this AM to the view Above.
The decision today was to stop focusing on the getting somewhere per se and get into the mode of if we like it let's stay.
This conclusion was reached after leaving Cowdy State Park of 210 or happy Jack Road to end up in a roadside RV place where the we hear the trucks whizzing bye.
It did have some pretty dramatic skies.

More pictures here!
or on the pics link on the right

Camper day 1

The agravation of waiting for an hour for someone who's late, after a short night sleep is amazing.
The guy appolagised and was realy helpful though, giving us pointers bout campgrounds and whereabouts.
After a giga shopping and another hour wait for new wires to be changed, I hooked up gps and ipod and we finally started our journey.

Driving a 10 mt camper is something else. That thing is big, but with a set of good side mirrors and a rear camera, driving it turned out to be ok.
It's the getting used to the width of it as trucks are passing you on each side that is hard and scary.

We found a good spot at a lake between Loveland and Horsetooth, (there are a couple of original names for you), to camp out our first night.

I forgot the fishing rod I bought from Maarten so we went and bought a new one, kids excited, while Val organised the cupboards.
Now I need to mention this is another Val then the one I know.
Since we left that woman is so organised it even scares me.
There supposed to be fish in the lake but we stopped after reeling in a crayfish (ecrevisse).
Tried to make a fire but couldnt find dry wood, early in bed.

It's about 2am I can't sleep, so decided to sit outside the camper in the new camping seats we bought. The moon has left it's fullnes since a day or four and is giving enough light for me to see the lake, and the ouline of the mountains surrounding it there are a zillion stars in the sky, and a bunch of guys with an English accent making far to much noise. The light in their tent just turned off.

It's been a while since I've been so close to nature, it's been a while since I've been so far away from things to do, it seems it's been a while since I've taking the time to be. I had forgotten about Nature with a big 'N'.

My mind has stopped to race tonight sitting here under the stars.

I'll put outsome pics assoon as we got wifi capabilities.

Ohio Denver via Houston

Departure Ohio 4pm ETA 6:20 pm. Final arrival time at hotel 11:20 pm
Technical problem they said, no other way they said, suffering we did.
The kids were once again examplary but the wake up the next day for e shuttle to the RV at 7:30 am was rough, especially since he only got there at 8:30.
't was a rough night dreams and or nightmares about driving the camper. That thing is going to be monstruously big. Ah we'll see. May hte force be with us, it has been so far so there is no ason ot won't be now.

Coming Home

Spending time in Chillicothe Ohio is very much like coming home, or visiting family, close family.

The Fellowship of the Ring

The kids are getting along as if they've known each other for years and seeing them playing outside in the slopy garden hanging from the tree branches, blowing soap bubbles, walking up to the apple trees or down to the old shed is breath taking. They become so small by the distance between us as they are walking away from us.
On the downhill they are all holding a rope as if they were undertaking a grand expedition.

We took a walk in the woods, and looked at deer tracks, the kids,looked at a deer skull that must have been there for years.
We got to a little stream and they climbed up a pretty steep hill after a little encouragement on our part in the style of "I bet you can't go up that hill'.
The day ended with me eating a piece of beef jerky after seeing, fat sick and nearly dead, a movie about rebooting your body by drinking juice for 60 days

i came downstairs to see the kids play together this morning. Matthew's English is fantastic and Julian is making progress although his trail of thought is more one of, if it ain't french it's either Hebrew or Dutch and since we're not in Israel, Dutch it is.

The auction at the Mennonites (Amish people) was like being in a movie. Impressive dress code and impressive distance people keep from you in the way they respond.
Everything in the States is big, and the sizes of Cantaloupes or watermelons ain't different.

The evening was filled with Indians, Americans taking the land, guns, horses, canons fired, and tragedy, at the open,air amfitheatre, during the play 'Tecumseh'.
The play lasted three hours with a break, we dreaded the worse but the kids were absorbed by it.
I don't know who jumped harder or who reassured who as Julia(6) cuddled up to me, when the first gunshot sounded, and when Jill(7) and Julia were curling up to me as the canons were fired I suddenly wished we had girls. A seat further you could see Matt getting excited the more fighting and blood the more his expression went 'YES' !

What a great few days, I felt today the load of the, anticipation and struggle of a close to a year preparation of this trip dropping of my shoulders.




Staying here has been a blessing, apart from Joe making me realize how big the RV we rented actually is, I was so comfortably denying that.

Location:Charleston Pike,Chillicothe,United States

To drive, drove, drivven!

12am
Driving, driving, driving.
Interstate, interstate, interstate.
Stop pee eat, stop pee eat.

10pm
Arrived at Joe's and Charlotte's, overwhelmed with joy at seeing them and Selma.
Charlotte is 36 hours out of hospital looking great, selma is soooo cute.

Joe and I go back 20 odd years, he is the kind of Friend you dont need closeby to keep the relationship alive and even if you havent seen eachother in a long time, when you meet again and get over the emotional reunion, everything seems to flow on, no stress no hassle, as if we had seen eachother this morning.

Matt and djudj were unbelievable in the car, they played and talked for 7 hours and then, before it degradation, we decided to get the major silencer out, Nintendo and ipad.

We are finally getting both our family's to meet, a plan Joe and I had 7 years ago, but then Charlotte got pregnant so we had to put it off.
Deja vu when he called me to tell me that he did it again.

Anyway we're here dead tired, full of joy, our kids are excited to meet their kids.
Julian doesn't want to go to bed, because the drawing he made for the kids isn't finnished, Matthew fell asleep in a tenth of a sec.

Everyone is asleep and I am following shortly.

Skaneatles to 'The Falls'

Woke up alone yesterday and took some time to rearrange some of my pics and mails, didn't last but ten delightful minutes before Djudji rested his head on my lap and soon after Matthew  woke up starting immediately to get into a you wanna play with me mode.

We realized today that our kids need to learn to 'Be', though Djudj has a natural nonchalance about life that helps him on that level.
It's a revelation to see the kids evolving without TV, Nintendo, Wii, Ps3, iPad or Computer and other electronic rings and tangs,  and having to invent games to play together.
The Love Hate relationship between the bro's is amazing. The rapidity in which one changes to the other is even more astounding.
Maybe part of this morning's mood swings resides in the fact that the preferred games are 'la bagarre',  one can only collect so much pines.

We found Skaneatles Bakery to be a place that resembles a lot of the croissanteries we're used to have breakfast and started on our way to the Falls.

After a couple of hours of amazingly green, flowery, Magritte like scenery country driving, we found a playground in the middle of nowhere where we stopped to let the kids empty there batteries. You could understand that as, we decided the noise level was getting to high in the car and needed to do something about it.

Back on the road Djudj fell asleep (finally) and Matthew took a rest (forced i might add).
Subways stop and continued on a straight line to the Falls.

There something very unsettling about the niagara falls, and although the huge debit of water, the current you can almost feel, and the non stop pouring of water and more water, the natural element seems to be nearly inexistent.
I am perched in my hotel room  looking at the Disney World like commerciality that was built around this huge natural phenomenon and I feel that; yes it is impressive but what a pitty that because of its surrounding the falls have become just a place your supposed to have seen, check I've seen it, been there done that.
In conclusion I am happy I've seen the falls, it gave me the opportunity to test my new 50/1.4 lens, I took some great pictures, got disappointed and saddened at humans exploitation of Mother Nature, but went to bed happy to be on the road with the family.