Ikea, College Park

We didn't realize it but Ikea turns out to be the best place to take little kids to play! And the food is very affordable. There's a place at the entrance where they'll watch your kid for free while you shop, but Billy is only 32" tall and it requires 37 inches. I guess it's for 3 year olds.

We all had a blast playing on all the beds, tables and children's toys. It's always hard to find a local place that is free (and indoors when it's over 90 out), and this was a great place to go! Thanks for your hospitality, Ikea!

More Delaware Photos

We spent the last week back at Greenbelt Park again, as it's the closest and cheapest park to DC, where we attended the wedding of Michael and Yulia! It's was a beautiful ceremony! Lots of love! Great family! We got to meet lots of new people and see many old friends. It was outstanding!

Next week we're headed to South Jersey for Labor Day Weekend cause we are so into the Jersey Shore! We'll probably spend every minute at the campground with family and avoid the mess, but it's going to be awesome to surf and see Joe and Jean one last time before we head west!

Joe visited us at Trap Pond

Although I didn't get any pictures of him, my brother Joe came to visit us in Delaware, by taking a short ferry ride across from Jersey.





HE did manage to get a few photos of life on the RV while it poured outside. It was a blast and now we're really starting to feel like this RV is home.

Saturday morning playground...

Our current campsite in Delaware. And some mirror fun with Guille.

Good Bye, Atlantic Ocean!

(left - Rain V. with Billy's motorcycle)

Having lived my childhood in Southwest Philly, the Jersey shore has always had a special place in my heart. But now, we are heading west and are planning to ultimately end up on the west coast - Portland, perhaps, or somewhere in that area.

So, we came to say our good-byes to the Atlantic, which will no longer be my ocean. The Pacific is calling me, as it did when we moved to California and Mexico a few years ago.

So we swam at the beach today, in Delaware, where we are staying until Michael's wedding. He has pictures of the bachelor party from last weekend on Facebook. Feel free to check them, I'm 'tagged.' It was a great time! My first serious club experience. Not my scene, really, but fun to do on the rare occasion!

We'll likely go out in a boat on Sunday, so tomorrow, Sat, we'll go collect butterflies. Hopefully will get some nice pictures for you.

from Richmond to DC

We are currently in Greenbelt Park, Maryland. It's quite nice but we haven't spent much time here. We visited our friend, Michael, who's getting married in 2 weeks. (Bachelor party is tonight at a club!) And we visited the Spanish embassy to acquire Guillermo's and Rain's Spanish passports - but it looks like that's gonna be another month or so... the bureaucracy never ends.

So, after 2 flats in 8 days or so, we went ahead and replaced the old tires. It was quite an ordeal and it took us 2 days to accomplish in Richmond. It's hard to find these tires and someone who will put them on. We stayed one night at a Wal-Mart parking lot and then we hit the road all the way to our current location (picture left). You can see Billy waiting on the dashboard while we have the steer tires installed. It was around 102 degrees F that day. It was gross.

Our Internet connection has been patchy but we're getting a new setup so I should be a little more consistent with the posts. Hope y'all are enjoying so far!! Feel free to comment and leave feedback.

I'll put up a new tab about who we are and our story a bit later. For now it's just these updates.

Another flat tire!

Can you believe it? We were all packed up and ready to go buy 2 new front tires in Richmond. I was doing the final walk around to check everything and disconnect the power cable. As I started my tire review I couldn't believe my very eyes. The first tire I inspect is dead flat. The just happened last week!!

Well, I learned my lesson last week with the flat and I joined Good Sam's Club and I signed up for their emergency road service, so it's taken care of. They came and put the spare on for me. Now let's just hope we don't wake up tomorrow with another flat.

If we can just make it to Richmond tomorrow I think we'll be alright. ...eh, we'll be alright anyway.

So, we basically stayed in port here in Hayes, Virginia for another night. Guille has improved drastically this week in the pool. Rain Valentine now pulls herself up on everything. Hopefully tomorrow we'll be sleeping in Maryland just outside of DC. Party in Greenbelt Park anyone?

Baptism for Rain

On our last weekend in Charlottesville, my brother Joe and his wife, Jean, came to visit us. While in town, we visited Sugar Hollow and held a small but beautiful baptism ceremony where Jean promised to help guide and protect little Rain Valentine while passing through life in our world.

Ice cream with Tim, last day in C'ville

On our last day loading the RV in Charlottesville, Va, Tim took Guillermo out for a going away ice cream. We were surprised that he didn't end up completely covered in ice cream.

Here's a link to one of the websites we found to be inspirational.

Families on the Road

Here is where the blogging is going on. Bloggin' with Beer. This is where we connect through the campground's WiFi. Not the best connection but meets our needs (most of the time).

WEEK 1

Meet our rig, Bessie, a 1992 Fleetwood Bounder at our first stop on the journey. We're at Gloucester Point, camped by the Severn River. In the photo you can see Guille running wild and naked on the stones. So far he and Rain love living in the "RV Casa."



So far on the road I've been busy making repairs in any free time. Lily has been cooking, cleaning, organizing, shopping, etc. Both of us were fairly exhausted the first few days. The kids couldn't sleep and neither could we. The transition was pretty awful, but the worst seems to have passed. We all slept well last night and everyone's getting their naps.



Sorry to report my mundane facts of life, but that's what we're doing now - just living. It's fantastic so far and we're still adjusting, but I'll put up more posts about stuff later. Like how on our 2nd day we got a flat, I already had to change the A/C gasket on the roof cause it started leaking, I had to sanitize our water and plumbing system and our sewer hose is about to burst... Fun, huh!?!?