Send off....

Well, finally, the day arrived and we picked up our travel trailer! We absolutely love it! It looks great inside and are looking forward to making it home.
We have to thank Andrew McClave and the staff at Leisure Days in Port Perry for their tireless efforts to get us on the road. The staff represents a team who provide customer service that you don't often experience anymore; friendly, helpful and professional. We hope you will follow our blog and the kids look forward to coming back for another movie with popcorn!
The pictures here reflect our send-off at Jo and Al's place in Newmarket. On the way home we zipped over to show our parents and grandparents the Kodiak. It was great to see everyone and have big 'so-long' hugs.
Thanks to everybody for their support as we make this lifestyle change. We will miss all of our friends and family dearly. Please stay in touch!

Fond Fall Memories

Winding down

Ahhh autumn...this weekend the leaves were falling like snow at Big Bay Point. It was not overly windy but it appeared that the leaves were just 'ready' to land. We feel the same in a lot of ways... ready for our trip to start, ready to get going. However, we are savouring our time with friends and family before we go.
This weekend we had adorable Miss Maeg with us for not one but two overnight visits. Impromptu planning is the best isn't it? We also had a very memorable time with our close friends Anna, Julianna and Aidan. On Saturday, we shared a campfire in the afternoon, watched the glowing leaves, went for a walk to the closest convience store for treats, played, ate, watched a movie and talked. As Anna and I watched the kids walking and playing, we commented on how we were living the 'dream' right now. As when we were young, we dreamed of our kids growing up together and being close friends like we were. And here they are doing just that...They are so carefree and relaxed with each other...real pals. It's quite sweet.
Anyways, Sunday was very special as it marked Josh's 9th birthday. How wonderful to wake up at the cottage with friends and family on your birthday. He loved his presents and had an eventful day. After breakfast, we decided to go for a walk in the forest. Well, as we started we met a woman who was looking for a lost dog. We asked her about her dog and where we should take the dog if we found her. Not 10 minutes later, we found Madison, the dog, along the road near the forest. She trotted along happily towards us to the sound of her name. We walked her back to her owner who was extremely thankful to see her pup. We said, "Hey Josh, you'll never forget this birthday... as you helped to rescue a dog!" He was so happy. As we continued our trek, we heard the kids getting rather excited calling, "deer" and " Willow"... "Willow is chasing a deer!" We ran to see what was happening and arrived in a clearing where there was no Willow or deer to be found. It turns out, the kids came to the clearing to see a fuzzy tailed deer right in front of them. Willow thought she found a 'friend' and went on a chase. Thankfully, Willow came to our calling fairly quickly and was just fine. Wow, what an adventure.
We continued to have more fun, more pictures, more food and silliness. As the day went on, we had more visits from Cindy, Will, Nat and Griffin. As we slowly had to say goodbye to our friends, some for the last time before the trip and some for a few days, we felt mixed emotions of sad, happy and thankful. Sad that it will be a long time before we play with these friends again. Happy to have them in our lives. Thankful for the joy we feel when we are together.

Glitches...

So, I thought I'd have some pictures of the trailer for everyone by now, but unfortunately we have had delays on our delivery date. EEK! Our trailer is in the middle of production, but due to what's been happening with the economy in the U.S., they stopped production for a bit which affects us. We have been assured by our dealer that even if he has to drive to Indiana himself to ensure that the unit arrives on the 28th of October, he will! I really like our dealer, Andrew. Despite the delays in our trailer, his customer service has been top notch from day one!
In the meantime, we will go for an orientation on a similar unit on the 25th and drop the Durango off for whatever work they need to do to it...We hope to pick it all up on the 29th or 30th.
Wish us luck!!!! Leave date is still scheduled for November 1st.
Another glitch was the tire sensor light going off on our Durango...ugh! Turns out we had some nails in our front tire. We also discovered that the car dealer had plugged a hole in another tire previously and are now having to consider replacing our tires altogether. Costly venture, but we are concerned about blowing a tire as we are hauling over 6000 pounds.
Anyways, we are continuing to get everything organized to hit the road...we'll have to really pare everything down to the essentials as we won't have a lot of time to figure out what may or may not fit in our new home.
We are pleased to say that our partners on the road received their Motorhome which is beautiful! They have camped with it and are getting it packed up and ready to roll...
Yesterday, we spent a lovely afternoon at the Platt's for a going away party organized by Ali and Madison. The kids had a blast jumping and sliding on a huge blow up castle, ate a tonne of homemade hallowe'en treats, enjoyed music, balloons, face painting, games, friendship and lots of sunshine.
So, while my list of glitches could go on a little further, that's not our focus. Beautiful sun shiny days like yesterday appearing amongst cold and rainy ones right when we we needed it, are a sign of what's possible, unpredictable and important! Here's to going with the flow on the zig zaggy road of life!

Going through the Motions

As we go through the motions of getting ready to go on our Adventure, there are many tasks at hand. Today, Jeff will pick up our passports in Toronto! Yay! Also, today is October, 1st, so it marks one month until our leave date of November 1st. We can't believe it's so close! We continue to make lists, organize and are planning the beginning stages of our trip. So far, we have decided on San Diego, California as our first destination for November and part of December. Following that, we will go to Tucson, Arizona for the rest of December through February. Currently, Lisa is looking into K.O.A. locations as pit stops along the way towards California to ensure we are all well-rested, showered and have places to burn off couped up energy! We are waiting with baited breath for our trailer to be delivered. Once it arrives, Jeff will take a crash course in towing and backing-up...a task he's somewhat unsure of but will master quickly, I'm sure. :) Then, we will be able to pack the trailer and figure out what our needs are as we go along. Wish us luck dispensing with items we really don't need and making choices that simplify our lives...

Matt's most recent comments regarding our trip to make us smile:

"Let's just get some random trailer and go."

Question: "Matt, what are you looking forward to on the trip?"
Answer: "Going on the biggest roller coaster I'm allowed on!"

Lucas telling Grandma Goodman: "Well, we won't have to mow the lawn anymore." (Jeff echoes that... :)

Thanks to Vivian for her practical and informative information regarding Road tripping! I will post pictures of the trailer once we get it and more information will follow.

Along with many 'firsts' this is my first blog ... as we go through this process, I look forward to other 'first' experiences and sharing them with all of you.

Thanks for reading...Keep checking in....