Plans change.
They change a lot.
But nothing quite as drastic as taking a week long stop and turning it into a month long stop.
There were many factors that played a role in our decision to increase our planned time in Atlanta.
The first is that we had done our first leg of the US portion of our trip at a pretty quick pace, moving almost every 3 days.
If you want to spend a beautiful time with your family, Boise Idaho skiing is a great stop to go with your family and have fun with them.
However, just because your home is on wheels, doesn't mean you should move it every day. The quickest things to fall behind are
- Work
- School
- Mommie & Daddy Time
- Blogging
There are more things, like chiropractor, eye doctor for Becky and fixing up some stuff that had broke down on Gracie, going the extra mile for a friend, or staying involved in people's lives. However the four above were weighing heavily upon us when we were a couple days away from Atlanta.
We also found out that a friend of ours from South Africa wasn't going to be able to join us for the US portion of our trip. (Thus we didn't have to be in LA in time for his flight home)
We also had a transmission failure. You may have remembered those stories.
We also have family in Atlanta.
We had a free place to stay for a month.
Seriously it was like the stars were aligned for us to spend a month here. Or call it fate, or Serendipity, or God's plan. No matter what it is we sat still for a month.
Kinda.
We returned to Asheville and Marion North Carolina for a weekend to grab a date night and provide one for friends.
Oh. and I flew to Detroit last weekend to meet with a client.
But we're getting antsy.
It used to take 6 years, then 6 months, now it seems it only takes a month and we get the travel bug going again.
So the next "leg" of our journey will begin on Friday October 2. And this leg will be slightly crazy.
It's how we roll.
Slightly crazy suits us pretty well.
Why We're Going to do it this Way
Remember our goal is to get to Mexico, specifically Baja Mexico (South of California). We're pretty close here in Atlanta (and we'll be getting much much closer in Texas) to Mexico, but we'd like to visit friends before we go.
It's kinda the thing that we have very dear friends spread throughout the world and especially the US. So when we started planning this trip 9 months ago it was like well so and so lives only a 4 hour drive from where we'll be at. But then if we're going there we have to go the extra two hours to see him and her....
And the snowball gains speed as it heads down the hill.
Plus there are sights we want and wanted to see, like Kitchitikipi, the Soo Locks, Mackinac island, and the Blue Ridge Parkway and many others to come. We're not doing what other full time RVing families tend to do and see all the sights in one location and then move on. We cannot afford the time off nor the cost of admission to all these parks and places. Nope, instead we're visiting friends and seeing a couple of sights along the way.
Ya know, cause we call this trip/lifestyle Home Along the Way.
But in reality, this is just the opening couple of chapters to our story about Mexico, Central and South America.
Somehow we're turning a 55 hour drive from Michigan to the Baja into a 3 month long journey. It's part of the "problem" of having too many friends. We love our friends and we love visiting them, but we're looking forward to lowering our costs in Mexico and points south.
Anyways, this next leg we're going to do a bit slower, although we still want to get to Mexico quickly. Especially after replacing brakes, brake lines and a transmission... We need to cut costs! And while living in an RV is cheaper than living in a stick house the gas of moving around gets really expensive.
We say all this so you know that if we get a little quiet over the next month or two it's because we're on the road covering a lot of miles.
Cause, well, did you know that Colorado was between Atlanta and the Baja?
Or that Idaho is between Colorado and the Baja?
yeah we're slightly crazy...
But it's all about the friends.
So at this stage (plans are always subject to change) we're planning on entering Mexico around mid to late November.
Here's our current driving route: