We woke up Sunday morning to the sound of rain falling on the aluminum skin of the Airstream. It is actually quite a comforting sound if you can believe it. LA had been getting the brunt of the storm and we got out of there just in time.
Ava woke up bright and early but could not play outside because of the rain so she decided to have a tea party with Woody, Jesse, Buzz and Bullseye. Oh yeah, and her baby duckling.
Enjoy a little walk through of the Cactus Country RV Resort shortly after rain. Marlene even busted out her binoculars for a little southen Arizona bird watching.
Today felt different. Today we woke up with smiles just a little larger than yesterday. Today it felt like a weight was lifted off of our shoulders. Today was our first non-travel day. Today was a day to have fun in the sun… and cross some things off of our never ending to-do list too.
On our way to Tucson, we stopped at Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch. We stopped here last year for the first time when we visited here and we remember Ava having a good time so we wanted to stop again. We try to instill our love of animals onto our girls and places like these are great places for them to interact and learn about these beautiful creatures first hand.
Here are some photos we took during our visit. The cost is $5 for adults and kids under 7 are free. The $5 entry fee gets you a bucket of feed and a little cup of nectar for the birds.
Guess who is in charge of babysitting today.
We woke up Friday morning in the parking lot of the Walmart in Tempe, AZ. We searched last night for a safe place in Phoenix before a drive to Tucson the next day. Since we had wanted to stop by Picacho, AZ on the way to Tucson, we decided we did not want to make the drive at night.
This is how Ava ended up in the morning in her new ‘Big Girl Bed’. She no longer sleeps in the tent bed on the floor. We had to jury rig the gaucho seat so this guard rail can be fitted. We are glad we did. Now on to our exciting day…
Hi. I’m Ava. Today we are at Organ Stop Pizza out here in good ol’ Mesa, Arizona. We thought we would grab a late lunch but you know what, they are not open until 4pm. No wonder the parking lot is empty! It’s a good thing, I guess, because we needed 7 parking spots for our van and Airstream.
Look at what we have here. People sleeping in a Flying J *slash* Best Western parking lot for the night. Some would call them crazy. Some would call them lucky. Some would call them full-timers. I would say we are a little bit of all three.
It was inevitable. We had been talking to everyone about it for too long and we have gotten to the point where we could not back out of this one even if we wanted to. But all joking aside, we have been waiting for this day to come for a long, long time.
Just a week before we set out on a cross country trip, we headed up the opposite direction towards northern California for a shakedown trip and to visit my mom and brother one last time.
This is how our girls look in the back of the van all packed in.
As usual, we chose to drive after their bed time so they can sleep in the van during the long haul. It is a good 300 miles from our house so we had close to 6 hours of road ahead of us.
Rain and Mali Mish seem to go together. On our very first trip in her to Lake Isabella, it rained on us for the first 2 nights we ever spent in her. Now as we are about to embark on our first cross country trip, we are having the heaviest rain we have seen in years.
Our maiden voyage in Mali Mish with looming clouds and rain (November 1, 2008)
As the title of this post suggests, we now have each been issued a 49 square foot space in the Airstream that we can call our own. Actually it will be less than that because the toilet, shower, fridge, oven and all of those niceties are talking up much of those precious space inside the aluminum walls of our soon-to-be-called home.
Ava staking a claim in her corner of the Airstream
This video has been in the oven for over a year. Marlene made me promise to get it out there before we head out so here it is. We had a ridiculously fun time shooting this video during our last Read more…