Back on Track?

After the trip began, things started to go extremely bad… We went to go to a place on the way of our next destination, and stopped to eat. I had a regular burrito which I didn’t finish (it wasn’t really that good). My dad was not eating with us, and he had told us he’d be there in just a minute…When he came back, he told us that there was a big issue with the outdoor kitchen. Ugh! We had to drive all the way back from where we were, and then we kept going… in the wrong direction. About 45 minutes later, we were finally at the mechanic. Apparently there was a different issue with the front of the car.

The mechanic went to take a look at it while we were angry that it was getting later and later and all these issues were popping up! The first lucky part about this was that apparently the other issue that happened earlier with the exploding pipe today was connected with THIS one. There was a long explanation but I guess it doesn’t matter because it was all right. But now we had the problem with the outdoor kitchen! We drove another half hour in a different direction (again, not the right one) to get to another shop. Long story short, the company that we used gave us a Warranty. The bad news was that we were going to stay the night. We were not going to start the trip for at least another day. Crap!

So fortunately, the day wasn’t over yet! We got the people to fix it past their hours, and we drove down to the nearest Walmart and got them a few 6-packs of beer to thank them, as a tip. It took a long time but we had finally gotten back! We had always gotten to travel to exotic places, such as Hawaii about a year ago and London when I was very young. None of it is the same, not meaning better, not meaning worse, but it’s all different starting s new experience. The nature was insane on the way over. There were large flocks of birds and the sun actually set more than twice since the mountains and valleys were so close to each other. Sadly, there is a fire in BrianHead, Utah that we have needed to drive by to get to our destination, Salt Lake. You need to feel bad for all of those lost homes and the brave firemen out there risking their lives everyday. For all of you in the Police force, the Army, and all of the firemen, I solute you guys. Hats off for all of you guys that risk your lives in different ways every day for your country (I am not just talking about America). Anyway, the fire made us all feel bad but it looked amazing. It actually looked like a regular fire at the base, except it was at least a mile and half tall. After that there was a very solid half mile or elegant white portion with red flakes everywhere. Everything around us showed us that it was all worth the trouble, even for just one day on the road. Now, make that 7 months please! 😁

The Adventure has Begun!

I can not even share my excitement! For everyone that has been supporting me until this moment, thank you so much. If you are new to my blog, this is when it will get exciting. The BETA stage of my blog is over. At 12:09 (Mountain Time) our departure time, this blog has now changed to the ALPHA stage. From now on, this is how my blog is going to work:

-All of my journey will be blogged.

-Car rides will not be written much about; just the exciting stuff.

-I am now a full- time blogger.

There is so much more than this, I just wanted to show the giant parts of the trip that might affect everyone most. Wow, I can’t even BELIEVE how crazy the beginning of today went! The day started at 6:00… not! It took a long time but once the camper was finished, all of e stress was relieved ( it took so long to pack up and get everything needed out of the house and where it needed to be). Eventually, we  got on the road after saying goodbyes to friends online and they wouldn’t stop saying they were so happy for us! A little after the drive started, however… something in the hood of the car went BANG! We slowed down and stopped on the side of the road, and found out that a pipe that had been broken before had fully broke off. Very luckily, it was very clean and it was only broke at 2 locations, so it could be easily fixed. After that we got back on the road again! With an amazing amount of scenery everywhere, it wasn’t hard to get comfortable!

One day left

There is only ONE day left, and that is today. Tomorrow, we will be on the trip!  I hope that alll of you have enjoyed this countdown, I have used it to grow myg blog and encourage the readers that I do have to stay and check out when my life gets REALLY interesting in the next few months. Thank you so much everyone that has stayed here this far, and an even bigger thank you for the two bloggers that have been following me since almost the beginning of my blog, (Rod Whitlock and HorseAddict.net). But anyway, to conclude the last of my countdown, here are the stats:

24 Hours

1,440 Minutes

Or 86,400 Seconds!

Starting off the morning was lazy. Of course, being the last day we live here, that will not last. For very long st all… We started by showing thanks to the renters by cleaning the house up, and then eventually started getting out things to put into the camper. A quick little blog update that I’d like to throw in is that I just smashed my record for likes in one day today, as well as my views in one day thanks to all of you guys. Anyway, our dad left us again at the house to go and get some stuff from the Hardware store and when he came back we got to work again, moving all of our stuff into the camper.

Two Days Left

Two days. Everything is folding together, the trip is all planned. Now its only time to pack the camper up because its pretty much about time to go. In the comparison of time in our mind, a day is worth a lot less time than it would have been comparing it to any other day of any other summer in our lives. My personal countdown estimates that the time until the big day is:

48 Hours

2,880 Minutes

Or 172,800 Seconds

I was woken up at 8:00… in the MORNING from my little brother. I pretended I was asleep and hoped he would go a way but he was there trying to get me up for another 10 minutes until he got bored and went to knock on the knobs of the door to get me up. I finally got up and we had a short argument but it was all good after a while. I played online with him and our cousin joined to say HELLO and he ended up playing for 2 hours with us because we were having so much fun.

We went downstairs until our parents came back home at different times, our dad first but my mother had stopped to pick up Bagels for all of us to eat. A little while after that, my little brother and I biked down to the nearby Lins and bought some drinks and chips for us to eat. We biked back and our dad left to go get the camper, which we had recently dropped off at the repair crew on the other side of town to see if there was anything wrong with it.

I forgot to mention that we own a fire truck. We have not seen it in a while, but yes, we do own a fire truck. We left it down in Las Vegas, so my dad went down there to get it and move it somewhere else. While he was driving out there we got in the trailer and did everything we needed to do in order to get ready for the trip that will be coming up in (let me tell you again…) TWO DAYS!

Three Days Left

Three days! So close! To some people, three is considered a number of fortune. That may or not be true, but for today 3 is a number for excitement. 3 is such a small number! The amount of time remaining now is about:

72 Hours

4,320 Minutes

Or 259,200 Seconds

Speaking of an exciting time, Happy Father’s Day everyone! Mine sure had a good time today. We started out by officially naming our camper today! We needed an 8 letter word, or 2’four letter words, or something like that to etch out the Rockwood (eight letters) and put something else on. What we got was NoRegrets (without spaces) which was an idea by our cousins a week or two ago! It looks great and it is officially ready to be on the road… just a few more internal details like putting in our clothes!

After that my brother and I made breakfast for my father. He said he loved the breakfast. We opened presents with him, and I got him a journal so he could write since he doesn’t have a blog. I also got him two very high quality pens, but I know that he liked the card even more than that.

I went over to my good friend Caidan’s house (Our parents play Poker together) and met up with two of my other friends to hang out together. We stayed there for around 6 and a half hours! We left to go home at about 9:00 so we could get to bed a little bit early for the next day which would be getting the trailer all ready for the trip.

Four Days Left

Four days left. That is an insanely small number compared to the 160 days left that we started planning the basics. It’s also an insanely small number compared to the 6 months on the trip, or 7 months that we will be on vacation. The approxate time remaining is:

96 Hours

5,760 Minutes

Or 345,600 Seconds 

Starting up the morning, I got up and relaxed when I was told to go out and clean the car. It took about an hour to clean it (not very bad) and came in after vacuuming the carpets in both of our cars (we sold our other one recently). I relaxed the rest of the time until 11:30 when I went with my little brother and his friends to the battle arena that’s close by. It’s 8 dollars a person, but it’s worth it. We obviously loved it. Otherwise we wouldn’t have stayed for 6 hours. 

There was a birthday party for some younger kids there, but some of their brothers were my age so I got a lot of competition heading with my brothers and taking down a single base with one magazine of ammunition. When we got back at about 6:00, my brother called his same friend that we had JUST dropped off and he came over for dinner and swam in our backyard.

Five Days Left

There are only FIVE days left until the trip. Only two more days, and there is only HALF of a week left… Even a little bit less than that! What an awesome time to start the countdown! The time remaining is about:

120 Hours

7,200 Minutes

Or 432,000 Seconds

After doing the math, the numbers make me think the trip is closer than it is! Well, anyway, my T-shirt with my blog will be coming in since I designed and ordered it today! We will not get it until past the trip’s take-off date, and we are not going to postpone the trip for a SHIRT, so we are mailing it to some friends in Pennsylvania so we can get it when they see us. We won’t be getting haircuts for the next six months, so we got one today so we wouldn’t need to to do that any later. After a long trip to the DMV, we had to go all the way over again to register the Excursion (Beast)’s license so it can actually be driven on the road, and renew my fathers license so that he could actually drive it (I will be another 3 years until I can drive myself). Aidan was dropped off at his friends house, and the rest of our family went home to enjoy our evening. We later met up with his family at dinner later that night.

The Countdown Begins

Since 6 isn’t a GREAT number, I’m starting the countdown with 5 days left starting with tomorrows blog post. I’m going to count down the days until we leave, and then on the last day we will begin our adventure. Some of you may have not been reading my blog regularly or even semi-regularly because you saw my date of departure and wont be coming back until then. A great thanks for you guys that are reading my blog posts before the trip!

We’ve been preparing for the trip today, but mainly for our blog this time. Of course, I’m not going on a once in a lifetime trip so I can blog, I’m blogging because I’m on a once in a lifetime trip. That doesn’t mean that I couldn’t take my blogging to the next level with you guys, though! We went to a store called Xtreme-graphiX to try and get a T-Shirt printed with my blog address and my logo.

Luckily, hey could print it in just a few days or so! UN-Luckily, a single Tshirt was around $160, which is an insanely terrible price for something like a T-Shirt! The manager gave me a site that I could go and get the same thing for $16.99, (I don’t know why he handed my request to ANOTHER company) but I’ll be checking that out another day, because even though the trip begins in just a few days, it can be shipped here in maybe 4 or so days. I have plenty of time to check that out and decide!

The last Week

Wow, only 1 week left until the big trip! We’re all ready for the trip, and the campers packed. We’ve said our goodbyes and we aren’t going to see any more of our friends in person for a while. A week is only about:

7 Days, 

168 Hours, 

10,080 Minutes

Or 604,800 Seconds

With all of that out of the way, I can PARTIALLY explain my excitement. I have been preparing for months, saving up money and preparation so that this trip can happen. In a week, my life is going to change forever, in a very good way! Everybody I know is also excited for me, and my family is even more excited for themselves! I have everything I need to have the best experience possible, and everybody I know, and even those I DONT really know, are very excited for me and say it is a once in a lifetime experience. Next time you see one of my new posts, it will most likely be at the beginning of the trip! 

Hiking In Utah

At 7:00 in the morning, we woke up to stand in freezing cold water. I’m just kidding, that sounds like it wouldn’t be a lot of fun. It was! we met up with our good friends, The Winders, and drove to HARTS to meat and get a little bit of food for our journey (We only got some Sun Flower Seeds, but the Winders got more than that) and my brother and I went into our friend’s car to drive there. We had fun on the short 30 Minute drive by sharing thoughts and playing on his Samsung Tablet (We could never stay on the same game for more than a few minutes). When we got there, we took off our shoes and socks and put on Lake Shoes that could get wet. My friend didn’t HAVE any lake shoes and he left his shoes (and socks) on his feet… that didn’t go very well for him later, but I’ll get to that a little bit later.

We got onto the hike and we had to hide behind some bushes to stay warm. It actually was very warm there, considering that we were at a partial MOUNTAIN TOP AT 7:30 IN THE MORNING! We didn’t even have proper clothes on! I had my Leather Jacket on, but I had very short pants on too…

When we got onto the actual path, it was all right. The harsh wind was clogged by the Dark Green trees leaning in comfortingly around us. We hiked about a half mile talking, and then we saw our first river to cross. It was small, and we climbed on some logs and jumped to the other side. We thought that our trickiness just saved us: well, there was rivers LITERALLY 100 times the amount as big… We had went through the river horizontally, but later on we would NEED to go through the river strait in. The water felt like it was the water temperatures in the area that the TITANIC sank, but it was actually about 10 degrees in the water so it probably wasn’t the same. We got to the best point, but my Brother couldn’t go on. I can’t blame him at all even though I still wanted to keep going.

On the way back, it was just me and Luke (The other kid) going back. We were way far ahead, so we stopped for a break. We saw some scary animals on the way there in back, including a lot of creepy or dead ones (Including a Snake with its head cut not-so-cleanly off… Eww). On the break, his mother came, and said that everyone was OK back there. On the way back, we got a little bit lost. Luke found the right way, and we had to hold on to a sturdy branch hanging down and slide down it (My hands hurt for a little bit after that) and crossed a path that hadn’t been used in a long time. We got to the car, and waited when Luke opened the door… The car wasn’t even locked! We got in, and waited until they got there. We went to Arbys to get some food and then went home our different ways. All of that happened before noon, and we still had the whole rest of the day left!