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Mommy Diaries

Being an Outdoor Mom

As a Recreation Management Major at Brigham Young University I supposed I should have seen this coming. I spent my college days mountain biking, rock climbing, river rafting, skiing, and hiking with no thought about my future or involving kids in the outdoors. It was just something I loved.

Fast forward some 10 years later and one of my greatest joys is getting my kids outside and pushing our collective boundaries. There are definitely other ways to bond as a family, but for me, outdoors is best. There’s an incredible sense of accomplishment for bagging that peak or paddling this river and having our kids right alongside us.

My friend, Alyssa, over at KidProject.org wrote a blog post about what it means to her to be an Outdoor Mom. She is one of my inspirations – tackling peaks in Utah with her 3 kids, climbing in Southern Utah and honestly? Just getting out. All the time. Finding like minded moms and families has been one of our greatest successes in the outdoors. We inspire and encourage each other, and every once in awhile get outside together.

Some people may look at us like we are crazy. Or even that I’m super mom with how often we get out, how far my kids can hike, or that we’ll take our kids on a 3 day canoe trip. In reality though, being an outdoor mom is just like being any kind of mom:

Its all about persistence.

Its not taking no for an answer.

Its being uncomfortable and pushing boundaries.

Its being an example of health & strength.

Its teaching my kids strong is better than skinny.

Its kids that complain & fight.

Its also kids with positive attitudes and amazing abilities.

Just doing it all outside instead of in. I love teaching my kids they can be strong, that they can do hard things. I love showing them I can do hard things. Spending time with my kids in the outdoors opens up my eyes and give me an entirely new perspective. Becoming a mom is one of the best things I ever did.

This blog post is inspired by Nuu-Muu. We love their active, outdoor dresses for women & kids. Rachel & I both recently wore ours on a 3 day river trip and they were awesome! Make sure you check them out!

Categories
Daily Life WanderLog

Executing the Crazy Plan & No Time to Blog

We are still alive! I promise. I know I’ve been slacking on blog posts, but we have just been so darn busy with projects that it’s hard to keep up. The last couple of weeks have been rewarding, frustrating, and exciting all rolled up together. I’m learning to not take myself too seriously and we are trying to fit in some exploration in the cracks.

Sam has been outlining our plan over on Instagram so I thought I’d repost and share here so you can see our step by step execution of Crazy Plan 2017.

Crazy Plan Step 1: collect all the things. When we sold our house a few years ago, we got rid of all our furniture and most everything else. The remains we put in a 5×10 storage unit or lent to friends who wanted to use our stuff while we were gone. Yesterday we collected all the things (and some additional new supplies) at 7 different locations around the populated section of Utah.

Crazy Plan Step 2: Drive the moving truck to Driggs Idaho. After years of towing our Airstream, driving _behind_ the Airstream is an odd feeling.

See the Tetons amidst the mountains? Beautiful views here.

Crazy Plan Step #3: Make an AirBnB. Last September we bought a condo here in Driggs Idaho during The Great Nomadic Idaho Land Rush of 2016. We rented it out till about now, when we will spend the next few months making it into a cute AirBnB. This turns out to be quite a pile of work, especially when you decide to build bed frames and other furniture from scratch.

Crazy Plan Step 4: Park our shiny house in my brother’s driveway as we take advantage of his hospitality and his workshop. I plan a few changes and repairs that are hard to accomplish whilst living in it. All this, on top of the workload for the condo.

Crazy Plan Unexpected Step: get a tow when the lock tumbler breaks and you are unable to start the truck after a hardware store visit.

Crazy Plan Step 5: Buy a ton of steel to make furniture, and cut it to size. Employ slave… er… child labor.

Also, begin to seriously miss living in your tiny shiny house.

Crazy Plan Step 6: Order ALL THE THINGS. All you normal people likely take this for granted, but the ability to order something online and have it show up on your doorstep a few days later is amazing. We normally do mail drops when we visit friends (thank you all!) but often end up sending to a UPS facility or something similar. You have to drive to an obscure section of some town, bring the right identification, show up during proper pickup hours, and pee in a cup for a DNA test to get your packages.

Next time you pick up an Amazon box off your doorstep, pause and appreciate how awesome it is.

Crazy Plan Step 7: Get to welding furniture. The welding is being done by my awesome brother @freshaire_dad, captured here in all of his sparking glory. So grateful that he’s willing to sacrifice his time and talents for this project.

Crazy Plan Step 8: More Sparks. Get good at working a grinder with a flap disc to smooth out the surface welds. This requires much less skill than welding, but is still pretty darn entertaining. I also enlisted Rachel into this project. Home school for the day was metal shop.

Crazy Plan Step 9: Install a remotely managed keypad door lock on the condo. This will be useful for managing short term rental access.

Crazy Plan Step 10: Take a break. We spent the last three days with friends on a river trip in Labyrinth Canyon of the Green River.
A few months after we began our full-time travels, we returned to Utah to sell our ‘sticks and brick’s house. During our work, we realized the difficulty of suddenly stopping after after much travel. We took a travel break then, and did so again during our execution of the Crazy Plan.

This trip, organized by @themoreweexplore, was perfect.

After our river trip, Sam flew to California for a business conference and the kids and I have been hanging out at grandma’s. We’ve been getting school done while I also run all sorts of errands. Excited to get back to Idaho next week and continue on!

Categories
National Parks State Parks Utah WanderLog

Dead Horse Point State Park & a Quick Trip to Canyonlands National Park

After an awesome week in Sandy with family, we drove back down to Moab on Wednesday morning and collected the Airstream. Once in tow, we headed out to Klondike Road where @wanderingnation was hanging out. Being ultimately lazy, and knowing we were only there for one night, we squeezed into the same site as our friends and had a blast hanging out.

Travel Dates: March 22-25, 2017

Ages of Kids: 11, 9, 6

“Back in Moab! We ended up sharing a boondocking campsite last night with @wandering_nation. Gave Sam and I the opportunity to lose again in a game of Dominion and the kids a chance to play. Bonus: I snuck out this morning during recess to hit the nearby Klondike trails while the kids were all distracting each other. It’s good to be with friends!” – @currentlywandering

We managed to snag a campsite at Dead Horse Point State Park for the weekend and moved over on Thursday afternoon. Dead Horse Point State Park has been on my list for quite sometime as I heard it was amazing. The campground itself was just okay, but the mountain biking and the views over the rim were absolutely incredible! We arrived around 4pm, got the Airstream set up in our tight spot and then raced to the viewpoint for a pre-dinner walk.

“Drove up to Dead Horse Point State Park to camp for the weekend and we were blown away by this view! There’s something about seeing the river that carved the magnificent canyon that is incredibly awe inspiring. We also walked a section of the rim trail and the kids especially enjoyed all the rock scrambling we found. So excited it stays light later and we can resume our evening walks!” – @currentlywandering

Out at the end of the road there is an overlook with a viewing platform, as well as a short(ish) loop you can walk around the rim. There are walls in some places, but in others there are no barriers between the path and the edge of the cliff so be warned if you are there with little ones. There was plenty of rock scrambling as the trail was mostly just a well used path marked with cairns in some places. The kids loved it, the sky was beautiful and we had a fantastic evening!

“The past two weeks have been…. full. Full of good and family and wedding and work. Also full of challenges, like a nail in a tire sidewall that led to a full new set of tires earlier than expected. Chief among our challenges is a kidney stone that I discovered I had at 5 am the morning after the wedding. Quite luckily we were super close to a hospital, where I was diagnosed and prescribed some pain killer. The stone has made progress but I’m not out of the woods yet. I felt pretty lousy all day today, but at least I get to feel lousy in a pretty place.” – @telegramsam

Dead Horse Point is fantastic to explore on its own, but the park is also *really* close to the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park. Also a place we had never been. Friday morning we ditched regular school and took of with Rhonda, Joe, & Austin Hendricks to earn a Jr. Ranger Badge and explore a bit.

“I feel like social media is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, people tend to put their best out there so when I’m struggling it feels like everyone else has this amazing life.

On the other hand, I love being inspired by the places you go and the experiences you have with your families. We have also met so many amazing people through Instagram! Not having a stable geographic community could be lonely, but our traveling social family more than makes up for it! Sometimes I joke that our real life is a little TOO social as I feel there are constantly people to hang out with and I’d rather play than work. Last week we visited Canyonlands National Park with @rhondahendricks & @joehendricks & @austinexplores. We had a blast hiking the trails, taking in the views and getting caught up since we had seen each other last year. I had no idea Rhonda was such a daredevil for photos! 😁 They are just one of the many families I’m so grateful to have met over our last three years of travel!” – @currentlywandering

We picked up our books from the Visitor Center and then set off to hike the easy 1 mile to Mesa Arch. Its probably the most photographed area in the park, but was worth seeing in person for sure! I just loved watching Joe scramble around getting different angles. He’s a much more motivated photographer than I am!

Photo Credit: Joe Hendricks

After Mesa Arch, we drove down to the Grand View Point Overlook and hiked the easy 2 mile round trip out to the end and back. The end wasn’t anything spectacular, but the views along the way were pretty fabulous.

Photo credit: Joe Hendricks

After a quick lunch we passed off our books and headed back to the Airstream for an afternoon nap. Okay, not really but I probably could have used one! Joe convinced us to get up a 2am and hike back to Mesa Arch for some night photography. I’ve done astrophotography before, but this was the first time without my 5D Mark II Canon and I honestly missed it. A lot. I love my Fuji X-T10 but it didn’t hold up as well shooting the stars. Boo.  Pretty proud of Sam and I for getting ourselves out of bed though!

“This is what happens when you hang out with awesome photographers like @joehendricks. Somehow he talked us into getting up at 2am and hiking out to Mesa arch because “the Milky Way is going to be perfect!” Haha it’s good to have friends that will push you out of your comfort zone!” – @currentlywandering

Saturday morning we had school to get done but we dragged all the kids outside for a bike ride after lunch. They came kicking and screaming, but all wound up having fun. We were pretty impressed with Rachel & Andrew’s skills going over obstacles and rocks, and Cara did well once we got her attitude in check.

“Pretty great day for a ride. We took our kids on the trails at Dead Horse Point State Park and I observed a few things: 1) No one wanted to go. It took threats. Like “I’m going to sell your bike if you don’t start riding it”” real ones to get them all out the door. 2) Attitude is everything. Even once we were out the door Cara insisted the trail was too hard (it was decidedly not) and she wanted to go home. We had a serious talk about positive thinking and doing hard things. 3) Rachel and Andrew are more capable on bikes than they know and totally rocked some of the harder sections. 4) We really have two different skill levels and as parents have to split up. 5) Taking kids out on the trail is never for me. It’s all about them and teaching them to love the outdoors. There’s time for crushing my own trails later. 6) By the end of our ride everyone was having a fabulous time and there were smiles all around.

Being an outdoor parent is hard. It’s hard to know when to push and when to give a little. Okay, that’s true for any kind of parenting, but some people look at us and think we must have it so easy. It’s just not! But we keep trying and keep going and hope that someday our efforts will pay off!” -@currentlywandering

“The doctor that diagnosed my kidney stone gave me some instructions: “Try to stay as active as possible. This will help the stone pass.” The pain is intermittent, so we went on a mountain bike ride. Doctor’s orders.” -@telegramsam

Saturday night, Rachel and I drove into Moab for a girls’ night. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds a semi-annual women’s meeting in conjunction with its General Conference sessions.  I love that she’s old enough to go with me, and we always turn it into a fun date by getting dinner afterwards! She’s growing up into such a fine young lady and I couldn’t be more proud!

We definitely could have stayed longer at Dead Horse Point State Park, but reservations in the campground are hard to come by, so we’ll take what we can get. Definitely left many miles of unexplored trails  for next time!

Categories
Daily Life

Our Wandering Plans for 2017

Since November of 2013, we’ve traveled 40 thousand miles with our Airstream home, visiting over 350 places along the way. It has been amazing. This year, we are going to continue our adventures in slightly different ways. We are going to do some significant repair and renovation to the Airstream, try our hand at running an AirBnB, and this fall we will spend 4 months in Hawaii while Sam teaches a university class. Let me break it down a little bit.

Airstream Repair / Renovation

Over the past year or two, we’ve had some weakening  in the rear floor of the Airstream. This particular problem is common during several Airstream model years surrounding 2008. A slight gap near the bumper allowed water to seep in during intense rain, and the plywood has degraded. I did a quick patch job last year in Manti, but it’s time to do a proper job. We also have a laundry list of small repairs we need to make that have just piled up over the last year or so. 

In addition to the floor repair, we are going to rebuild the dinette into the wrap-around style that is becoming common. This newer design uses a pedestal table with seating around the back of the Airstream. This seating configuration will better suit the needs of our growing children, and is nicer for socializing as well. Many of the designs we’ve seen include a desk instead of the couch, but since that’s where we sleep the couch needs to stay. We still need to draw up exactly what that will look like, and how we’ll fit everything in. 

Both of these projects will be much easier to do if we aren’t living in the Airstream for a few months!

An AirBnB Condo

As our kids grow, we find ourselves chasing adventures that are not always easy to plan and execute in our current travel lifestyle. We’ve talked about having someplace to use as an adventure base and recently decided it was time. Last September we bought a 3 bedroom, 2 bath upstairs condo unit in Driggs Idaho, just a short hop away from Jackson Hole, WY. (This was part of what became known as the Great Nomadic Idaho Land Rush of 2016.) We rented it out immediately until just a few weeks ago. We spent most of this winter living cheap and saving money to buy furniture and appliances to outfit the Condo for short term rentals.

On our way to Driggs, we rented a moving truck and emptied the small 5 by 10 storage unit where we had stored a few things. We also collected a few items that friends had used while we were traveling. On the way north from Sandy, Utah we purchased mattresses and a ton of  much needed supplies from Costco. The unit has a garage that will basically function as our storage unit while we go through our possessions and decide what we need and what we can now get rid of. 

While we are living in and outfitting the condo, we’ll be working on the aforementioned Airstream renovations. We have the precious short time window of 2 and a half months (rest of April, May and June) to accomplish both projects.

Oh, Canada!

Our plan is to spend the months of July and August back in the Airstream, traveling through some beautiful pieces of Canada. Glacier, Jasper, Banff, Waterton, & Yoho National Parks, followed up by mountain biking in Fernie are all on the list. I imagine we will be quite itchy for travel by the time this happens! Our route is already planned and we made reservations months ago, which is actually a nice change of pace for us!

After Canada we will head down to Northern California for some family time, finally heading back to Driggs for the Solar Eclipse on August 21st!

Aloha

A college friend of mine lives on Oahu and teaches at BYU Hawaii. He has arranged a sabbatical for this fall, and reached out a month ago to see if we would be interested in renting his townhouse, and possibly teaching one of his university classes. Failing to find any reason to say no, we gladly accepted and promptly booked cheap flights to Hawaii. Sam will be teaching one CS 400 level class September through December, while keeping up with his regular programming work. I plan to still homeschool the kids while also getting involved in local church and community activities. We are incredibly excited to be able to explore Hawaii, and hopefully we won’t go nuts sitting still in one place for 4 months. At least the beach is only a 5 minute walk from the townhouse!

Ski Winter

We’ll leave warm Hawaii and fly to frigid Driggs, Idaho to start 2018 with a ski winter. We plan to be in the condo January through March, but we’ll have to see how we handle the cold Idaho winters! After learning how to fall in style as a family, we’ll likely be ready to head back out in the Airstream for the spring or summer season. Several families are talking about an Alaska trip. We still haven’t been to Maine. Who knows where we’ll end up that summer? We love keeping our schedule open and flexible. 

Airstream Rental

One of the main reasons we want to do the Airstream renovation now, is that we have looked into possibly renting the Airstream while we are in Hawaii and through the winter while we ski. Our cushions around the dinette are old (and franky, ugly) so we would need to replace them anyway. Rather than buy new cushions now, and then again in a year when we do the dinette remodel, it just makes more sense to do it all now. Theoretically. The place we plan to take it is basically an upscale hotel where our Airstream would get love and attention while we are gone.  So, no one would be towing it, and it would be in good hands until we are ready to pick it back up. Once things are finalized we’ll give more details about where it’ll be!

Adventure

We’ve always said our adventure was not about the Airstream, but about adventuring together as a family. The Airstream has been an amazing catalyst for travel, spending time together, and really creating a unique family bond. We are forever grateful for the 3 years of full time travel we’ve had! We aren’t done exploring by a long shot, but mixing things up now and then helps keep us on our toes.  Through all of these new experiences, we are likely to adjust our plans and take advantage of new opportunities. If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the last few years, its best to keep things open and flexible because you never know what might happen!

Categories
Arizona New Mexico Utah WanderLog

Road Trip Time! New Mexico & Arizona + a Weekend in Moab

Leaving Lubbock, TX we only had about a week to make it all the way to Sandy, UT for my sister’s wedding on March 17th. We knew that sticking around Texas would make that trip a sprint, but the kids were up for it and we were able to set a fast pace that wasn’t too incredibly insane. We had also wanted to see this part of New Mexico and Arizona for a few years, and driving somewhere new is always exciting!

Travel Dates: March 8-13, 2017

Our first stop was the Very Large Array after an incredibly long drive across almost the entire state of New Mexico.

My initial reaction to the VLA was, “That’s all the telescopes there are?” In the movie Contact,  there are over a hundred of the radio telescopes, when in reality there are 27. Amazing what visual effects could do even back then.  We arrived around 3pm and spent some time exploring the  Karl G. Jansky Visitor Center. They have an extremely good movie with an overview of how the telescopes work, the history, and various projects that have been conducted using the VLA. Its also narrated by Jodi Foster (chuckle). After the video we bundled up and headed out into the wind for the walking tour.

“I’ve wanted to see the Very Large Array since we started traveling, and today was the day. This multi-receiver antenna stimulates one huge radio telescope out of 27 ‘small’ dishes. I say ‘small’, because they are 90 feet high and weigh 230 tons.” -@telegramsam

“The 27 dishes of the VLA are arranged in a Y shape. The individual signals are combined with serious computing power. The VLA has appeared in multiple movies including Contact, but the array might appear different in person than you expect.
The array itself has 4 different configurations, which they switch between every few months by moving the dishes closer or further apart. Right now, the array is in the ‘D’ configuration, with the dishes spanning only a .62 mile diameter circle. The ‘A’ configuration is the largest, spreading the dishes across a 22 mile diameter circle! Each configuration allows detection of different cosmic materials.

Also, in the movie Contact the array was expanded digitally to include 131 dishes for visual effect.” -@telegramsam

Cara’s ears got a little cold so she stole my favorite Aventura Clothing hat. She looked so darn cute I was tempted to buy another one just for her!

“Our long drive across New Mexico yesterday took us right past the Very Large Array. @telegramsam has literally been waiting three years to see this and was like a kid in a candy shop. I was surprised there were not more of the radio telescopes. Have you ever seen the movie Contact? Turns out you can take 27 dishes and turn them into 181 or so with digital manipulation magic. We also found out there is a small visitor center and a walking tour. We spent about an hour learning how astronomers and scientists move the dishes around in different configurations and use radio waves to take pictures in space. Science is so cool.” -@currentlywandering

We spent Monday night nearby at the Datil Well Campground.  We were sure there would be no Verizon service, but surprisingly it was quite good! at 7,400 feet elevation it was definitely chilly (with spots of snow still!) but we took our time in the morning to get going. I got in a trail run, Sam got work done, and was even able to fly the drone a bit.

Once we got moving around lunchtime we drove through Pie Town, New Mexico. With a name like that we absolutely HAD to stop for pie and met some fabulous people at The Gatherin’ Place. We bought two small pies: boysenberry and a ginger pie. I think we should have bought at least 6 more as they were so good!

By late Tuesday afternoon we arrived near the entrance to Petrified Forest National Park. The Crystal Forest Gift Shop has free overnight RV Parking (I think you can stay for 4 days) so we grabbed a spot in the empty lot. The kids and I drove in to the Rainbow Forest Visitor Center/Museum to  grab our Jr. Ranger Books while Sam got in an hour of work. We played in the Visitor Center, watched the video, and then walked the Great Logs nature path outside before heading back for dinner.

Wednesday morning we hitched up the Airstream for a drive through the National Park. We stopped at various overlooks, did a short hike or two, toured the Painted Desert Inn, and finished with passing off our books and lunch at the Painted Desert Visitor Center. Glad we could check this one off our list, but Petrified Forest was definitely not our favorite park.

Driving north we stopped at the Hubbell Historic Trading post in the late afternoon. Once again the kids and I worked on Jr. Ranger books while Sam got some paid work done in the Airstream. The kids had a blast dressing up and pretending to be traders, and we all loved watching the volunteer work the loom. It was a short stop, but a nice way to break up a long drive! We finally landed at Canyon de Chelly National Monument and grabbed a spot in the campground.

“Today felt like an actual road trip. We drove through national parks, stopped at a bunch of places and saw tons of things. We covered miles at a much faster rate than normal as we head North for family stuff. It was really fun to have a change of pace, even if that pace is faster than normal.” -@telegramsam

“Legit road trip today as we towed the Airstream through Petrified Forest National Park & stopped by Hubbell Historic Trading Post on our way to the campground at Canyon de Chelly National Monument. Lots of car dancing, audio books, music, viewpoints, Jr. Ranger Books, and some short hikes. We figure road tripping is something we should legitimately do at least once a year. 😂 “- @currentlywandering

“We moved fast this week, leaving Lubbock on Monday and arriving in Moab on Friday. We drove every day with visits to cool places along the way. We visited the VLA, ate Pie Town pies, explored Petrified Forest, creaked the boards at the Hubbell Trading Post, and hiked this beautiful view at Canyon de Chelly. We moved fast to stage for a wedding in the family next week in Northern Utah.” -@telegramsam

Thursday morning we got going early to hike the one public trail down into Canyon de Chelly. It was fairly steep, but gorgeous with White House Ruins at the bottom of the canyon. We also drove down to the Spider Rock overlook which was an easy walk from the car. The Canyon is in the Navajo Nation, so any further exploration of the canyon has to be done with a native guide and we just didn’t have time for that.

Thursday afternoon we made it to Blanding, UT where we had planned to camp at a National Forest campground north of town. Turns out it was still closed. Until May. Oops. We ended up moochdocking at a friend’s house instead which turned out fabulous as the kids got plenty of play time in! These friends are practically family, and it was great to catch up with them even if only for a night.

Friday morning we left around lunchtime and drove the two short hours up to Moab and the Moab Valley RV Resort where we had reservations. The kids immediately wanted to swim in the heated pool (naturally) and it felt good to finally be settled for a few days! Friday night, Steve & Tess from @themorewexplore came over and the four of us went a bike/dinner double date. We love having an 11 year old who can babysit, and honestly, they get made if we come home too early! After riding, we ended up at the Moab Brewery and stayed until they closed around 10pm. Steve & Tess are an awesome, outdoor adventure, Airstream couple and we totally hit it off right away. We are planning a canoe trip with them for the end of April and can’t wait!

“What’s the first thing we do after arriving in Moab? 🚲 Okay, okay, in my defense I took the kids to the RV park pool first and THEN we hooked up with @themoreweexplore for a double bike/dinner date. This whole hanging out with adventure Airstream friends is pretty awesome.” -@currentlywandering

“One thing I love about Moab is there is so much variety! We normally dry camp or boondock, but this time we splurged a bit and stayed at Moab Valley RV Park and Resort. We aren’t normally impressed by RV parks but we loved staying here. Giant chess & checker sets, pool & hot tub, full hookups (such a nice treat!), across the street from the bike path, and 10 minutes from Arches National Park. Plus, they have the cutest cabins you can rent which was perfect for my brother’s family in town from Minnesota.” -@currentlywandering

We swam, mountain biked, and then Sunday afternoon my brother and his family arrived from Minnesota. They were also out for the wedding but wanted to get some sight seeing in while they were in Utah. We had so much fun playing with cousins! Monday morning we packed up our two families (Sam stayed behind to work as he needed to take time off later in the week) and drove into Arches National Park for some exploring. My sister-in-law had never hiked Delicate Arch so that was our first destination. The park was not TOO crowded since it was still early, and we had a great time hiking up the hill to the arch.

“We spent a beautiful day exploring Arches National Park with my brother & his family today. The kids loved hanging out with their cousins and it was great to catch up with family! The hike to Delicate Arch is not my favorite (not super pretty and too many people) but this view is one of my favorites!” -@currentlywandering

We ate lunch down at the Devil’s Garden picnic area, and then took the short hike to Sand Dune Arch where the kids had fun running up and down the dune. By that time we were pretty done, so my kids and I drove out to pass of our Jr. Ranger Books (earning them for the 2nd time!) and to get home for dinner. We topped off the day with some after dinner swimming and then all the kids collapsed into bed!

Tuesday morning we packed up our bags, dropped the Airstream off for the week and drove just the truck up to Sandy to stay with family for the wedding!