Newschool Nomads – Page 6 – A family on the road living fulltime in an RV.

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Family on the Road

Over the River and Through the Wood to Washington We Go!

Jenn

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2 min read

After leaving Glacier National Park, we headed over to Washington. We took Highway 2, a remote and lovely route over rivers and through woods. I’m not sure I’d actually recommend…

After leaving Glacier National Park, we headed over to Washington. We took Highway 2, a remote and lovely route over rivers and through woods. I’m not sure I’d actually recommend taking Highway 2 unless, like us, you just really really prefer highways over interstates. It may have beautiful scenery, but it’s also curvy, slow going, and had a fair amount of construction going on at the time.

We landed in Newport, Washington where we took a few days to regroup after our days exploring in Glacier. Other than watching fireworks over the Pend Oreille River, we did little else besides catch up on things like work, school, and laundry. As mundane as it may sound, I actually enjoy our regrouping days. It gives me a chance to feel like an ordinary mom instead of the wandering gypsy mama I am.

Many people ask us if we travel with a plan. My answer is, we travel with a “flexible plan”. For instance, the morning we left Newport we planned on going to a campground in Quincy for a few more days of regrouping before heading to the coast. But then someone that morning told us about Leavenworth and we had a change of plans.

Leavenworth is a Bavarian styled village situated in the Cascade mountain range less than a half days drive from Seattle. It sounded like a perfect place for a few more days of regrouping and to get some Spätzle. And it was.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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Montana through Instagram

Jenn

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3 Comments

1 min read

Because this is our journey’s journal. and Because Instagram is just fun. Love and Laughter, Jenn If you enjoyed this post you can follow one of three ways! 1. Sign…

Because this is our journey’s journal.

and

Because Instagram is just fun.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

If you enjoyed this post you can follow one of three ways! 1. Sign up to have posts emailed to your inbox. 2. Subscribe to the RSS Feed or 3. “like” Newschool Nomads on Facebook Simple dimple!

Like food and fitness? Follow along as I film a workout in every state and explore finding a healthy balance on the road at Girl Heroes!

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2 min read

Family on the Road National Parks

Glacier National Park: So Worth the Drive!

Jenn

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2 min read

After traveling for two years full time in our RV, one of the questions we get asked most often is “What’s your favorite place?” Each of us has a different…

After traveling for two years full time in our RV, one of the questions we get asked most often is “What’s your favorite place?”

Each of us has a different answer but there is no question (Except for maybe Thing One who at this point of teenagedom tends dislike everything we like. Don’t tell him that Brent and I actually like New York City or New Orleans or else he’ll change his mind.) that Glacier National Park is in our top ten favorite places. Or maybe even our top 5.

I imagine a visit to Glacier is perhaps the closest thing you can get to wilds of Alaska without leaving the boundaries of the lower 48. We stayed in Glacier for a week and could have easily stayed another week. The first few days were spent outside the park at a RV resort with other full time families, families we had met in Yellowstone. A few days later we moved to Apgar Campground within the park boundaries. Our “backyard” was the kind that makes the RV life so appealing. A large private site under a canopy of trees with a path leading straight to the shores of Lake McDonald where we watched the most glorious sunsets and even one sunrise.

We spent the afternoons in Glacier exploring the park. We drove the Going to the Sun road for stunning vistas and wildlife sightings. We hiked to Avalanche Lake for a picnic lunch. We rode bikes through the forest on roads still closed for the season. We spent an afternoon wishing we had a 4×4 truck when we took a dirt road to Bowman Lake. We went back in time at the Polebridge (a “town” of less than 500) Mercantile where we ate delicious homemade pastries. We the boys swam in the cool clear water of Lake McDonald.

Like all places of beauty and magic the week passed too soon and we found ourselves on the road again heading west. Thankfully, we have pictures to remember these days of serenity and adventure.

Glacier we will return!

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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Family on the Road

Building Friendships in Butte, Montana

Jenn

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We have spent time friends or family in 30 of the 48 states we’ve visited. It’s so much fun to experience the different ways of life around the United States. It’s…

We have spent time friends or family in 30 of the 48 states we’ve visited. It’s so much fun to experience the different ways of life around the United States. It’s one of our favorite parts of life on the road.

We’ve stayed on farm in Tennessee.

Visited a cousin in her Manhattan skyrise apartment.

Experienced family island life on Orcas Island.

Toured a world hunter’s trophy room in rural Georgia.

Spent time with a family raising a toddler in the city of Chicago.

Picked apples from a midwestern orchard.

And reconnecting with old friends in Butte, Montana was every bit as memorable.

In the 1920s Butte, rich with copper and natural resources, was a boom town. Headeframes are still scattered among buildings and parks. While the population of Butte has declined, it’s beauty has not.

Mountains surround the city resting under the endless Montana sky.

Most importantly, Butte is home to our friends. These guys don’t remember but they used to play together as toddlers in Ventura.

After a few hours, you wouldn’t have know they didn’t remember each other.

I could say so much about this girl. Loving, forgiving, funny, beautiful, and creative is a start. It was hard to believe that it had been 8 years since we had seen each other.

Five days of fun passed all too quickly!

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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1 min read

Family on the Road

Wyoming through Instagram

Jenn

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2 Comments

1 min read

Because this is our journey’s journal. and Because Instagram is just fun. Love and Laughter, Jenn If you enjoyed this post you can follow one of three ways! 1. Sign…

Because this is our journey’s journal.

and

Because Instagram is just fun.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

If you enjoyed this post you can follow one of three ways! 1. Sign up to have posts emailed to your inbox. 2. Subscribe to the RSS Feed or 3. “like” Newschool Nomads on Facebook Simple dimple!

Like food and fitness? Follow along as I film a workout in every state and explore finding a healthy balance on the road at Girl Heroes!

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2 min read

Family on the Road

Borrowing a Backyard: Experiencing Rural Life in Wyoming

Jenn

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2 min read

It’s no secret that I love the idea of living on a little farm. Courtney is one of my oldest friends. When we were little we’d spend hours dreaming of owning…

It’s no secret that I love the idea of living on a little farm.

Courtney is one of my oldest friends. When we were little we’d spend hours dreaming of owning our own horses or chucking pastel colored ponies at each other during the “Pretty Pony Wars”. Time changes a lot but it doesn’t take the love of horses out of a horse girl’s heart.

Years later, Courtney lives in rural Wyoming with her family, a horse, a dog, a cat, and a small herd of goats. Their home is surrounded by bad lands leading up to the Big Horn mountains and pastures full of horses grazing under the biggest sky you’ll ever see.

A week there was a week in paradise.

So fun to catch up after so many years.

These beauties trotted right up to us on our bike ride.

Courtney’s horse, Biscuit, was so sweet and gentle even Thing 1 who is nervous around them petted her.

We all loved Blondie, especially Thing 1.

Spring was in full bloom in the Big Horn mountains.

Thing 1 made a special friend. He spent 3 nearly full days with Helen, Courtney’s piano teacher, who helped him to improve his music reading skills.

There was hiking, a raptor show at the library, cookouts on the patio, sunsets and sunrises, bike rides, yoga, and relaxing in the wild countryside of Wyoming.

This (and this) is why I think our next adventure needs to be setting up a little farm of our own or else we need to figure out how to pack a goat in our RV.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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1 min read

Family on the Road National Parks

Nomads in Wonderland – Yellowstone National Park

Jenn

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Steam rises and swirls in a dance with the wind. White mud bubbles and boils like living pots of paint. Geysers explode from the earth daring to touch the clouds….

Steam rises and swirls in a dance with the wind. White mud bubbles and boils like living pots of paint. Geysers explode from the earth daring to touch the clouds. Water rages through the canyon and trickles out of cracks. Rings of yellow and orange surround crystal clear springs filled with water so turquoise, it makes you wonder if you have ever seen turquoise before.

It’s every bit as magical and mysterious as I expected. And more.

We are in Yellowstone National Park.

It is the first, most famous, and most visited national park in America.

A giant caldera is responsible for the dynamic geothermal shows. Deer, bear, bison, elk, and many other animals make this natural wonderland their home.

And for 10 days we made it our home too.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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Family on the Road National Parks

Stopped in Our Tracks at Grand Tetons National Park

Jenn

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Some places you don’t know what to expect. To be honest, we only stopped at Grand Teton because it was one our way to Yellowstone. We hadn’t even looked up…

Some places you don’t know what to expect.

To be honest, we only stopped at Grand Teton because it was one our way to Yellowstone.

We hadn’t even looked up pictures of Grand Teton National Park on the internet.

But as we drove in through Jackson Hole, we were stopped in our tracks.

There are no foothills to make introductions.

Like teeth of a great beast trying to chew its way out of the earth, the mountains jut abruptly out of the ground without apologies.

Unfortunately most of our photos from Grand Teton were lost but thankfully there were a few left to remind us of this majestic place.

Thing 2 watching an elk with his scope.

What a lovely and powerful place to make home for five days.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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2 min read

Family on the Road

Picnic with a Friend

Jenn

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5 Comments

2 min read

We met Lucille when we delivered groceries in Ventura to homebound elderly. Every week would would deliver her order of Lean Cuisine, Lays chips, ice cream, and diet Coke. Afterwards…

We met Lucille when we delivered groceries in Ventura to homebound elderly. Every week would would deliver her order of Lean Cuisine, Lays chips, ice cream, and diet Coke. Afterwards we would stay and talk. She lived alone and had never had children. Her nearest relative, her brother, lived hundreds of miles away.

It didn’t take us long to develop a special friendship with her and when she was moved into a nursing home we continued to visit. In the nursing home, she had one picture by her bed, a picture of us.

We didn’t get to say goodbye the way we had hoped.

I knew she had been buried in Idaho so once we made it to northern Utah I began my search to locate her grave so we could give a more proper goodbye. I discovered she was buried in a little town called Aberdeen. Once we arrived at our campground I asked the host if they knew where the cemetery was located. It happened to be only a few miles away.

That evening we packed a picnic complete with Lays and diet Coke for Lucille. As the sun set we reminisced and laughed about our times with her.

And I finally got to say my goodbye.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

If you enjoyed this post you can follow one of three ways! 1. Sign up to have posts emailed to your inbox. 2. Subscribe to the RSS Feed or 3. “like” Newschool Nomads on Facebook Simple dimple!

Like food and fitness? Follow along as I film a workout in every state and explore finding a healthy balance on the road at Girl Heroes!

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1 min read

Family on the Road National Parks

Utah through Instagram

Jenn

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1780 views

3 Comments

1 min read

Because this is our journey’s journal. and Because Instagram is just fun. Jenn’s Instagram Brent’s Instagram Love and Laughter, Jenn If you enjoyed this post you can follow one of…

Because this is our journey’s journal.

and

Because Instagram is just fun.

Jenn’s Instagram

Brent’s Instagram

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

If you enjoyed this post you can follow one of three ways! 1. Sign up to have posts emailed to your inbox. 2. Subscribe to the RSS Feed or 3. “like” Newschool Nomads on Facebook Simple dimple!

Like food and fitness? Follow along as I film a workout in every state and explore finding a healthy balance on the road at Girl Heroes!

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What it Was Really Like for Our Family to Stop Full Time RVIng

Ten years in One - Our One Year Nomadiversary

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Over the River and Through the Wood to Washington We Go!

Montana through Instagram

Glacier National Park: So Worth the Drive!

Building Friendships in Butte, Montana

Wyoming through Instagram

Borrowing a Backyard: Experiencing Rural Life in Wyoming

Nomads in Wonderland – Yellowstone National Park

Stopped in Our Tracks at Grand Tetons National Park

Picnic with a Friend

Utah through Instagram

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