Arriving in the lower 48 brought relief, excitement, stress, anxiety, annoyance and then..... a little bit of regret.
When we got off the ferry in Bellingham it was hot and we could smell all the pollution in the air and there was traffic everywhere. We weren't in Sitka anymore. What did we do? Can we turn around and go back? Maybe we should have chosen an air station more similar to the Sitka environment, like Astoria, before jumping right into the hot, humid, beach city that we were headed to.
As soon as we got off the ferry in Bellingham we decided to find a donut shop (there aren't any in Sitka) and then took the truck to get new tires before we started our road trip. The plan was to head to Seattle that afternoon to start looking for travel trailers, but Kolt found a couple in Bellingham to look at first and we ended up really liking the second trailer. The rest of Day 1 in Bellingham was spent driving an hour and a half to stay the night in a hotel near the bank that we had to go to first thing the next morning.
Day 2 in Bellingham started off with a trip to the bank and then an hour and a half drive back to where the trailer was. When we went to pick up the trailer, Kolt and the seller ended up having a really hard time switching out the hitches and had to make a parts run so Brinleigh and I got to hang out with the wife and their two kids for a couple of hours. Thankfully, they were awesome and super nice and it gave Brinleigh a chance to run around in the sunshine. Once we were finally able to get on our way, we only made it a few miles down the road before dropping Gunner off at Petsmart to get a de-shedding treatment while we went shopping at Walmart to stock up on food and other necessities for the trailer. After picking up Gunner it was dinner time and of course I insisted on a trip to Olive Garden. While at dinner I called every single rv resort/park and hotel within a 50 mile radius and not single one had any camp sites or rooms available. Are you kidding me? I finally found out that there was some kind of huge car show going on that weekend and was informed that I probably wouldn't find anywhere to stay anywhere in the western part of Washington. After debating on camping out in a Walmart parking lot, we weighed our options and decided to just drive until we figured out another plan. We eventually found a hotel that had one room left and we arrived at about 2am. At this point you can imagine how much we were missing Sitka.
We spent ALL of Day 3 driving and first thing that morning, we made sure to plan a stopping destination for the evening. We were successful at making a reservation at a KOA and we even arrived in the early evening so that we could unload the truck and set up everything in the trailer. The KOA was really nice and the weather was beautiful. We learned very quickly that the trailer was not exactly baby proofed and we had to get creative with how to accommodate a two-year old.
The back bunk bed area was made into Brinleigh's "area". The top bunk folded up & we removed the mattress from the bottom bunk and stored it in the storage area underneath the bed area. Then we set up her pack n' play on the hard surface of the bottom bunk along with a Rubbermaid bin full of toys and a couple of plastic drawers for her clothes. She also had her own little closet cabinet. This worked out perfectly because in the evenings when we put her to bed, we could leave the bathroom door open and it blocked off the opening to her "area" making it dark and more separated.
We put our small 19" flat screen on the wall above the dining area which helped to keep Brinleigh entertained, although she was more interested in climbing all over the dining room table, the couch, our bed and into her "area".
Since we found a trailer on the first day in Washington, we were ahead of schedule. We had called the RV park at Yellowstone to see if we could arrive a day early but there were no available RV sites. So we ended up driving as far as we could and stayed at a KOA about an hour from the entrance to the park.
To be continued......
As soon as we got off the ferry in Bellingham we decided to find a donut shop (there aren't any in Sitka) and then took the truck to get new tires before we started our road trip. The plan was to head to Seattle that afternoon to start looking for travel trailers, but Kolt found a couple in Bellingham to look at first and we ended up really liking the second trailer. The rest of Day 1 in Bellingham was spent driving an hour and a half to stay the night in a hotel near the bank that we had to go to first thing the next morning.
Day 2 in Bellingham started off with a trip to the bank and then an hour and a half drive back to where the trailer was. When we went to pick up the trailer, Kolt and the seller ended up having a really hard time switching out the hitches and had to make a parts run so Brinleigh and I got to hang out with the wife and their two kids for a couple of hours. Thankfully, they were awesome and super nice and it gave Brinleigh a chance to run around in the sunshine. Once we were finally able to get on our way, we only made it a few miles down the road before dropping Gunner off at Petsmart to get a de-shedding treatment while we went shopping at Walmart to stock up on food and other necessities for the trailer. After picking up Gunner it was dinner time and of course I insisted on a trip to Olive Garden. While at dinner I called every single rv resort/park and hotel within a 50 mile radius and not single one had any camp sites or rooms available. Are you kidding me? I finally found out that there was some kind of huge car show going on that weekend and was informed that I probably wouldn't find anywhere to stay anywhere in the western part of Washington. After debating on camping out in a Walmart parking lot, we weighed our options and decided to just drive until we figured out another plan. We eventually found a hotel that had one room left and we arrived at about 2am. At this point you can imagine how much we were missing Sitka.
We spent ALL of Day 3 driving and first thing that morning, we made sure to plan a stopping destination for the evening. We were successful at making a reservation at a KOA and we even arrived in the early evening so that we could unload the truck and set up everything in the trailer. The KOA was really nice and the weather was beautiful. We learned very quickly that the trailer was not exactly baby proofed and we had to get creative with how to accommodate a two-year old.
The back bunk bed area was made into Brinleigh's "area". The top bunk folded up & we removed the mattress from the bottom bunk and stored it in the storage area underneath the bed area. Then we set up her pack n' play on the hard surface of the bottom bunk along with a Rubbermaid bin full of toys and a couple of plastic drawers for her clothes. She also had her own little closet cabinet. This worked out perfectly because in the evenings when we put her to bed, we could leave the bathroom door open and it blocked off the opening to her "area" making it dark and more separated.
We put our small 19" flat screen on the wall above the dining area which helped to keep Brinleigh entertained, although she was more interested in climbing all over the dining room table, the couch, our bed and into her "area".
Since we found a trailer on the first day in Washington, we were ahead of schedule. We had called the RV park at Yellowstone to see if we could arrive a day early but there were no available RV sites. So we ended up driving as far as we could and stayed at a KOA about an hour from the entrance to the park.
To be continued......
