Switching Gears

*disclaimer* this post was started back when we were still in the Okanagan…and finished well into our travels - which goes to show just how much fun we’ve been having on the road! 

Hello friends! 

Well I’ve come across a rare and beautiful opportunity to go to bed early and do some quiet writing I thought I'd take some time on this peaceful sabbath evening to share what we have been up to the last few days/weeks and the almost instant shift in gears that came with our last site move from the Okanagan.

As you will have seen in the previous posts, we've been in major "go" mode for the last almost 5 months. It started with giving notice at our rental home for April 1 and downsizing my house and belongings to prepare to move into mom & dad's to help prep the house for sale. Then it was getting the house ready, staged and keeping it staged!

After the sale was official...it was GO time! And its been 'GO time' basically ever since....until this past Thursday when we had the option to switch to a new campsite for another week while we sort out the last of our paring down & preparation for our adventure south of the border. We left Oceanside (North Saanich, Vancouver Island) at the beginning of July and headed to the beautiful Okanagan Valley and stayed at an incredible RV Park in Peachland (highly recommend! “Peachland RV Park”). 

From the moment we moved out of the house and into the trailer our daily activities have included continuous paring down, organizing and figuring out what essentials need to come with us, what can be done away with and what is important but not for right now. Thankfully we made the decision to keep my SUV with us for the trip up to Peachland to be stored with a friend while we are away - which meant that we had an extra “storage unit” for any and all last minute “not right now” items that we needed to remove from the trailer for this next chapter in the journey.

We had a total of 3 sites at the Peachland RV park and I think the 3rd became our favourite for multiple reasons. I don't know what changed in the 40 mins it took us to go from campsite #2 to #3 but we all felt (almost instantly) the shifting from the "go go go" gear...to the "rest & adventure" gear. No idea how it happened, but we were SO grateful.

What a joy and a blessing it is to be able to have this time out together, to enjoy the beautiful creation we live in and experience the glory of God in every corner. What a privilege it is for me to get to show Aidan the wonders of creation up close and personal and use this time to  I am in awe of his resiliency through all of this...(I mean the adults have struggled but in comparison he's done remarkably well) and I have yet to see a kid who loves camping and being out in nature more than this kid let me tell ya. Outdoors is his natural habitat, and I am SO ready for all the cool and amazing adventures we are going to have on this trip.

During our time in the Okanagan we got to see old friends, make new ones, learn to ride a bike (Aidan lol), do lots of swimming, eat ALL the peaches and cherries (SO much fruit here!) and spent some time in the sun and floating down the lake. 

We also got the chance to sit and plot a rough route for our journey down to Tennessee and figure out which stops we definitely want to get to along the way. 

After researching different camping options we decided to sign up with Harvest Hosts (a cool boondocking network with local markets & farms), join the KOA and get an annual membership to Thousand Trails which is under $600/yr and gives you access to hundreds of sites all over the USA and 1 in BC. With the average cost per night rate being between 50-100usd this membership has already paid for itself…the only downside with thousand trails is that its reservation system has some kinks that need to be worked out in that your reservation is basically only good for securing you A spot at the site…but not necessarily one with hook ups, or that will be long enough for your vehicle…but that’s a story for later on. 

After a solid two days of planning, plotting, reserving and scheduling we have officially created a semi-solid plan for our road trip and can’t wait to set off! 

So grateful for this time we have had here in Peachland, I think we are finally starting to feel a little more settled, rested and ready for some adventuring! 

So long BC….

Next up…

Idaho!